Inversion in Beloved

            In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, inversions of roles or stories appear which add to better understanding of a character. This inversion casts Beloved as a resurrected being to support her role as Sethe’s lost daughter. It occurs in the discussion between Stamp Paid, a man who helps escaped slaves reach freedom, and Ella, an escaped slave Paid conveyed across the river. When the two discuss the unusual woman Beloved, Paid remarks, “Your mind is loaded with spirits. Everywhere you look you see one,” to which Ella replies, “‘You know as well as I that people who die bad don’t stay in the ground.’ He couldn’t deny it. Jesus Christ Himself didn’t” (221).

Ella makes the bold claim that people who die in awful methods “don’t stay in the ground.” In the immediate context, Ella refers to Beloved’s (the baby’s) death, assumed by Sethe’s hands. But in her statement, Ella uses the present tense, particularly with the verb “die,” which reinforces the notion that those troubled beings still haunt the Earth and have never left. Also, Ella fails to make the distinction between the body and their spirit, unlike Stamp in his statement. This ambiguous interpretation of the word “they,” (Ella’s reference to the deceased) supports the thought that the deceased have tangible impacts upon reality, rather than only a presence. This inversion refers to and relies upon the figure of “Jesus Christ Himself.” Morrison’s reference to Jesus conjures connotations to all that is holy, especially His atoning sacrifice. Yet the reference’s proximity to Ella’s aforementioned statement about the dead links His death to Beloved’s, and by extension His glorious resurrection to her mysterious one. Morrison inverts the divine purpose of Christ’s death by relating it to the awful circumstances of Beloved’s murder. This relationship may connect Beloved to Christ. Through her portrayal of Beloved, Morrison uses this inversion of Christ’s death and Beloved’s death to offer evidence as to Beloved’s true identity.