Halle, a character in Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved,” went mad after witnessing the traumatic abuse of his wife, Sethe, at Sweet Home.
In the novel, Halle is the husband of Sethe and a slave at Sweet Home plantation. He works to buy his mother Baby Suggs’s freedom, and he plans to do the same for Sethe and their children. However, before he can secure their freedom, Sethe is brutally assaulted by the nephews of the plantation owner, an event Halle witnesses from the loft where he is hiding. The sight of his wife’s abuse is so traumatic that it drives Halle insane.
After this incident, Halle is not seen again by the other characters, and his fate remains uncertain for much of the novel. It is later revealed through the fragmented memories of the characters that Halle was last seen by Paul D, another slave from Sweet Home, sitting by a churn with butter smeared all over his face. This image suggests a complete mental breakdown, as Halle has smeared the butter, which he was supposed to be selling to buy his family’s freedom, on his face instead.
Halle’s breakdown is a representation of the psychological damage inflicted by the horrors of slavery. His fate is a poignant example of the many untold stories of mental anguish and the loss of self that were common among enslaved people. Morrison uses Halle’s character to illustrate the deep and lasting impact of slavery on individuals and families, a theme central to the novel.
