Significance of Motherhood/Pregnancy in Beloved

One of the things about Morrison’s Beloved that interests and also confuses me is something that we have spoken about briefly in class – the representation of the female body, and more specifically details given especially to qualities attributed to mothers or women who are pregnant.

The first example that comes to mind is whenever Sethe sees Beloved for the first time, and her body immediately reacts by causing her to urinate uncontrollably, a phenomenon that Sethe later likens to her water breaking, as if she were ready to give birth to a child. Another prominent feature throughout the novel is the subject of womens’ breasts. This comes up whenever Paul D first arrives at 124 and holds onto Sethe’s breasts to relieve her “burden”, as well as in the fact that the boys back at Sweet Home forced Sethe down and took the milk from her breasts whenever she was nursing. Sethe’s mother was also described as having a mark on her chest, which could very well be referring to the fact that it was placed on her breast as well.

These examples from earlier on in the novel can be somewhat self-explanatory when considering the underlying message Morrison is presenting to us throughout the story about the hardships of life as a slave, and particularly of the hardships of being a mother. Growing up in a world where your child does not technically  “belong” to you is another one of the main issues addressed, which causes a burden on the mothers forced to give up their children.

To me, the most baffling use of this metaphor of sorts is towards the end of the novel, when Beloved is described as appearing to be pregnant. Up until this point Beloved has acted more like a child than anything else, though in the final section she is described as demanding and taking things from Sethe, weakening her considerably so that she is almost to the point of death. My confusion is that I am not sure what the significance of Beloved appearing to be pregnant is in relation to the way that she affects Sethe as her stomach is growing, and what it has to bring to the novel overall?