Illuminating Incident In Beloved

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a novel of historical fiction, therefore, following Wharton’s logic, there is an illuminating incident. To truly understand what Wharton means by “illuminating incident”, one must define it in the context of the novel itself. The definition that seems to fit best, in this case, is the following: an illuminating incident is an ultimate realization or act that causes a character to think or behave differently. It can also cause characters around them to think and behave differently in response to them. The illuminating incident then gives the author a chance to reveal a deeper meaning or undercurrent within the novel.

In Beloved, this incident is the moment that Sethe slits Beloved’s throat when Schoolteacher arrives to take her, and her children, back to Sweet Home. This event triggers most of the novel’s plot, making it both illuminating and inciting. However, there are three important aspects that surround this event. First,

Paul D swings a table around, rids the house of the ghost, and determines himself apart of the home. However, his character change in relation to the illuminating incident does not occur for some time. It is when Stamp Paid urges him to confront Sethe regarding the incident that he learns of it, and his reaction is extremely important to the development of his character and his relationship with Sethe. He was considering having a child with her, but then he learns that her “love is too thick”, that “this here Sethe was new….didn’t know where the world stopped and she began” (164). In short, Paul D becomes entirely separated from his previous emotions of closeness with her, once he begins to separate the “Sweet Home Sethe” and this new, post-incident Sethe. It is even more important that a main character such as Paul D outright acknowledges the change in Sethe. This makes the themes that emerge after the incident occurs even more