(The Scream by Edvard Munch)
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The painting the
scream painted by Edvar Munch is said to represent many things but
the one thing I thought it represented was a sort of anxiety attack
or a panic attack. A ghostly figure on the side of the road starts
to scream over a bloodied sky, the world looks starts to distorted.
When I look at the painting it reminds me of Sethe. You see Beloved
is a novel filled with pain and past regrets. When I look at Much's
painting I get a feeling of constant angst, a state of nerves.
In a diary entry
Much wrote that he was walking down a road when suddenly he was
overwhelmed by a fear an anxiety. The painting represents a
state of distress under overwhelming pressure which I though
correlated with “Beloved's” theme of overwhelming fear. This
paralyzing fear might stem from the regret Sethe feels for killing
Beloved. Munch later wrote a poem on the pastel version in which he
said:
“I
was walking along the road with two friends. The Sun was setting
—
The Sky turned a bloody red
And I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood
Still, deathly tired — over the blue-black
Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire
My Friends walked on — I remained behind
— shivering with Anxiety. I felt the great Scream in Nature.”(Munch)
The Sky turned a bloody red
And I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood
Still, deathly tired — over the blue-black
Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire
My Friends walked on — I remained behind
— shivering with Anxiety. I felt the great Scream in Nature.”(Munch)
Sethe manages to
get consumed by her demons, the pain of killing her daughter, gets to
her and things start to fall apart as a result, “The flesh between
her mother's fore finger and thumb was thin as china silk and there
wasn't a piece of clothing in the house that didn't sag on
her/Beloved her up with the palms of her hand.”(Morrison 281).
This coupled with the fact that Beloved showed up as a reaction to
Sethe as she appeared at a point in which Sethe was opened to a new
life. Sethe needed to be open to a new life and thus needed to face her past, “One could argue quite clearly, that Beloved’s purpose in
the novel has to do solely with her relationship with her mother
Sethe. The most valid argument has to do with the fact that
Beloved’s presence in the novel has everything to do with the
actions that Sethe took when Beloved was a baby.”(Booster 2). The
decisions made all those years before still haunt Sethe and cause her
to become increasingly distressed. The point in which beloved
disappears is the point in which Sethe lets go, “Sethe' he says,
'me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind
of tomorrow.”(Morrison 321). Sethe could finally look towards the
future and live her life for herself not for her past.
Beloved represents
the ghostly past that Sethe hold in. This ghost controls her, and
takes over her whole entire life, draining her of her self until she
becomes a husk. The painting represents a persons inner anxiety
their inner demon being let out in one ghostly shriek. To me the
scream represents Sethe letting go of all the anguish from the past
and moving on into the future.
Walter,
ReplyDeleteI thought you chose a really interesting artifact and connected it to the novel well. Sethe is definitely tied down by her guilt and anguish and I can see how the screaming figure is similar to the pain she must feel inside herself. I really like the connection between the scream that the figure lets out and Beloved being the manifestation of Sethe’s pain and fear, almost like a scream in tangible form. Beloved as the inner demon is a very appropriate comparison when you consider the way that she nearly took away Sethe’s life and then disappeared so strangely at the end of the novel. When you say that she lets out her pain and then moves onto the future, I think that aptly describes Beloved’s appearance, disappearance, and Sethe’s continuation of life without the guilt that she had been harboring for so long.
I wonder if Denver can be represented by this painting as well because she is the one who sees the terrible things happening between Beloved and Sethe and takes that extra step to let out her scream and search for help from the townspeople. As Beloved and Sethe continue on their path of battle, like Munch’s friends continuing down the bridge, Denver stays behind and sees what’s really happening, feeling the anxiety and letting it loose by turning around and screaming (unfortunately not literally) for help. I really like the way that this artifact could represent more than one character.
This is a really good artifact, Walter. Morrison's novel really plays with Sethe's struggles and pains and this painting reflects the emotional state Sethe was in. The novel is definitely heavy with emotion so you picking this piece is perfect! I like how you mention the ghostly shriek as a release of an inner demon, or the pain, Sethe was feeling. Obviously, Sethe has lot of emotions and issues she is trying to deal with. On top of that, many of them are repressed and understandably so.
ReplyDeleteLike Vicki mentions, it's also good that this artifact could represent more than one character. While you have chosen to tie this piece with Sethe, it's easy to see how this could be used for other characters in the text. I think this represents the ties slavery had to the victims yet they still tell an individual story.