After Paul D chases away the spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter from 124, the spirit takes the corporeal form of Beloved, a beautiful and mysterious “sleepy beauty” (63) dressed in fine clothes who appears at the house one day. Beloved’s appearance inspires varied reactions from those around her—Paul D’s curiosity, Sethe’s instinctual warmth, and Denver’s nervousness. She gradually becomes a part of the household, accepted openly by Sethe and Denver but arousing suspicion in Paul D. Over time, she demonstrates increasingly alarming behavior that betrays her identity as Sethe’s dead daughter and her capacity to do harm to those around her. She seduces Paul D in an attempt to drive him away from Sethe, cruelly reminding him of his sexually repressed past and unstable present. Additionally, she taunts and dismisses Denver, repeatedly reminding her doting sister that she did not enter into the world of the living for her. She makes it clear that she is only interested in possessing Sethe, proclaiming, “She is the one. She is the one I need. You can go but she is the one I have to have” (89).

Beloved unsettles those around her with visions of a past she could not possibly know about. The level of intimacy in her revelations grows increasingly sentimental until she finally hums a song that Sethe would sing to her dead daughter. By informing Sethe of her identity in such a way, Beloved emotionally manipulates her mother’s sense of latent guilt. Beloved’s hold on Sethe is so strong that she can coax her mother into abandoning all her responsibilities to tend to Beloved’s every need. She delights in Sethe’s dependency on her approval, escalating her demands at every turn. When the townspeople gather to exorcize her from 124, Beloved appears to them as a “pregnant woman, naked and smiling” (308). She has taken on the form of someone disarming, despite possessing supernatural abilities to manipulate the actions of people around her.

Beloved acquires her name from the lone word printed on her pink tombstone. Since the engraver only agreed to a short engraving, despite coercing Sethe into sex as payment, Sethe asked for “the one word that mattered” (5) from the phrase “dearly beloved,” part of the preacher’s sermon during her daughter’s funeral. When Beloved introduces herself, Sethe is “deeply touched by her sweet name” (63) and feels immediate affection toward her. Unlike Denver, whose name has a more original and specific origin, Beloved’s name is as ephemeral as her haunted presence. Her name gestures to the liminal space between life and death that she occupies. 

As Sethe’s youngest and only surviving daughter, Denver has spent much of her life burdened by the knowledge of her mother’s violence. As the only one of Sethe’s living children to reside at 124, Denver grows up sullen and isolated. Given Sethe’s ostracization from the rest of the Black community, Denver does not have the opportunity to socialize beyond her immediate household. After her brothers’ departure from the house and the passing of Grandma Baby Suggs, Denver knows only the company of her mother and her dead sister’s spirit. As a result, she is resistant to strangers such as Paul D, whom she initially views as a threat to her place in the house. When Paul D visits, she is overwhelmed by his presence, protesting, “I can’t live here. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I can’t live here” (17). As her mother is so preoccupied with her repressed grief, Denver realizes that the addition of Paul D in their lives will mean that she will become less of a priority in the house. She believes she will cease to matter.

While her isolated upbringing has hampered her emotional maturity, she experiences immense growth over the course of the novel. By devoting so much of her time to protecting Beloved’s identity, Denver learns to care for someone other than herself. She also demonstrates tact and intelligence in the way she guards Beloved from Paul D’s suspicion. When Paul D attempts to enlist Denver’s help in corroborating a detail about Beloved’s curious behavior, Denver’s eyes become “deceptive, even when she [holds] a steady gaze” (67). She lies to prevent Paul D from exposing Beloved’s true form and to keep her mother from inflicting the same violence she did years ago when she murdered her sister. In each of her actions, Denver is motivated by love, loyalty, and a deep desire to be needed.

By the end of the novel, Denver achieves a more empathetic perspective on her mother’s traumatic past. She realizes that Beloved is not a benign spirit but a dangerous supernatural creature who is killing Sethe slowly. When Sethe is fired from her job after devoting her time and energy exclusively to Beloved, Denver leaves the house by herself for the first time to seek employment to care for her mother. Without any skills or prior training, she manages to gradually endear herself to the townspeople, eventually acquiring a job as the Bodwins’ nighttime caretaker. She even alerts the townspeople to her mother’s struggle, which leads them to intervene and help get rid of Sethe’s possession. Her growth is so notable by the novel’s end that Stamp Paid remarks with admiration, “I’m proud of her. She turning out fine” (313).