In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love as both a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to move forward; through the experiences of the runaway slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through Paul D and Ella's comments regarding Sethe's motherly love towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which obviously promises that a slave's loved one will be harmed. On the other hand, love is depicted as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to continue her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures don't matter because she has to live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love ultimately emerges as the dominant force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life. The dangerous aspect of Sethe's love is first established with Paul D's comments regarding his attachment to Denver. On page 54, when Sethe refuses to hear Paul D criticize Denver, he thinks: "Risk, Paul D thought, very risky. For a former slave, loving something so much was dangerous (...)", believes -he. Sethe's attachment is dangerous because he believes that when "(…) they broke his back, or put him in a croaker bag (…)", having such a strong love will prevent him from continuing his life . Paul D's remarks indicate that obviously a slave's loved one is taken. Mothers are separated from their children, husbands from their wives and entire families are destroyed; slaves have no right to claim their loved ones. After experiencing such atrocities, Paul D realizes that Sethe's deep love for his daughter has not been denied or passed on. It reminds us of the tendency to forget the past and the impossibility of facing a history that has gone silent. Morrison intends to ensure the sensitive and responsible transmission of a story of suffering and to this end, his use of the parallelism between Paul D and Ella, the symbolisms and the use of charged language, explore the two aspects of love. The contrasting aspects come together in the end to emerge as a united statement underpinning the life-giving force of love. The powerful demonstration of the role of love in the lives of the characters, the role it plays in keeping them alive is intended to add to the impact of the novel. As a universal concept, love is the best way to communicate the atrocities that black slaves faced and fulfills Morrison's intention to ensure that the reader never forgets this shameful history..