Saturday, April 14, 2018
Ghosts! But they're not scary?
When a ghost is not used for a simple scare, they can add a unique layer to their stories. In Beloved, the ghost of Sethe's baby adds a unique feeling to the story. The ghost adds a sense of fantasy in a story that is far from playful and magical. The ghost makes the story a more unique one, a blend of serious storytelling coupled with a sense of disbelief. SImmillary, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw uses ghost to add uniqueness to its story. The Turn of the Screw is a unique story that appears to be a ghost story but is more of a psycological analysis of the main character. The ghosts featured in the story haunt the main character, but the ghost act as a secondary element to the story, because the reader doesn't know, is they're real or figments of the main character's imagination. James uses the ghost to spark thought in the reader, thought about whether or not the main character is sane. When authors don't use ghosts as a scare tactic, their story develops a second layer.
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3 comments:
Good point. I think the addition of the baby's ghost is especially compelling for a few reasons:
A) like we've discussed, everyone just accepts that there is a ghost haunting the house
B) I still don't know EXACTLY how the baby died, which makes me even more curious about its presence
C) for now, it has stopped haunting the house.
It's interesting to me how the ghost seems to just vanish when Paul D arrives and yells at it, but in other ways I'm wondering if the ghost hasn't manifested itself in Beloved. Denver also misses the ghost, and seems to almost think of it as a companion, which is perhaps part of the reason she attaches herself so passionately to Beloved.
For me, the most shocking aspect of the ghost is not the ghost itself but Sethe and Denver's reactions to the ghost. The ghost is a regular part of Sethe and Denver's family; they are not afraid of her but rather accept her as another family member. Denver even considers the ghost as a friend, and she feels lonely when Paul D dismisses her. I think this dynamic is really interesting and completely challenges the sinister association of ghosts created through movies, pop culture, short stories, etc.
I agree with Maansi with regards to the relationship between the ghost and the people who live with it being shocking. I think it also adds to the truth that most people live with some kind of ghost in their life that they eventually become used to. In Beloved, it just so happens to be a really physical, obvious manifestation of the past, and a really active one at that, that makes the ghost in the novel feel maybe foreign to us as the readers, but familiar and comfortable to the other characters.
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