In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Morrison covers a vast range of topics from slavery, community, and memories of the past. But by far the most present topic is motherhood. Sandra Mayfield’s Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Beloved: A Psychological Reading also covers the meanings of mothership behind Morrison. Morrison gives a variety of characters different maternal actions and instincts. Through analyzing the mothering instincts Morrison distributed and the deeper meanings behind those choices, the role of a mother shows the importance it plays on the internal conflicts one faces as well as as how it affects the relationships with those around.
Beloved was just as obsessed with Sethe as Sethe was with Beloved. Beloved saw herself as “not separate from her there is no place where I stop her face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too” (249). Beloved is obsessed with Sethe, seeing Sethe as someone to follow around and be “there in the place” where Sethe is and spend time with her. According to Mayfield, one of the “grounding[s] for a child’s ego is human desire”. This desire is built on the child’s wish to be “the completing object of the mother’s desire” (4). This is what is happening with Beloved. Beloved feels the desire to be the sole object of Sethe’s desires and makes that her objective of her return. The first instance where Beloved shows her desire toward Sethe is in the emerald closet. Sethe needs comfort and Beloved tries to give it to her but ends up choking Sethe instead, "'I fixed it, didn't I? Didn't I fix her neck?'. 'After. After you choked her neck.' 'I kissed her neck. I didn't choke it. The circle of iron choked it'" (119). Beloved sees Sethe sad about Baby Suggs so she tries to comfort her but she goes a little too hard. Beloved gets so into comforting Sethe that she begins to choke Sethe. Beloved then sees Sethe in pain and tries to “fix” her bruises with kisses. Beloved’s “fixing” leads to her becoming closer to Sethe, thus closer to achieving her mission. Beloved is still a stranger to Sethe yet, there is some connection between Sethe and Beloved. Sethe doesn’t worry about Beloved’s action because she feels that there is something between them. There was lost time and Beloved desperately wants to make up for much like Sethe does. Eventually when Sethe realizes that Beloved is the child she lost 18 years earlier, Beloved becomes the sole object of her desires. Sethe wants to make up for lost time while Beloved wants to fuel her ego by achieving her mother’s desire. Sethe believes that “when [she] explain[s] it [Beloved] understand, because she understands everything already. [she]’ll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter” (236). Sethe has been reunited with her lost child and her mission is to make up for everything has missed. Sethe’s sole focus become Beloved which has been Beloved’s mission the entire time.
