Sethe

Sethe, a former slave, is the central figure of the narrative and the mother who famously killed her own child to protect her from a life of enslavement. This event occurred eighteen years prior, when Sethe's former owner came to reclaim them a month after her escape to Ohio. Consequently, she and her daughter Denver live in a haunted house, which isolates them from the surrounding community. Their home is disturbed by the presence of the ghost of her dead daughter, Beloved. Sethe is both haunted and comforted by Beloved's presence and strives to meet her demands. This leaves Sethe physically and emotionally depleted, illustrating her enduring guilt and relentless pursuit of redemption. Her attempts to unify her family, despite the haunting, are poignantly illustrated during moments like the ice-skating scene with Beloved and Denver, where familial bonds are momentarily revived before crashing back into the harsh reality of their fractured lives.

Beloved

Beloved is the embodiment of Sethe's deceased daughter, whose throat was cut by Sethe in a desperate attempt to save her from slavery. She returns as a fully grown woman, twenty years old, the age her child would have been had she lived. Her presence is both spectral and corporeal, demanding Sethe’s attention and accusing her of abandonment. Through her interactions with Sethe, Beloved seeks recompense for her death, overwhelming Sethe with ceaseless demands for love and attention. Her influence drains Sethe, while providing a catalyst for both conflict and growth within the family. The community ultimately unites to exorcise Beloved's ghostly presence, a process that reveals the underlying communal bonds and helps release Sethe from her torment.

Denver

Denver is Sethe's youngest living child, born during Sethe’s escape from slavery. Named for the white woman, Amy Denver, who assisted in her birth, she is the character through whom the audience perceives Beloved’s true identity. Denver cherishes the companionship of her spectral sister but is acutely aware of the toll Beloved’s demands take on her mother. As Sethe becomes consumed by Beloved, Denver is compelled to reach out to the community for aid—a significant step that fosters her maturation and integration into society. This transition is further accentuated when she secures a job with a white family, underscoring her emergence from isolation and dependency.

Paul D

Paul D is another former slave from Sweet Home who reappears in Sethe’s life after many years. He has endured a series of hardships, from failed escape attempts to forced relocation, and eventually army enrollment. His reunion with Sethe initially brings joy, but it is disrupted by Beloved’s presence. Her influence drives a wedge between him and Sethe as he learns of her past actions. Despite this, Paul D eventually resolves to accept Sethe’s past and express his desire to build a future with her, recognizing the complexities of love and survival.

Baby Suggs

Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law, is a spiritual leader who receives her freedom through her son Halle’s labor. She becomes a maternal figure within the community, encouraging others to embrace their humanity and self-worth. Her compassion is evident through her attempts to host a celebratory feast for the community, which unfortunately coincides with Sethe's tragic act, leading to her alienation. Baby Suggs retreats into contemplation of colors until her death but leaves a legacy of hope and resilience that resonates within the community and her family.

Edward Bodwin

Edward Bodwin is a critical supporter of Baby Suggs and later Sethe, providing crucial assistance and advocacy. His abolitionist efforts are instrumental in ensuring Sethe's safety and securing employment for her. Despite an attack by Sethe during a fit of delusion, he continues to support the family, facilitating Denver's entry into the workforce and society.

Miss Bodwin

Miss Bodwin is Edward’s sister and shares his abolitionist zeal. Her kindness and support are pivotal for Baby Suggs’s initial settlement and later extend to Sethe and Denver. Her contributions help solidify the family’s fragile stability in a hostile world.

Buglar

Buglar is Sethe’s second son, who, alongside his brother Howard, flees from the haunted family home during his adolescence. His departure is one of the many personal losses Sethe endures, leaving her to grapple with her actions and their repercussions alone.

Amy Denver

Amy Denver, also known as Whitegirl, is a destitute white woman who aids Sethe during her flight from slavery. Despite her own hardships, she demonstrates compassion and becomes a midwife during Sethe's delivery of Denver. This act of kindness leaves an indelible mark on Sethe, who names her daughter in Amy's honor.

Ella

Ella is a pragmatic member of the Underground Railroad who initially befriends Sethe. Despite her understanding of Sethe’s past traumas, Ella distances herself after Sethe’s infamous act. However, her compassion resurfaces when she rallies the community to aid Sethe against Beloved’s torment, illustrating her complex relationship with both Sethe and the broader community.

Mr. Garner

Mr. Garner is the owner of Sweet Home, where Sethe and other slaves reside. Unlike most slave owners, he grants his slaves unusual freedoms, instilling a sense of humanity. Yet, his benevolence cannot mask the fundamental immorality of slavery—a truth that eventually leads to the plantation’s downfall and upheaval after his death.

Mrs. Lillian Garner

Mrs. Garner, while also presenting an outwardly benevolent facade, reveals the inherent dehumanization of slavery. Her inability to act against the schoolteacher’s brutal methods underscores her complicity. Her reliance on the schoolteacher to manage Sweet Home after her husband's death further compounds the suffering of those enslaved.

Howard

Howard is Sethe’s eldest son and, like his brother Buglar, he leaves the troubled family home at a young age. His departure deepens Sethe’s sense of isolation and loss, highlighting the destructive legacy of her past choices.

Lady Jones

Lady Jones is a biracial teacher in Cincinnati who, despite facing prejudice, dedicates herself to educating the community. Her support for Denver during the family's crisis is crucial, providing both sustenance and emotional encouragement that enable Denver’s growth and independence.

Nelson Lord

Nelson Lord is a classmate of Denver’s who unintentionally prompts her withdrawal from school by questioning her family’s history. However, his role later evolves, becoming a catalyst for Denver’s growth and self-realization, as implied by his presence in her emerging social life.

