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sent, Howard and Buglar are twenty-two and twenty-three years old. When Beloved arrives, she has four glasses of water: “Four times Denver filled it, and four times the woman drank” (Morrison, 1987:51), and she then sleeps for four days (Morrison, 1987:54). After the choking episode, Sethe notes that Beloved behaved like “a two-year-old” (Morrison, 1987:98). Later, as Sethe is thinking, “it occurred to her that the two were as alike as sisters” (Morrison, 1987:99). Denver is deaf for two years after the incident with Nelson Lord. Each of these twos occurs in the context of children, who are the products of sex, which has two as its symbol 2.2 The number “3” The number “3” is another important symbol in Beloved which symbolizes an architectural triangle, providing strength where no other shape will hold. The book itself is a trinity, in three parts. After the first mention of the Thirty-Mile Woman who gives Sixo strength, and how he spends three months getting to know her, we are introduced to the first human trinity. Sethe, Paul D, and Denver are walking to the carnival. The shadows were holding hands, “all three of them” (Morrison, 1987:47). This sacred trinity is that of father, mother and child. The trinity of Sethe, Paul D, and Denver is attacked and broken up by Beloved. Eventually, Beloved replaces him. This new Trinity is very sacred, giving the women a short period of unusual happiness, ice skating and drinking warm milk. Directly opposed to this trinity is the “anti-trinity” of schoolteacher and his nephews. They are male instead of female, white instead of black, they have no names, and they perpetrate large evils, raping and beating Sethe. As Cameron Mackey points out, the trinity of Sethe, Denver and Beloved has a very direct parallel to Christian mythology: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to mother, daughter, and a perhaps unholy ghost. Again the inversion is present, male to female, white to black. The schoolteacher anti-trinity may be seen to follow this pattern, for when he goes to capture Sethe, he only takes one nephew with him. The other one is to stay behind as punishment for beating Sethe too badly. He is just a memory to some of the characters, adding a sort of ghostly element to the two who do come. The sacred trinity of Sethe, Denver and Beloved is at its peak when they go skating. They had three skates, “all three-Sethe, Beloved, and Denver” (Morrison, 1987:175). Sethe “heard three notes” from the song that Beloved hums. In the song-poem on pages 200-217, the trinity is speaking, reaching the climax on 215-217 with a chorus of all three: Beloved You are my sister You are my daughter You are my face; you are me I have found you again; you have come back to me You are my Beloved You are mine You are mine You are mine The trinity is important to survival, and they could not live without it: “Whatever was happening, it only worked with three-not two-...” (Morrison, 1987:243) The trinity is finally fractured as Beloved becomes more vengeful, more sexual, and turns from three towardsthe nature of two: “The two of them cut Denver out of the games” (Morrison, 1987:239). Since the stability is once damaged the trinity is broken. Then Denver goes into the world for outside help. Other trinities are present: death, life, and birth; the old woman Baby Suggs, the mother Sethe, and the daughter Denver. The Pauls at Sweet Home were three brothers. Howard, Buglar and Denver formed a self-protecting tr