PERSONALITY

Beth is an intelligent, ambitious, and independent woman who suffers from a variety of deep-seated insecurities. A dedicated veterinary horse surgeon, she is the family's main breadwinner and often tries to do the best for her family based on this sense of responsibility. She is highly insecure about her profession as a horse surgeon, and is quick to snap at the implication she is not a 'real' surgeon or a 'real' veterinarian. She may share this belief, wishing she had been able to continue her medical education to become a 'real' doctor in Rixty Minutes. Nonetheless, she is very dedicated to her job, even beyond as a source of income, and was willing to give up her own pride to help successfully save a deer's life in A Rickle in Time.

Although Beth can sometimes be derisive of what she sees as weakness, dependence or emotional vulnerability, she can still be compassionate and caring at times, more so than her father. When she and Jerry accidentally hit a deer, her first concerns were to help and assist it and Beth would stop at nothing to bring it back to health. She often expresses grave concern for Morty's education and health, when they are not related to Rick, and is considerate of the consequences on her children of her leaving Jerry. She has generally considered her family her first priority and has "defined her life" around her marriage to Jerry, which has at times driven her marital regrets. Her dedication to her family can fade quickly if she feels patronized, devalued, or that she or another family member, such as Morty or Rick, is threatened.

Beth has a superiority complex, believing herself at times to be above others as a way of hiding her insecurities. She has extended this behaviour to those such as her son Morty - particularly when he is shown taking care of his own son - and her husband, who unwittingly feeds her insecurities by implying she was not a 'real' surgeon. Her genius father's clear preference for her over her 'idiot' husband has in turn fed her feelings of superiority, especially towards Jerry. She also exhibited resentment towards being patronized during her surgical work, such as by her co-worker, Davin when he lets her know they're losing a patient, or when another veterinarian implies she cannot save a deer. These feelings of superiority however seem to disappear quickly when Rick is removed from her life, or even when she merely feels more confident in herself.

As a result of her father's disappearance, Beth has come to fixate on exceptionalism and intelligence, and has a fear of abandonment, resulting in a deep-seated desire to keep her father in her life. As a result, she is generally willing to put up with Rick - and his needs without sarcasm or argument - rationalizing his experiments and behavior. She can become defensive and even insecure about this when challenged by it, as in The Wedding Squanchers she calls Jerry a "dumb asshole" for proposing the idea that Rick doesn't care for the family, and so in turn they have no reason to treat him with care. When meeting Dr. Wong in Pickle Rick however, she largely bragged about her father as a scientist, and believed that the reason he turned himself into a pickle had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to avoid family therapy (which ended up being debunked, as he did turn himself into a pickle to evade it). However, she has some limits even for his behavior, and has given him ultimatums in Pilot and Auto Erotic Assimilation, which he has ultimately followed - so she is not entirely defensive of her father's behaviors. Nevertheless, the long-lasting emotional scars embedded into Beth by Rick’s sudden abandonment left her to seek comfort in more reliable persons, such as Jerry and to withhold confidence in herself.

Her relationship with Jerry is extremely rocky. Beth and Jerry have remained together partially due to the fact that Jerry is the only man who has not abandoned her. She and Jerry share a number of common goals - generally around doing what is best for their family - but these goals are strained by their disagreement on how to achieve these ends. She is often critical of his ideas, and suggests that she feels held back or unappreciated by him. Their disagreement over Rick's living situation with them is an extremely frequent source of tension, as it has been implied by Dan Harmon and the episodes Rick Potion #9 and The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy that Jerry and Beth's relationship was more stable before Rick came back into her life. In many cases Jerry is often the more sentimental and nurturing one who calls out Rick for being a negative impact on Morty, and Beth is often the one justifying his actions.

Beth has notably inherited her father's tendency to rely on alcohol to control stress, drinking wine briefly in Meeseeks and Destroy and amid more stressful situations, very heavily in both Rixty Minutes, at the end of Total Rickall and in The Rickshank Rickdemption. She also expresses excitement at the offer to go out for a drink with Rick in Pickle Rick, seeming to overlook both of her children. A separate flashback in Total Rickall also shows her suffering from a severe hangover, causing her to whiplash a bottle at Summer during her Picture Day, giving her a black eye as a result. In a flashback shown in Rickfending Your Mort, it’s shown that Beth will secretly drink wine whenever no one is looking.

