In Beloved, the lines that distinguish the norm, the extra, the excessive, the non-exististing, and the inadequate are all buried behind scars of past; ripped apart, desecrated, and thrown to the ravages of history itself to be processed into something completely unrecognizable.
We see Hale, Baby Suggs, Paul D., Sethe, and Denver all in reference to the unmarked line. Hale would be closest to the norm, with Baby Suggs being closer to having non-existing love which eventually turns into excessive, then turns back into non-existing after the whole 4-horsemen scene. We see Paul D. having to stay close to the inadequate/non-existing borderline, while Sethe has love in aces. Denver, however, is somewhere between the inadequate and excessive love spectrum lightly detailed above.
What makes me make this spectrum is how, between the 4 of us, we keep dancing around this idea of who's right and who's wrong when it comes down to love; since no clear line is drawn, other than the conversation between Paul D. and Sethe when it comes down to the 4-Horsemen event that ties itself to the spine of the whole book, can we really call out who's being overly protective, and in some cases most likely involving Denver, even neglectful?
There even is a lot of flexability to the line of love. The norm in Slave culture happens to equate to our inadequate/non-existing borderline that I labeled Paul D. with earlier, who himself then takes his views and compares them to Sethe and her actions.
As said by Wendy Perkins (From Here),
"The hope that she could be a mother to her children, which she had allowed herself during her twenty-eight days at Baby Suggs', was dashed. She tries to explain to Paul that her actions that day stemmed from her great love for her children, but Paul cannot envision her as a responsible mother. At one point, he views her as almost inhuman."This help shows what I'm talking about. How quickly the line shifts that one action is excusable by some, but shunned by the others.
Dragging Hale back into this, he goes insane after seeing his wife, Sethe, getting raped back at Sweethome, but does nothing to try to save her while she's in the process of. Does that make him neglectful to the responsibility and devotions he has put to his wife? Or does he have that obligation to abide by the trough of the wave that seems to continually transverse this wave I've called the line of love? Or would he be just at the norm-mark of love, or maybe even excessive considering he did have something to loose as a slave?
And with Baby Suggs, she eventually puts down her guard after being bought out of slavery by her son. When Sethe and children come over for that very 28 day span, Suggs gets hopeful of actually having the family there, and then watches helplessly as things fall apart at that very 28-day mark following. What would she be then?
The overall point is that in Beloved, Love can't be pinned around one area. We've been describing Love as some sort of linear idea that we scale people to, 1 to 100 based on how much they love others. The line isn't anywhere near straight and most likely loops over 2 or 3 times.
