AO1/AO2: wider messaging + comparative quotes

Morrison’s wider messaging/intentions

• Morrison seeks to create humanity - taking the incomprehensible and horrific and making it heartfelt and human (easier to connect with)

• ‘Beloved’ is a novel about vitality, the intrusiveness of hidden histories, and coming to terms with trauma.

• forcing people to think about the unthinkable - in ‘Beloved’ this is the lived presence of slavery

• “to bear witness to a history that is unrecorded, untaught in mainstream education and to enlighten our people”

• Morrison presents the unique challenges faced by Black mothers and how the intersection between race and gender creates a complex and often oppressive reality for Black women particularly in the context of slavery and its lasting effects

Wilde’s wider messaging/intentions

• Wilde’s intention was to explore the complex relationship between art, morality and the pursuit of pleasure

  • how unchecked indulgence in aestheticism, beauty, and pleasure could lead to moral decay and personal destruction

• serves as a commentary on Victorian society’s obsession with appearance and youth, as well as a critique of societal expectations

• ‘art for art’s sake’ - explored the potential for art to be detached from moral considerations, allowing the exploration of dark and unconventional themes

  • but warns of the perils of unchecked hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure above all else

• also delves into the dichotomy between a person’s outward appearance and their inner character

comparative intentions

• moral decay

  • Wilde: individualistic moral decay

  • Morrison: the communal trauma of slavery and its impact on individuals

• the supernatural

  • Wilde: the portrait as a symbolic representation of an individual’s soul

  • Morrison: the ghost of Beloved to represent the haunting legacy of the past

• social critique

  • Wilde: the hypocrisy of Victorian society

  • Morrison: enduring legacy of slavery and the systematic racism that continues to affect marginalised communities

• focus

  • Wilde: the psychological and aesthetic aspects of Dorian’s descent

  • Morrison: the historical and psychological impact of slavery on individuals and communities

Power, influence and manipulation + possession and obsession

Basil and Dorian Lord Henry and Dorian Sibyl and Dorian Dorian and his friends Dorian and the yellow book 'As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me.' CH1 He would seek to dominate him [Dorian] - had already, indeed, half done so.'` (LH) CH3 She is everything to me in life. (DG abt SV) CH4 She was free in her prison of passion.  SV CH5 For years, Dorian Gray could not free himself from the influence of this book. CH11

Sethe and Beloved Denver and Beloved "Leave us alone, Ma'am. I'm taking care of her." P71 Beloved could not take her eyes off Sethe. … Sethe was licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved's eyes. P74 Sethe was flattered by Beloved's open, quiet devotion. … the way a zealot pleases his teacher. P74 The longing she saw there was bottomless. P75 "Don't," she said. "Don't. You won't leave us, will you?" (D to B) p97

Homosocial/ homogenous spaces/environments/communities

Lord Henry, Dorian and Basil Homoeroticism between Basil and Dorian, Lord Henry and Dorian Dorian and other men   'What you have told me is quite a romance, a romance of art one might call it,' CH1 'And he had such a beautiful voice.' (DG about LH) CH2 “It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession." (BH to DG) CH9 There seemed to him to be something tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance. CH9 Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? CH12

Sethe, Denver, Beloved (emphasis on motherhood/family) Absence of men   "No more powerful than the way I loved her," p5 All their men - brothers, uncles, fathers, husbands, sons - had been picked off one by one by one. P68 (PD experience w another family) Was that it? Is that where the manhood lay? In the naming done by a whiteman who was supposed to know? Mrs. Garner never had no children and we was the only women there. P204

Haunting of the past, memory and rememory

The influence of the portrait Dorian's sins   “You told me you had destroyed it.” “I was wrong. It has destroyed me.” CH13 Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away. CH15 He wanted to escape from himself. CH15 sick with a wild terror of dying, and yet indifferent to life itself. CH18 The consciousness of being hunted, snared, tracked down, had begun to dominate him. CH18 But this murder—was it to dog him all his life? Was he always to be burdened by his past? CH20 It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. CH20

Sethe and her past trauma Sethe and Halle Beloved as an embodiment of the atrocities of slavery Baby Suggs and colour   Her past had been like her present - intolerable - and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color. P4 (BS) Unfortunately her brain was devious. (disconnection, can't trust) p7 She could not forgive her memory for that. P7 the day's serious work of beating back the past p94 The potent pride of the mistreated. P122 her spirits fell down under the weight of the things she remembered and those she did not: p126

Cruelty and violence + the destruction of identity 

Cruelty of Dorian to Sibyl Violence/destruction of the opium dens Dorian murdering Basil   “I wish I had, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.” (JV) CH5 You are shallow and stupid. My God! how mad I was to love you! What a fool I have been! You are nothing to me now. CH7 “So I have murdered Sibyl Vane,” “murdered her as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife. CH8 suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him CH13 The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him CH13 The twisted limbs, the gaping mouths, the staring lustreless eyes, fascinated him. (opium dens) CH16

Horrors faced by enslaved African Americans (Sethe, Baby Suggs) Freedom vs lack of freedom Infanticide of Beloved by Sethe   the baby blood that soaked her fingers like oil. P6 "Being alive was the hard part." p9 (S about BS) She refused to believe that she had come all that way, endured all she had, to die on the wrong side of the river. P116 Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. P121 Not to need permission for desire - well now, that was freedom. P208

