Infanticide In Toni Morrison's Beloved

This ethical analysis will examine condone Sethe’s act of infanticide in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved through the perspective of Consequentalist theory. Sethe's murder of her eldest daughter is based on the general premise of infanticide as a morally and socially unacceptable criminal act in the community. However, Sethe’s actions define the consequences of slavery as a moral justification for killing the child within the immoral culture of slavery. After Sethe’s recapture at the hands of her slave master, she succeeds in killing her eldest daughter to avoid imposing the legacy of slavery on her children. Ethically, Sethe should be condoned for the act, since the “the ends justify the means” have prevented her daughter from suffering the same abuse and exploitation that she had endured on the plantation. Therefore, Stamp Paid’s belated “understanding” of Baby Sugg’s “ethical ambivalence” is what really defines the consequentialist view of the grater moral act of infanticide, which saved the elder daughter great horror and suffering

in the slave system. In essence, Consequentialist Theory will define how the “the ends justify the means”, which condones Sethe’s act of infanticide in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
Consequentialist Theory defines the moral and ethical premise of committing an act that may not be morally or ethically “correct”, but that it may produce a good outcome.

Therefore, the consequences of the individual’s actions define the justification of using any means necessary to achieve that goal. In this manner, Morrison’s novel, Beloved, defines Sethe’s practice of infanticide as a commentary on social alienation in the community. Stamp Paid’s belated ethical commentary on Baby Sugg’s realization of Sethe’s motives for killing her eldest child are crucial for understanding the haunting presence of Beloved. In consequentialist terms, Sethe’s acts are her own, but the community has made wrongful assumptions about why she killed her child during her escape slavery in the south. These are important aspects of the social framework of infanticide, which condemn Sethe’s actions without properly understanding the motives of this

act.
Sethe’s murder of her eldest daughter is initially thought to be the work of a madwoman, or someone that is unable to ethically grasp the consequences of infanticide. The arrival of Beloved (the ghost of the murdered daughter) reminds Sethe of her crime, but only within the context of the shame and humiliation that the community has imposed on her because of the act in and of itself. However, Sethe has killed her daughter because she did not want her to recaptured and suffer the horrors of slavery that she had endured on the plantation. This is one reason why the community comes to understand with a compassionate view of her infanticide, which becomes a moral dilemma for Baby Suggs: “They came in her yard anyway and she could not approve or condemn Sethe’s rough choice. One or the other might have” (Morrison 221). This belated understanding of Sethe’s infanticide shows the social condemnation of Sethe, but without knowing how the “means justify the ends” in terms of killing her daughter before being recaptured by the slave master. Ethically, the consequences of Sethe’s actions were understood through the “goal” of killing Beloved before she was retaken and enslaved.
Finally, Consequentialist Theory provides an individual assessment of Sethe’s infanticide, which is justified in Beloved’s own identity that is intermeshed with her mother: “I am beloved and she is mine…I am not separate from her”” (Morrison 210). This symbiotic relationship between the ghost of Sethe and her ghostly daughter vilify the rational aspects of consequentially because the infanticide was not done maliciously or with murderous intent. Ethically, Sethe should not be condoned for killing Beloved because she prevented her daughter from being exposed to the horrors of slavery. Certainly, Sethe’s use of a saw blade to kill her daughter is a heinous act, which is condemned by the community on its own merit. However, Sethe had committed a morally and ethically right act as “ends justify the means” in ending the legacy of slavery in her family. Although Sethe had committed a murderous act, she should be condoned, under the circumstances, for the act of infanticide as a pragmatic act to achieve the greater future goal of freedom from slavery. Consequential theory provides a ethical and moral premise for certain acts (often perceived as crimes) that serve the greater good as a goal. These are the important aspect for condoning Sethe’s infanticide within the moral and ethical plot of Morrison’s novel Beloved.