Week 2 Analysis on Oroonoko

Aphra Behn, “Oroonoko” (200-246)

            In the “Oroonoko,” the characters have specific qualities to them that are either different from other characters or similar. The protagonist, Oroonoko (or Caesar); is portrayed as honorable, a man of great importance and beautiful. For example, “The whole Proportion and Air of his Face was so noble, and exactly form’d, that bating his Colour there cou’d be nothing in Nature more beautiful, agreeable and handsome” (205). Being the protagonist, he is meant to stand all above the rest in beauty, grace and capabilities, especially because of his social status as a Prince. Personally speaking, I believe she chose to have him stand out so it would be obvious that he is supposed to be a heroic character, considering he has all the characteristics of one: honor, beauty, determination, etc. However, the antagonist is the complete opposite, as should be. This time, our antagonist happens to be the old King of Coramantien. He is depicted as very old, shrewd, evil, lustful, cruel, jealous, and full of rage. Due to being King, his word is absolute and must be obeyed. He is so cruel that he abuses his power and calls upon Imoinda to his apartment and attempts to make her his knowing fully-well that Oroonoko and Imoinda were lovers. As written, “This gave the old King some Affliction: but he salv’d it with this, that the Obedience the People pay to their King, was not at all inferior to what they pay’d their Gods: And what Love wou’d not oblige Imoinda to do, Duty wou’d compel her to” (207). The King abuses his power to use Imoinda in fulfilling his lust and even goes as far as to compare himself to a God. This is simply just cruel to do to your grandchild and even more cruel to use power against an innocent.

            One theme that pops up in this story is Honor. When reading, I noticed that Honor was popping up all over the place, like on page 206: “receiv’d him, as the greatest Honour the Gods cou’d do her.” Another example would be: “While the Man of no Honour, suffers every moment the scorn and contempt of the honester World, and dies every day ignominiously in his Fame, which is more valuable than Life…” (221). Oroonoko knows what is right from what is wrong and I feel that she made this the case so that people could make a connection between the character and the audience. I find the mentioning of honor to be extremely important because of how he consistently sticks by it throughout the story. It seems that “Honor” was the only sustainable thing that still lived, even with how much the characters lost in the story. Honor seemed to play a really important part with the decision to kill Imoinda and her child. Oroonoko felt that it would be dishonorable to make Imoinda and the child live through the tortures of slavery. Therefore, he killed them, with her gladly accepting death.

            The historical context of slavery plays a huge part in this story. I feel that this is because there were wide-ranging opinions on slavery back then. Portrayals of slavery also show the European/Western views throughout this story. For example, “that bating his Colour there cou’d be nothing in Nature more beautiful, agreeable and handsome” (205). This basically states that if you take his color out of the equation, he would be considered beautiful and great. In complete obviousness, we see the view of the Western world that “African’s are inferior” and that white people stand at the “top”. However, he shows a slight view through Oroonoko that slavery is a struggle, although it is mainly “whitened up” to show more of European/Western views and to make more of a connection to the European audience. This “whitening up” can be seen through how Oroonoko’s "Roman-like" looks, social status, and capabilities make him stand above the rest of slaves according to the white slave-owner characters. 

Behn, Aphra. "Oroonoko". The Norton Anthology World Literature, Third Edition, Vol. D. Martin Puchner. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pages 200-246. Fairfield Medium with the display set in Aperto.