Beverly "Bev" Marsh is a major protagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.
She serves as the deuteragonist of Stephen King's 1986 horror novel IT, its miniseries adaptation, and its two film adaptations, IT and IT: Chapter Two.
She is also a minor character in 11/22/63 (novel) (alongside Richie Tozier).
She is one of the seven members of The Losers' Club.
She is the only female member of the group which consists of Bill Denbrough, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, Stan Uris, and Ben Hanscom.
Beverly had a crush on Bill, but as an adult and towards the end of book, she lets go of her feelings for Bill and falls in love with Ben Hanscom. In the book, she lives with her abusive father, Alvin Marsh (on one page, he is incorrectly referred to as her stepfather) and her mother, Elfrida Marsh. In the movies she only lives with her father. As an adult she marries an man named Tom Rogan who abuses her in the same way, until she left him to go back to Derry. Later she marries Ben Hanscom and towards the end of the novel is pregnant. The sex and name of the baby is never given.
Physical Appearance[]
Beverly is an old girl in the novel. She is described as being very pretty despite her lower class upbringing. Beverly has reddish auburn hair that reaches her shoulder blades, lovely gray-green eyes and milky skin with a spray of freckles. In the 1990 television mini-series, she has very long wavy brunette hair with no freckles. In the 2017 film adaptation, she has reddish auburn hair with some freckles and her appearance in the film version is the closest to the description in Stephen King's novel.
Plot[]
Heart Burns There Too - Ben Hanscom (movie)[]
In the book, Ben Hanscom wrote the haiku on a postcard and mailed it to Beverly. Ben has a crush on Beverly that spans the period in their childhoods and is renewed in adulthood during the second battle with IT.
The Curse Of Derry (in the film)[]
At one point in her childhood, Beverly was sexually assaulted by Henry and the Bowers Gang.
When Beverly was coming home from school, Henry Bowers, Victor "Vic" Criss and Reginald "Belch" Huggins saw the opportunity to attack her. One of Henry's friends caressed her and the other held a knife near her neck and Henry held her close, kissing her face while playing with her hair. Beverly, frightened, saw one of the neighbors, an old man raking his lawn. Seeing that he saw what was happening to Beverly and thought he was going to help her, but, due to IT hypnotizing most of the residents of Derry over the years, the old man just stopped raking. He took one look at Beverly and went back into his house like nothing had happened.
However, her father came home early from work, making Henry Bowers and his gang leave. In 1985, Beverly revealed to the Losers' that was the only time she was ever really happy to see her father.
The Apocalyptic Rockfight[]
While the Losers are discussing about how powerful It is, a black boy named Mike Hanlon is being racially persecuted by Henry Bowers. When Mike heads over to where the Losers are, he hides behind them. Henry and his friends, Vic Criss, Belch Huggins, Moose Sadler, Peter Gordon, Gard Jagermeyer and Patrick Hockstetter come face-to-face with the Losers. The two groups engage in a rockfight. After everyone (except Mike) is wounded but alive, Henry is the last one standing, with his friends fleeing from the fight. Henry swears vengeance on the Losers on intending to kill them all. Mike thanks the Losers and he joins them as the seventh and final member.
The Bathroom[]
Beverly experiences her first encounter with It in the bathroom of her own home. She hears voices rising from the drain of the sink and when she approaches it, she learns that they are the voices of children long dead. They were all supposedly killed by Pennywise. However, It shows its true colors when It changes the voices to Pennywise own and threatens Beverly, using his "We all float down here!" mantra. A red, balloon-like object rises from the sink and when It "leaves" the balloon explodes, flinging blood all over the bathroom.
As would be expected, Beverly begins screaming and attracts the attention of her father. He comes in, believing that a peeping tom was looking in on his precious daughter, and ends up hitting her across the face. (He "worries" about her, he worries a lot. He's actually a monster.) She realizes that he cannot see the blood that covers the bathroom and decides to tell him instead of the blood that she saw a big spider. He leaves after checking out the drain, much to the horror of Beverly as he covers his own hands in the mysterious blood.
The blood does not disappear, and she shows it to her friends a day or so later. The Losers' Club helps clean it up when her father is gone one day.
The Sewers (novel)[]
In Chapter 22 section 12 "Love and Desire", Beverly recalls the memory of her first sexual experience which occurs with the other six Losers. It happens after the First Ritual of Chüd and the groups' regression into normal childhood. The group becomes lost in the pitch black sewers while trying to find their way out, and the boys start to panic. To stop this, Beverly offers herself in order to seal a bond of love that would last "forever." Reluctantly, the boys agree, and one by one they take turns having intercourse. Since this is recalled from Beverly's perspective, King provides her introspect during the event as she breaks through several epistemological barriers. She rids herself of the shame of sex which her father and community instilled. She gains a feeling of empowerment and triumph which she likens to the act of flying; and, as she approaches her first orgasm, King repeatedly draws a metaphorical parallel between sexual fear, confusion and ignorance and the monster "It." King also singularly uses the word "lifelight" when describing the tandem climax between her and Ben. After all have finished, the boys regain their composure and are suddenly able to easily determine which way leads out of the sewers.
11/22/63 (novel)[]
Beverly makes a brief cameo appearance a few months after the 1958 events of IT in 11/22/63 (novel). Sometime in October, she is seen along with Richie and both are dancing the "Hellzapoppin" and mastering the art of "Lindy Hopping". They are in a picnic area not far from the Barrens, practicing for a talent show. They are approached by the time-travelling Jake Epping. He enquires about the Dunning family, dropping some small hints about the nature of his task, which the two take for being of the same supernatural nature of things they had experienced. Afterwards, he teaches them the right way to dance, and leaves them both. Their meeting does eventually become erased when Jake removes his mark on the past at the end of the novel.