Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
English
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Monika Elbert
Committee Member
Melinda Knight
Committee Member
Jeffrey Gonzalez
Abstract
In 1850s Ohio, Margaret Garner, a runaway slave from Kentucky, killed her daughter in an effort to prevent her children from being recaptured and enslaved. Toni Morrison found this story and wrote Beloved, combining the Gothic literary genre and the slave narrative. The novel begins with Sethe, an unlikely heroine, being stuck in the past but evolves into a story of the continuance of life after American slavery. Race, gender, and the psychological intersect in this story about moving on from the past without completely abandoning it. This thesis argues that Morrison challenges typical Gothic tropes by creating an imperfect and complex female character in contrast to the Gothic heroines of the nineteenth and early twentieth century created by white authors. Through a Black narrative, Sethe is humanized rather than objectified, and readers are led to empathize with what would typically be considered an unlikeable character.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Tolbert-Fitzgerald, Briana, "Toni Morrison's Beloved and Subversion of the Gothic Heroine" (2026). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1678.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1678
Included in
African American Studies Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Women's Studies Commons