In addition, Beth can be highly sarcastic at times, such as when she predicted Snuffles' increased intelligence would backfire in the episode, Lawnmower Dog.

In the Season 3 episode, The ABC's of Beth, an even further layer of Beth's personality was revealed. Rick discloses that she had a tumultuous and destructive childhood, only exacerbated by her murderous and sociopathic tendencies (which Rick accredits to his own mental state, and whose behavior as a role model and eventual disappearance no doubt contributed to). Despite having acclimated towards a relatively normal life in adulthood, this layer again reveals itself when she goes to confront her childhood friend, Tommy, and end the chaos ruling over her former "imaginary" paradise, Froopyland. These violent tendencies and sociopathy was later confirmed in The Curicksous Case of Bethjamin Button, where Beth and Space Beth were turned back into 10 year olds, both displayed a love of violence, dangerous weapons, making deadly booby-traps, mutilating small animals, setting things on fire and attacking others with little provocations. With the both of them admitting a deep love of stabbing people and having a strong compulsion to do so. Their sociopathy was further evident when they had slashed Jean’s ankles and slashed his arteries, where both Beths displayed little to no remorse for their actions and were instead annoyed by the inconvenience they had cause to themselves due them now needing to take care of the injured Jean.

During the chaos, she then realizes that while her childhood self idolized Rick and wanted to be like him, Rick remains a deeply flawed individual and (by some cruel twist of fate), she turned out exactly like him- needlessly destructive. It is implied that the both of them deeply misunderstand the world as it appears to the majority, who can easily adapt to it and live in accordance to a lifestyle set out for them through their own choice- who know what they want and their life direction, even if only for the fact that that they allow themselves to experience satisfaction, happiness and completion, instead of only sort of contempt towards an ordinary life in some misguided attempt to overcome it. Realizing that in divorcing Jerry and coming to terms with the way she is that there is no one and nothing holding her back from a living a life of self-determination in accordance to her true, broken identity, Rick proposes that Beth resolve her identity issues through exploring the multiverse while an identical clone takes her place for however long she is gone (or even a lifetime). It is not disclosed whether or not Beth decides to remain. It is likely that she chose the latter based on the scenes that followed, though The Rickchurian Mortydate puts this into further debate.

The episode also revealed that Beth was very lonely as a little girl, and may very well still be, having asked Rick to make her a whip that would make people like her, and a sentient switchblade. She was also envious of her friend Tommy, and his father who was present in his life, which lead her to abandon him in Froopyland, mirroring her father's image, and roused her to become a better person by her own standards.

Overall, Beth is a complexly conflicted woman with several layers of contradictory nature. Firstly, she envisions herself much like her morally bankrupt father Rick, admiring him for his unlimited intellect and independence, which at first seems to stem from confidence of being virtually the smartest being in the universe. However, throughout the vast years of interstellar madness and chaos the universe has to offer, she realises Rick’s carelessness core origin lies in the awareness of how insignificant it all is. His knowledge of the multiverse and endless alternate dimensions with different versions of everyone makes him believe nothing matters and treats relationships and the human need for bonds as pointless. Yet, while Beth is also intelligent enough to solve a complex issue and agree many times with her father, she chooses to rather go with the ignorance and simpler curve. In spite of her blood, Beth sees life worth living, even if it ends up as nothing more than a tiny speck on the hourglass. Contradictory to her ideal version of herself (a top surgeon and independent woman), Beth ends up with the largest contrast to her own character and values, Jerry. Though facing serious marriage struggles like unintentional pregnancy from unprotected intercourse from the meager age of 17, a husband that for all his noble intentions isn’t especially smart and with misguided intentions and sometimes serious issues urging divorce, she ultimately finds more comfort from Jerry than she does from Rick’s recognition. For while Rick’s attention and praise might boost her confidence and uncertainty greatly, it is only temporary. The love from a simple man such as her husband is so easy and pure in itself that she benefits more from it than seeking approval from her lonely, drunk and careless father.