The supernatural

The portrait being a representation of Dorian's soul Dorian's supernatural/unnatural retention of youth The immortal, vampiric presence of the portrait   Soul and body, body and soul—how mysterious they were!  CH4 that his own beauty might be untarnished, and the face on the canvas bear the burden of his passions and his sins; CH7 And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive. CH10 It was some foul parody, some infamous ignoble satire. CH13 It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. CH20

Beloved as a spectral presence/ghost Sethe's eyes turning black + murdering her children Beloved as a representation/manifestation of slavery   A fully dressed woman walked out of the water. P65 the eyes were big and black. P72 She moved like a heavier one or an older one … resting her head … as thought it was too heavy for a neck alone. P72 Her eyes stretched to the limit, black as the all-night sky. P97 (B) how she flew, snatching up her children like a hawk on the wing; how her face beaked, how her hands worked like claws, p203

Sin and redemption + religion, spirituality and morality

People being seen as divine (Dorian, Sibyl) Poisoning of morality (yellow book) The idea of trading your soul for youth/eternal beauty Dorian's sin being for his own personal gain/pleasures   she is absolutely and entirely divine. CH4 (Sibyl) Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. CH11 Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. (BH) CH12 “Christ! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil.” CH13 You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us?” CH13 “There goes the devil’s bargain!” CH16

Spaces of spirituality, healing, community and religion + Baby Suggs Sethe's sin of infanticide for the better of her children Stamp Paid acting as someone who delivers people/salvation   In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rock and remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun, thunderous feet and the shouts p121 With Baby Suggs' heart in charge, the people let go. P121 Just one of the berries and you felt anointed. P174 the berries that tasted like church p176 Where does she get it all, Baby Suggs, holy? P175 Born Joshua p236 (SP)

Class bondage - white privilege/supremacy, the societal class of African Americans

Sibyl's reliance on Dorian as an aristocrat The underbelly of immorality in Victorian high society Ability to sin without consequence as an aristocrat   This young man might be rich. If so, marriage should be thought of. CH5 “He wants to enslave you.” “I shudder at the thought of being free.” CH5 Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich.” CH6 “But think of Dorian’s birth, and position, and wealth. It would be absurd for him to marry so much beneath him.” CH6 My love! My love! Prince Charming! Prince of life! CH7 "Do you think this girl will ever be really content now with any one of her own rank? " (LH to DG) CH19

How African Americans are viewed as sub-human/not even human - different societal class Dominance of white supremacy   in territory infected by the Klan. … the dragon swam the Ohio at will. (supernatural power of racism) p85 Even if you cooked him you'd be cooking a rooster named Mister p93 Two lawless outlaws - a slave and a barefoot white-woman with unpinned hair- wrapping a ten-minute-old baby in the rags they wore. P109 There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks. P114 One step off that ground and they were trespassers among the human race. P161 See what happened when you overbeat creatures God had given you the responsibility of p192 …some new whitefolks with the Look just rode in. The righteous Look every Negro learned to recognize along with his ma'am's tit. P202 It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. … until it invaded the whites who had made it. P254

haunting

The portrait the mask of his shame. CH8  The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all. CH8 It was some foul parody, some infamous ignoble satire.  CH13 It has the eyes of a devil.” CH13 It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. CH20 It had been like conscience to him. … He would destroy it. CH20   James Vane “I wish I had, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.” CH5 believe me that if this manwrongs my sister, I will find out who he is, track him down, and kill him like a dog. I swear it.” CH5 She killed herself. I know it. Her death is at your door. I swore I would kill you in return. CH15 The consciousness of being hunted, snared, tracked down, had begun to dominate him. CH18

Beloved Ghost: 'a haint in my house' p19 The potent pride of the mistreated. P122 Person: A fully dressed woman walked out of the water. P65 she sat down and leaned against a mulberry tree. P65 (symbolic of growth/resilience and death w a connection to life and the afterlife) the eyes were big and black. P72 She moved like a heavier one or an older one … resting her head … as thought it was too heavy for a neck alone. P72 Her eyes stretched to the limit, black as the all-night sky. P97

trees/nature

Flowers - beauty, youth, innocence + transience of life and decay   'The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses …there came through the open door the heavy sent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.' Natural imagery - fragility of beauty, aestheticism 'The wind shook some blossoms from the trees, and the heavy lilac-blooms, with their clustering stars, moved to and fro in the languid air.' Disruption in nature when DG is mentioned

Trees - healing (the Clearing) In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rock and remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun, thunderous feet and the shouts p121 With Baby Suggs' heart in charge, the people let go. P121 Walking in the dappled tree-light, clearer-headed now- away from the enchantment of the Clearing - p125   Sethe's scar (reminder of the physical brutality of slavery + enduring/growing scars of the past)   "A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves." "But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know." p20 "Schoolteacher made one [of the boys] open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree." p21

places of shame

Opium dens (CH16) The twisted limbs, the gaping mouths, the staring lustreless eyes, fascinated him. There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new. The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull.  the streets like the black web of some sprawling spider   The old schoolroom He recalled the stainless purity of his boyish life, and it seemed horrible to him that it was here the fatal portrait was to be hidden away.  Upon the walls of the lonely locked room where he had spent so much of his boyhood, he had hung with his own hands the terrible portrait whose changing features showed him the real degradation of his life (CH11)

The shed But there was no stopping water breaking from a breaking womb and there was no stopping now. p66 When Paul D had been forced out of 124 into a shed behind it p148   124 He kept on through the voices and tried once more to knock at the door of 124. … What a roaring. P231   Tobacco tin Paul D never worried about his little tobacco tin anymore. It was rusted shut. P149