Schoolteacher

Schoolteacher, Mr. Garner’s brother-in-law, epitomizes the brutal and dehumanizing logic of slavery. His arrival at Sweet Home marks a descent into cruelty, and his scientific detachment in observing the slaves as subhuman exacerbates the trauma inflicted upon them, ultimately driving Sethe to her desperate act of defiance.

Sixo

Sixo is a charismatic and enigmatic figure among the Sweet Home men, maintaining a connection to his African roots and traditions. His resistance to the schoolteacher’s authority and his tragic end—killed while defying his captors—underscore his unwavering spirit. His legacy is carried on through his unborn child with the Thirty-Mile Woman.

Stamp Paid

Stamp Paid, originally named Joshua, is a former slave who renames himself after sacrificing his wife’s happiness for survival. He becomes a crucial ally to runaways, including Sethe and her children. His actions reveal his deep commitment to seeking justice and redemption, despite his initial complicity in sharing Sethe’s story with Paul D.

Jenny Whitlow

Jenny Whitlow, known as Baby Suggs, is Halle's mother and a symbol of maternal strength and spiritual resilience. Freed through Halle’s devoted labor, she becomes a beacon of hope and healing in her community. Her home serves as a sanctuary until Sethe’s infamous act, after which she withdraws, contemplating colors in her final years.

Halle Suggs

Halle, Baby Suggs's son and Sethe’s husband, exemplifies sacrifice and love, working tirelessly to earn his mother’s freedom. His unseen fate during the escape attempt haunts Sethe, as she grapples with the belief he was either killed or driven mad by witnessing the atrocities inflicted upon her.

Janey Wagon

Janey Wagon, a long-term servant for the Bodwins, plays a supportive role in the community. Her life reflects the complexities of servitude and freedom, as she aids Denver in securing employment, highlighting the intricate social dynamics of post-slavery life.

Most characters in Beloved are former slaves, depicted with respect and compassion as victims of oppression. In contrast, the few white characters in the novel are generally portrayed as malicious. This is evident in the passive malevolence of characters like the Garners and the restaurant owner for whom Sethe works, and the active cruelty of Schoolteacher. An exception to this is the Bodwin family, who supported abolition and contributed to the Underground Railroad. Ironically, during the second exorcism of Beloved, Sethe mistakes Mr. Bodwin—who has come to give Denver a ride to work—for Schoolteacher coming to reclaim her family into slavery, and she attacks him, in a sense reliving the past to escape it. Another exception is Amy Denver, who assists the fugitive slave Sethe in delivering Denver. However, Amy's language reveals that she, like Twain's Huck Finn, must overcome her ingrained prejudices to treat Sethe decently. The ex-slaves are defined by their resilience against the trauma inflicted by slave culture, but like Stamp Paid, who informs Paul D about Sethe's killing of Beloved, they must also accept moral responsibility for their actions.

Aside from Sethe, Paul D, and Denver, many of the novel's most significant characters do not appear as living entities but exist in the memories of others. Sethe's husband, Halle, symbolizes a heroic ideal; he was a slave of great moral courage who worked extra Sundays to buy his mother's freedom and learned to read and count to avoid being cheated by the owners. Baby Suggs taught Denver to remember the father she never knew as an "angel man" who would one day return to liberate the family. While Denver must eventually relinquish that hope, and Sethe accepts her life with Paul D as an acknowledgment that Halle cannot return, Paul D recalls Halle as the best of the Sweet Home Men. He ultimately tells Sethe about seeing Halle smearing himself with clabber, expressing his humiliation at being unable to save Sethe from the nephews' abuse. Halle, therefore, embodies the destructive power of racism, capable of breaking even the bravest and noblest spirit.

The same applies to his mother, whom the narrator refers to as "Baby Suggs holy." Broken and crippled by slavery, Baby Suggs dedicates herself to healing other ex-slaves. In "the Clearing," she preaches not about Christian submission, but about self-acceptance. She urges them to love their flesh, dance, cry, and pray because "[y]onder they [white people] do not love your flesh. They despise it." However, Baby Suggs's fervent optimism falters after the Misery (Stamp Paid's term for Sethe's act of killing her child). She retreats to her room, focusing on individual colors and avoiding the more intense ones until her death. It is only through the process of rememory that Sethe and Stamp Paid understand the depth of Baby Suggs's despair: "Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed, ... and broke my heartstrings too. There is no bad luck in this world but white folks." Baby Suggs's character illustrates that even a holy, life-affirming individual can be driven to despair by racism and hatred.

Regarding the novel's central mystery, Beloved, it is difficult to determine whether she is a character or a presence, a ghost made flesh or a succubus. After Paul D expels the "venomous ghost" from 124, a young woman with memories specific to Sethe's lost daughter, as well as memories of "the other place" — both the realm of death and the hold of a slave trader's ship — moves in with Sethe. Gradually, Sethe recognizes this young woman as her daughter, an identification Denver had made earlier. As Beloved grows into the identity that Sethe and Denver create for her, she bonds with Denver, attempts to harm Sethe in the Clearing, drives Paul D away from Sethe's bed, and eventually seduces him. By the novel's conclusion, she is draining Sethe's life force and is ultimately exorcised by Ella and the community.

Even if she appears in the flesh, there is no denying that Beloved is an otherworldly presence, though her nature remains ambiguous. By intertwining memories of the trader-ship with Beloved's brief life experiences, Morrison suggests that she represents the countless victims destroyed by racism. Despite the sympathy one might feel for Beloved as a victim of slavery and Sethe's spontaneous decision, an inescapable malice remains, something Sethe must confront to forgive herself and live her life. As Sethe's victim and a product of her culture, Beloved yearns to possess her mother; yet in seeking possession, Beloved nearly destroys what she loves and wishes to become.