JSTOR: The Haunting of 124

Beloved is essentially a ghost story. The “haunting of 124” takes place at 124 Bluestone Road and the ghost is the ghost of a baby who was murdered by her own mother. Like the traditional story of a haunted house, Toni Morrison uses the characteristics of “noises, displaced objects, smells, lights, a brooding atmosphere, and the sensitivity of an animal to the presence of he ghost.”

“The article on ‘Haunting’ in the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology says that ‘tradition established two main factors in haunting: and old house or other locale and the restlessness of a spirit. The first represents an unbroken link with the past, the second is believed to be caused by remorse over an evil life or by the shock of violent death’” 124 has both.

124 is situated between several “powerful antithetical forces: North and South, black and white, past and present, this world and the other.” It is “between the Ohio River, which marks the boundary between slave and free territory, and a stream marking the watery boundary African myth places between the worlds of he living and the dead.”

124 Bluestone Road doesn’t really exist but it is based on a true story that was actually owned by the Bodwin family. Geographically, the number of the house and the setting of the house are very accurate. The story of Beloved takes after the story of Margaret Garner.

“Changes over the years in the structure and appearance of 124 reflect the tensions in its ‘unbroken link with the past.’” “Changes in the upper story of 124 also reflect tensions between social history and mythic signification.”

The inhabitants of 124 have different perceptions of the house although for all of them the house has an internal and external power on them. “Their perceptions of the ghost are inextricably linked with their perceptions of the house itself; the setting forces self-confrontation.” Denver sees the house as “a fortress”. Denver stays within the boundaries of the house. She is also a good candidate for a poltergeist which could be an explanation for Beloved’s appearance. Paul D sees 124 as “an uneasy resting place, always on the verge of becoming an arena for combat.” “For Sethe, 124 provides a changing definition of her identity.

After Beloved leaves the house, 124 is left as just another worn down house at the edge of the city. Morrison used the haunting to show that the characters come into “confrontation with the dimensions of their own experience they must come to terms with in order to come truly to life.”