Sula, a dark lady.

Abstract

Through Sula (the main character of Toni Morrison’s eponymous novel), Morrison reinterprets the concept of the Dark Lady of the traditional Gothic romance. She is a demonic female, who de fies the Law of the Father in her search for identity. As the embodiment of subversion, she becomes the “village witch”, the symbolic expression of the African community’s confrontation with evil. In fact, through Sula, Morrison reflects intensively on evil. The demonic female comes to be a scapegoat, the target of the black community’s social frustrations. Sula is a modern Dark Lady with a radical power of self-creation and self-af firmation.