Toni Morrison being herself a woman portrayed her female characters in total length. Nowhere in her description, we feel suspicious of her persona. Whatever she offers us as details about feminine characters’ background and psychological progress is in no sense their advocacy.
In the outline of the characters, she has kept in her thoughts the effect of society or City on them and their innate deprivations to deal with men. The characters in her novel discuss themselves in their dialogues. They include all their inside and outer qualities. Whatever they are saying, they speak about themselves.
The description of character by dialogues on this approach becomes independent of the omniscient interference of the author. This is how we can say Toni Morrison can escape the charge of partiality in the direction of female characters.
The chief feminine character within the novel, nevertheless, is that of Violet Trace. She has given us the picture of her physique and the thoughts developed within the consciousness of the racial complex. In the textual content of the novel, Toni Morrison has prevented giving any psychological image. Whatever she has given to convey the characters’ minds is through dialogues or behavior with different individuals. She has given the outlook of Violet in these words:
“She is awfully skinny, Violet; fifty but still good looking when she broke up the funeral. You’d think that being thrown out of the Church would be the end of it- the shame and all, but it wasn’t. Violet is mean enough and good-looking enough to think that even without hips or youth, she could punish Joe by getting herself a boyfriend and letting him visit in her own house.”
To support her opinion regarding the psychology or thoughts of Violet Trace, she has given two very strong factors or touches in her description of the novel. The first is Violet speaking to her parrot and parrot’s saying her ‘I love you’ and the second is her choice to beget no children. They leave so powerful an impression of Violet Trace on our minds that we feel no additional anxiety to know something about her. The individuals living around her had begun calling Violet, not Violet but Violet.
Read About: Appropriateness of the Title “Jazz” by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison has tried to supply us with a complete image of Black life in America. She has given us the idea of practically all forms of individuals, from laypeople to the reasonable middle class. Whatever they do and feel is partly pure and human and partly a mimicry of White individuals. Her characters vary from childhood to adult and old age. In the same manner, they belong to just about all forms of minds. They are passionate; they’re emotional; they’re ferocious, and they’re cheaters.
The character of Dorcas Manfred in this manner stays struck to our thoughts, and we don’t dare neglect it. Her wishes to dwell in life totally and her passion for enjoyment leave no doubt in readers regarding the future fate she meets in narration progress. Writing about Dorcas’s physical description, Toni Morrison has matchlessly given particulars we don’t feel thirsty of any afterward.
“Dorcas should have been prettier than she was. She just missed. She had all the ingredients of pretty too. Long hair, wavy, half good, half bad. Light skinned. Never used skin bleach. Nice shape. But it missed somehow. If you looked at each thing, you would admire that thing- the hair, the color, the shape. Altogether, it didn’t fit. Guys looked at her, whistle, and called out fresh stuff when we walked down the street.”
The description of her psychological situation perfectly shows that we feel bound to accept her as a tragic character. There isn’t any other Black character within the novel we feel so much pity for as we feel for Dorcas. Whatever she receives from Joe Trace, she offers to her boyfriend, Acton.
Toni Morrison’s model of depicting a character is unique. She offers us the sides or angles of a female character that’s different from the sides or angles of other characters and matchless and queer of their significance. The nature of Malvorne, for instance, leaves no room for further description.
The character of Alice Manfred can also be in the same vein portrayed to its perfection. His response to the death of her niece. Dorcas is specific to the psychology of Blacks living under significant suppression of Whites. Further, she treats Violet in a very femininity logical approach.
Minor characters like Rose Dear and True Belle aren’t given ample space in a novel as they leave an equally indelible impression on our minds. True Belle involves rescues the family when they’re penniless, and she is the one who raises Joe’s father, Golden Grey. Similarly, Rose Dear bears the pressures of attempting to provide for her children.
So we can say that the context of the female character within the novel is that of suppressed Black society. Nearly all the female Black characters are morally strong. They are the representatives of virtue and good within the human soul. Neither the novel nor the society is complete without the Black female characters.
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