Oroonoko
Word Count 1301
The story of Oroonoko is about a prince who loved her wife so much that could afford to do everything for her. He is also a prince with dignity. He makes sure that even if he dies, he has his dignity as the prince of Africa. It was hard for him to kill his wife but this is the only way to avoid his son from be slave. Her wife Imoinda agreed with him and let him kill her with dignity. It was a story of fighting for love and dignity along with some aspects of discrimination, social status, social symbol, masculinity, patience, and bravery. All these factors can be seen throughout the whole novel coming out from different characters in the novel.
The setting of the story was during the invasion of British colony to South America. The narrator of the story is an English woman who soon encountered Prince Oroonoko and his wife Imoinda during its captivity. Oroonoko is an African Prince while Imoinda is the daughter of the King who died by saving Oroonoko. Both Imoinda and Oroonoko have mutual feelings from one another. They thought that they would become happy but it was the grandfather of Oroonoko divides their path to happiness because Oroonokos grandmother was also in loved with Imoinda, because he was a king, he gives Imoinda a royal veil, which she could not refuse that is why she became the wife of the king. In avoidance to Oroonoko, the king enslaved Imoinda to royal seraglio. Here, only the king could visit Imoinda. Oroonoko find a way to free Imoinda so he makes love to one of the senior wives of the king. The king saw Oroonoko, which made him flee outside Africa. After Oroonokos escape, the king died and let Imoinda free. Because Oroonoko is black even if he was a king, he was sold as a slave but for the reason that he was intelligent and his social status in Africa is king, he did not work like other slaves. One day, while walking, he saw Imoinda once again and their love for one another brought the back together. They get married and Imoinda get pregnant. Oroonoko was very happy with the news but he was ashamed that his child might become slave even if the leaders of the British colony told him that he and his family will be freed and can go back to Africa. That is why he killed her wife and promised to take revenge on the leaders of the British colony and soon will kill himself to follow his wife. After he killed his wife, he became confused and in distress that made him weak and could not be able to take his revenge. Because of his weaknesses, Byam the leader of British captured him and killed him by cutting his nose, his ears, and quartered his body before they disposed him.
Because the main theme of this navel is romance, it encompasses different elements, symbols, and images that would distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of romance during the medieval period. However, it was a racist novel because it shows different angles o discrimination towards black people especially people coming from Africa. Despite of the fact that the author imposed modern romance to show the distinction between the past attacks of romantic novels and her attack of romantic novel during her tie, it was seemed that she used bias captivation of identity that would give her novel a biased discrimination on black people especially in the case of Oroonoko who was a prince but her attack to it was just one of the usual slaves.
A number of the contradictions of Oroonoko are connected to the elements that make it a transitional work in the development of the novel: the combination of the courtly world of the romance (personified ironically in a black slave), and the new world of the contemporary reader--and the narrator. These elements cannot be separated from race. Oroonoko is the story of the royal slave from the point of view of the middle-class colonial mistress: the black male protagonist can only speak through the white female narrator. (Carter, Cormier, and Blair)
Exploring modern day romance made Behn discussed limited concepts of love. Even if it was said that it was a modern romance attack, the pattern from the past writing about romance such as Shakespeares and the others romantic novels that encompasses tragedy and death. It can be said that it was just a pattern of the previous romantic novels wherein the plot and the characters is similar from the other. In this case, the authors attack to make it a modern romance is not successful. Another thing is that, the issues of oppression and racism were taken place more than the theme of the novel. Readers would think that Oroonoko is a great lover because he would not stop until he gets his wife but the thing here is that oppression and discrimination were more exposed rather than Oroonoko and Imoindas love from one another.
The relationship between the oppressed groups in Oroonoko is characterized by sympathy but complicated by the different hierarchies governing behavior. The narrator is a member of colonial society, and that is the side she takes when open conflict breaks out. Oroonoko belongs to the soldier class of a society in which women are little better than property. But within the framework of the novel it is the romantic hero, Oroonoko, who is little better than property, an aristocratic hero of epic proportions trapped in a capitalistic plot. (Carter, Cormier, and Blair)
The character of Imoinda can be said as the typical weak female character during the medieval period that could not state her feelings and could not reveal what she wants to say. She was just an instrument of desire and masculinity because if she will be owned by someone, the mans status would become greater because of her beauty.
"Imoinda, the "beautiful black Venus" of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688), is one of few representations of dark-skinned women in early modern literature. Thomas Southerne's 1696 dramatization of Behn's novella is, in its turn, probably best-known for changing the skin color of its Imoinda from black to white. As her racial and sexual identity are reconstructed in whiteness, Behn's black Imoinda becomes an early example of the enforced invisibility of the black female subject in the Americas' dominant cultural discourse.(Mcdonald, 1998)
As a whole, masculinity can be said as the basis of the medieval romance, but it was not the only factor to justify the basis of romantic novel. From what the novel encompasses, it can be said that other than masculinity, one of the basis of romantic novel is tragedy and death because it would make the narrative sincere in the perspective of the writers in this period. Almost all writings during this period contain tragedy or death either of the male protagonist, the female protagonist or even both of them to justify their love for one another.
Works Cited
Mcdonald, Joyce. Race, Women, and the Sentimental in Thomas Southerners Oroonoko. Criticism. 1998. Retrieved on November 2, 2007 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2220/is_4_40/ai_53935167
Nestvold, Ruth. White Mistress and the Black Slave: Aphra Behn, Racism and the Beginnings of Novelistic Discourse. Literary Arts Allied Collective. (n.d.) Retrieved on November 2, 2007 from http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?ti=oro-98
Bernbaum, Ernest: Mrs. Behn's 'Oroonoko' in: George Lyman Kittredge Papers. Boston: 1913, pp. 419433.
Stassaert, Lucienne: De lichtvoetige Amazone. Het geheime leven van Aphra Behn. Leuven: Davidsfonds/Literair, 2000
Todd, Janet: The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. London: Pandora Press, 2000.
Carter, Carolyn. et. al. Aphra Behn (1640-1689). (n.d.). Retrieved on November 2, 2007 from http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/18c/33360102/finlwebs/GTGFP/behn.htm
Whisler, V. (2001). Oroonko: Or the Royal Slave. Retrieved on November 2, 2007 from http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/oroonoko.html
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