Oroonoko by Aphra Behn - April 9, 2019


The story of Oroonoko by Aphra Behn appears to be about an African Prince and his love to a beautiful woman but this slowly transitions to a tale of despair and struggle of these two due to the cruel reality of the slave trade during this time. The story begins with the Prince, Oroonoko, who falls for one of the King’s mistresses, Imoinda, but their love is stopped by the King because it is a great crime to be with a mistress of the king. Through the help of other workers of the King, Oroonoko sneaks in to see Imoinda in which he tells someone at the door that this is their time together, “Therefore stand back, and know, this place is sacred to love and me this night; tomorrow tis’ the King’s” (1023). The two end up being caught by one of the King’s loyal followers due Oroonoko’s statement. Because of this incident, Oroonoko tells Imoinda to inform the King she was assaulted by Oroonoko so that she would not be as harshly punished for their actions. The King ultimately decides to send Imoinda off to be a slave because that was a much worse sentence than death. The King tells a loyal follower to inform Oroonoko that Imoinda was murdered so that he would not go looking for her and this news caused Oroonoko to become depressed by the loss of his love. Some time passed since this incident and Oroonoko befriended a white captain who was sailing through the area with slaves for the New World. Oroonoko and the captain become close friends and then the captain tricks Oroonoko and enslaves him. While Oroonoko is a slave in the New World, he ends up running into a woman who was a slave for the same owner that bought him and it was Imoinda, “... they both a while beheld each other, without speaking; then snatched each other to their arms; then gaze again, as if they still doubted whether they possessed the blessing they grasped…” (1034). The two lovers could finally be together again but struggled with trying to obtain freedom. Then, Oroonoko went out and helped other slaves escape from being prisoners for their entire lives so the white men first murdered Imoinda to punish Oroonoko, “... “Behold her there”… found she was killed… “Oh monster! That hast murdered thy wife.” (1052). After Oroonoko witnessed the dead body of his beloved, he no longer sees the point of living and is in turn murdered,“They cut Caesar in quarters, and sent them to several of the chief plantations.” (1954). Overall, this story emphasizes the struggles of mistreatment and cruelty that African people faced during the time of slavery and that it even affected the most wealthy of them and ultimately caused tragedy for those people.

Comments

  1. Porter CreightonApril 9, 2019 at 3:07 PM

    I agree with your thoughts and opinions on this, the analysis you took apart and discussed is shown throughout the text. The text covers many different hardships they overcome and take on. The way this story portrays African people is very tragic and sad, you do a good job showing that and taking the text apart in detail.

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