Beloved Passage Analysis
"When the busy day is done
And my weary little one Rocketh to and fro; When the night winds softly blow, And the crickets in the glen Chirp and chirp and chirp again; Where 'pon the haunted green Fairies dance around their queen, Then from yonder misty skies Cometh Lady Button Eyes . . . Through the muck and mist and gloam To our quiet cozy home, Where to singing sweet and low Rocks a cradle to and fro. Where the clock's dull monotone Telleth of the day that's done, Where the moonbeams hover o'er Playthings sleeping on the floor, Where my weary wee on lies Cometh Lady Button Eyes. Layeth she her hands upon My dear weary little one, And those white hands overspread Like a veil the curly head, Seen to fondle and caress Every little silken tress. Then she smooths the eyelids down Over those two eyes of brown In such soothing tender wise Cometh Lady Button Eyes." - Amy Denver, Beloved, Toni Morrison |
This passage does a lot for the book in the way of foreshadowing the rest of the novel. The story told in the passage basically mirrors the events that came to pass at 124 to cause Beloved to haunt said house. The pending doom on the "weary little one" is shown to be the coming of "Lady Button Eyes" as the pending doom of Beloved was the coming of the white men looking for her runaway mother. "Lady Button Eyes" comes through the "mist and muck and gloam," all of which are disgusting and hints towards no part of the "quiet cozy home" presented by Sethe to the rest of society. The passage does, however, bring to light the true nature of 124 and the surrounding area though Sethe tries as she might to hide it -- it, like its "glen," is "haunted." And just how Baby Suggs gathered people in the meadow by 124 to celebrate themselves by dancing, "Lady Button Eyes" has her "fairies dance around their queen" in the "green." The passage foreshadows Beloved's death as an infant because her mother believed that she was protecting her, and that just "like a veil" her life is taken "tender[ly]" by "Lady Button Eyes."
Along with the foreshadowing there is also a tad bit of irony strewn about the passage, and thus the rest of the novel, as well. When the home is said to be "quiet" and "cozy" it is tremendously ironic since the house is being tormented by an bellicose and belligerent spirit. Irony is also laced in the circumstance where something you may want to touch you -- like "moonbeams" -- just simply "hover," never to touch, but then something such as death brought by "Lady Button Eyes" is allowed to "caress" and "fondle" before she takes a life. Throughout the passage there is a calming and soothing rhythm in the rhyme scheme and also set up by the setting within the passage itself. The setting gives way to the consoling rhythm with the repetition of the "chirp . . . chirp . . . chirp," the rocking of the cradle "to and fro . . . to and fro," the "danc[ing]" in the "green," and the "dull monotone" of the "clock" ticking and ticking and chiming and chiming. This is ironic because the part of the plot to which it alludes (the murder of Beloved) is hectic and chaotic, not at all peaceful and serene.
Along with the foreshadowing there is also a tad bit of irony strewn about the passage, and thus the rest of the novel, as well. When the home is said to be "quiet" and "cozy" it is tremendously ironic since the house is being tormented by an bellicose and belligerent spirit. Irony is also laced in the circumstance where something you may want to touch you -- like "moonbeams" -- just simply "hover," never to touch, but then something such as death brought by "Lady Button Eyes" is allowed to "caress" and "fondle" before she takes a life. Throughout the passage there is a calming and soothing rhythm in the rhyme scheme and also set up by the setting within the passage itself. The setting gives way to the consoling rhythm with the repetition of the "chirp . . . chirp . . . chirp," the rocking of the cradle "to and fro . . . to and fro," the "danc[ing]" in the "green," and the "dull monotone" of the "clock" ticking and ticking and chiming and chiming. This is ironic because the part of the plot to which it alludes (the murder of Beloved) is hectic and chaotic, not at all peaceful and serene.