chastise ( verb) : to criticize (someone) for doing something wrong
definition from Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chastise)
From Beloved by Toni Morrison (page 101)
It was time to lay it all down. Before Paul D came and sat on her porch steps, words whispered in the keeping room had kept her going. Helped her endure the chastising ghost; refurbished the baby faces of Howard and Buglar and kept them whole in the world because in her dreams she saw only their parts in trees; and kept her husband shadowy but there-somewhere.
Before Paul D came to her house and talked about her husband Halle by the butter press, she was able to handle all other difficulties in her life even enduring the chastising baby ghost. The ghost (the daughter’s spirit) was punishing Sethe because she killed her.