Secondly, Beth’s largest flaw is her insecure feelings of abandonment left by Rick. In her quest to reconnect with her long-deserted father, Beth manages to destroy most of the good things she had obtained without his presence. A surprisingly adequate job given the circumstances from the high school pregnancy, two children that she loves and a unique marriage that despite all its difficulties provides comfort. In season 3, she embraces a life without Jerry and in the end she ends up only stressed and uncertain when trying to re-create the lost years between herself and Rick. By the end, she embraces the fact that Jerry is child-like, easily misguided, insecure, slightly below-average intelligence and somewhat pathetic, and instead relishes in being loved by him unconditionally. Like other faulty animated marriages like Homer & Marge from the Simpsons, Beth thinks Jerry is just a child that does not know better, admiring his efforts to make up even if badly executed. The origin of her reason to live with a man very much unlike herself could stem from her deep vulnerability when it comes to being alone. Either way, Beth retains better traits and confidence from the man that never will leave her side, than the mysterious father that really holds no interest in anyone besides himself for whatever the reason.

Finally, for all the bad things Beth inherit from her father; alcoholism, negligence, unemotional attachments, rude/cold behaviour etc. she manages to rise above the negative aspects which makes Rick Rick, while with keeping his strengths: intelligence, bravery, self-reliance etc. She starts with a happy childhood until losing her mother and eventually her father, which leaves her mingle alone. For twenty years, she is forced to grow up by herself and raise a family she was unprepared for, however, it is her family that proves she succeeded, even if it is a distorted vision of her future self. Her love is ultimately her greatest difference form her father and lack of knowledge or interest in treating things as insignificant, grants her more happiness than Rick ends up with.

BIOGRAPHY

The details of Beth's history are relatively unknown; she was born from Rick Sanchez and Diane Sanchez (C-131), and she has recounted herself as a "bright-eyed" woman from Muskegon, Michigan in "Meeseeks and Destroy." As indicated in "Hot Rick" during Beth's childhood, her parents' marriage deteriorated amid unknown circumstances, and Rick decided to leave both Beth and her mother to travel across the cosmos. Beth blamed herself for her parents falling out, and seeing her father as an intelligent scientist compared to her mother, Beth came to idolize Rick and blamed Diane for "chasing off the dad with the guts to leave".

It is revealed in "The ABC's of Beth" that, at some point in her childhood, Beth became an insane and psychotic little girl. She began asking her father, Rick, to create toy-like weapons for her so she can harm other children. As an adult, Beth reasoned that she did that to "spend time with her father." Rick, aware of the increasing danger that would represent his daughter, created a dream world, Froopyland, for her in order to keep the other children of the neighborhood safe. Beth managed to take one of her friends, Tommy, to Froopyland, where, according to Tommy himself, she pushed him into a honey swamp as she was envious of the good relationship he has with his father. Then, she convinced herself that Tommy only got lost in Froopyland and therefore went missing.

Beth aspired to become a heart surgeon as an adult. However, this remained an aspiration as, during high school, when she was only 17 years old, she went to prom dance with her classmate, Jerry Smith (possibly, either out of pity, or out of manipulation of Ricks hoping to prompt the later conception of Mortys). Beth and Jerry had sex on prom night, and she became impregnated with her first child and only daughter, Summer. She contemplated aborting the fetus, later justifying that "everybody thinks about it," but managed to get into college and become a veterinary surgeon, specializing in horses. Eventually, she found work at St. Equis Hospital. She also decided to marry her boyfriend, Jerry, and a few years later (impregnated at the age of 20 years old), had their second child and only son, Morty.

Beth was somewhat distant towards her children at their childhood, as implied in "Raising Gazorpazorp." Her job as a veterinary surgeon at St. Equis Hospital causes her to spend less time with her husband and children, and she feels that coddling them would make them dependent or end up like her husband.

Sometime after "The ABC's of Beth," Rick cloned her, resulting in two Beths. It is unknown which Beth is the original and which one is the clone.