Beloved's Eyes In Beloved

For the characters in Beloved, love is a dangerous emotion, causing them to rely on their eyes, a recurrent motif of the novel, to translate messages of longing, need, and love. As time passes and the characters’ relationships are developed, Morrison creates a clear distinction between emptiness and infinite expression in the eyes of Belove. In Beloved, to see is to love, and to be loved is to be seen. The most powerful and overbearing love present is the one that Beloved feels for Sethe, evident in the descriptions of her eyes as infinite when she looks at Sethe. When Beloved arrives at 124, she is immediately taken in and cared for by Denver. However, as much as Denver tries to focus Beloved’s attention on her, Beloved’s eyes invariably
Beloved’s eyes become a mouth, figuratively eating Sethe up as she gazes. Not only does Morrison use three verbs, emphasizing the commitment of Beloved’s eyes, but she also sets a familiar scene, hinting at the fact that this action of Beloved’s happens often. “Stooping to shake the damper, or snapping sticks for kindlin,” are everyday actions, with the verbs conjugated in a tense that allows them to be timeless. Sethe has stooped and snapped, and she will again in the future, just as Beloved will continue to lick, taste, and eat Sethe with her eyes as long as Sethe is in her presence. Beloved stays at 124 because of Sethe. She explains to Denver that “‘[Sethe] is the one. She is the one I need. You can go but she is the one I have to have.’ Her eyes stretched to the limit, black as the all-night sky” (66). When speaking of Sethe, Beloved’s eyes “stretched to the limit,” just as her admiration and yearning for Sethe is limitless. Not only is her love infinite, but it is also “black as the all-night sky.” Morrison compares Beloved’s eyes to a thing of nature, the “all-night sky” is expansive, uncharted,
However, in contrast to Sethe, Denver experiences an intense reaction under Beloved’s regard, though it is a different one: “Denver felt her heart race. It wasn’t that she was looking at that face for the first time with no trace of sleep in it, or that the eyes were big and white–blue-white. It was that deep down in those big black eyes there was no expression at all” (66). Whereas Beloved’s eyes were “bottomless” and “stretched to the limit” when looking at Sethe, when looking at Denver “deep down in those big black eyes there was no expression at all.” Denver wants so badly for Beloved to see her and need her, yet it is evident in such language that the feeling is not reciprocated by Beloved. The lust depicted by the yearning in Beloved’s eyes with Sethe is very different from the relationship she develops with Denver, evident in her empty eyes. “No expression at all” describes an impersonal interaction, one in which there is no recognition of Denver on Beloved’s part. Yet even though Beloved doesn’t address her specifically\, Denver feels her “heart race,” illustrating the great power that Beloved’s eyes have in the book. Later in the novel, the relationship begins to change, and once every so often, Denver is able to catch a glimpse from Beloved. Once again, such moments have an incredibly profound effect on her: “Denver’s skin dissolved under that gaze and