Beloved and The Tempest

I'm in a version of Shakespeare's The Tempest right now, and I came upon a passage in Beloved that reminded me of it. Near the end of Beloved; "There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship's... There is a loneliness that roams... It is alive, on its own" (323).
In The Tempest, Ariel recounts the events of the tempest to Prospero. "And, as thou badest me,/ In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle./ The king’s son have I landed by himself,/ Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs/ In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,/ His arms in this sad knot" (I,ii).

The parallels of water, isolation, ships, rocking, arms crossed, all of it is similar between these two texts. 

Near the end of Beloved when the first passage listed occurs, there is a definite sense of isolation because of the distance that has grown between Sethe and everyone around her: Paul D, Beloved, Denver, and her community. In isolation, self comfort, such as crossing your arms around your legs and rocking yourself is a common human reaction. Toni Morrison writes "...on its own" as a clear piece of evidence to how Sethe feels after her family has left her. 

In The Tempest, Ferdinand has also been separated from his family after the shipwreck, and is alone in a foreign place with no one to comfort him but himself. 

In both these stories, the characters in question have been on long, treacherous journeys and end up isolated, not knowing what to do. Yet, the island and Sethe's newfound perspective of freedom manifest themselves magically in both ominously and wondrously mysterious ways. And, as Ferdinand eventually finds Miranda after wandering about the island, Paul D eventually finds Sethe after looking all throughout the house. This parallels in that Ferdinand follows Ariel's song in order to get to the place Miranda is waiting, while Paul D only finds Sethe when he hears her singing the lullaby she would sing to Beloved and Denver. 

It is interesting that so many of the same symbols and plot devices are used in two classic pieces of literature even though they were written centuries apart and of completely different stories. I appreciate the sense of hope both these passages bring, however, to the perspective of being found after being isolated, that while freedom is often associated with independence, both Ferdinand and Sethe find a happier sense of freedom when they are united with other people.