Steve Bidus

12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

Since early modern culture writings, the role for black men and their characters have

been very limited. Many great writers such as Shakespeare and Aphra Behn have incorporated a

black character into their stories to add a little stir up, along with a diverse plot line. The only

problem with these stories and their characters, are that these men seem to follow along the same

roles and destinies. It isnt a secret that black men and women have had to fight the racism that

they receive from other races throughout time. From slavery, to the way the world is in 2016,

black men and women have faced all odds to rid the curse of racism. Throughout these books,

three black men fight against the stereotypes, slavery, and hate, but in the end what really needs

to be done to break the shackles of racism? Is it still possible to hold power when suppression is

all around?

In Shakespeares Titus Andronicus, Aaron the Moor, a black man who has a secret

relationship with the Goth Queen Tamora, uses his wits to evolve as a character. Aaron is a very

powerful character that uses the color of his skin to control the way people think in an

unorthodox way. Meaning he uses the first impression people have of him as weak because he is

black, and reverses it on the other characters by using it to his advantage. When Shakespeare

wrote this play, black men and women were looked at as evil, devil like people. People thought

that black was an un-pure color that brought along evil spirits and bad omens. Aaron uses this

stereotype to his advantage by fulfilling this because throughout this play he plays both sides of

the protagonist and the antagonist. When Tituss sons are taken away to be killed Aaron

convinces Titus that if he cuts off his own hand he will be able to have his sons sparred. Titus:

Come hither, Aaron. Ill deceive them both. Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine. Aaron:

If that be called deceit, I will be honest and never whilst I live deceive men so, (Shakespeare.
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

Pg.103. Act 3. Scene 1.) After Aaron chops off Titus hand he takes it to the Emperor, shortly

after Titus receives both his sons heads along with his hand. By playing the stereotype he was

given he could deceive the people who see him as a lesser person, fighting against the power that

others have with the hidden power that he possessed.

Aaron isnt completely heartless with that being said, it is recognized that Aaron and

Tamora had a love for each other. When Tamora gives birth to Aarons child, she requested that

Aaron must kill this baby because she cant have her husband, the emperor, know that she was

carrying Aarons baby. Aaron is horrified by this request saying that black is the best color

because it doesnt deign to take on any other colors. After he kills the nurse that helped deliver

his newborn son to keep the secret, he goes to the Goths so he can keep his son safe. After the

Goths capture him he is told that he must watch his newborn son die before he too meets the

reaper. Aaron shows his true colors as a man and a father when he begs and pleas that the Goths

save his son and give him a gruesome death. After giving a powerful speech while facing the

noose, he talks about the heinous crimes he has committed and the thousand more he would have

if he wasnt stopped. The men decide that the noose isnt gruesome enough, they proceed to bury

him to his shoulders in the ground so he will suffocate and starve to death.

Shakespeare wrote many plays and stories that included a black man as one of the

protagonists and the antagonist. Another one of his more famous plays was the Tempest, a story

about a ship that is caught in a nasty storm that pushes them towards an island that is inhabited

by some unusual characters. Among these characters is a man that has been bound to a life of

slavery and a powerless conscious. This man is Caliban, said to be a hybrid between a black man
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

and a sea creature. He is described as an ugly human that is weak because of his looks and his

past. It is said that he is the offspring of a witch named Sycorax and the devil. Again,

Shakespeare is displaying the cultural thought that the color black is evil, which means that the

people with this skin must be evil. Caliban is serving a lifetime of slavery to the magician

Prospero. It is unclear if Prospero is capable of creating any magic, but the only way he controls

Caliban is with magic. He explains that he is supposed to be ruler of the island because he was

there first. The islands mine by Sycorax, my mother, which thou takst from me. When thou

camst first, thou strokst me and made much of me, wouldst give me, water with berries int, and

teach me how to name the bigger light and how the less, that burn by day and night. And then I

loved thee, and showed thee all the qualities o thisle, the fresh springs, brine pits, barren place

and fertile, (Pg.37. Act 1. Sc.2. Shakespeare). During the time period Shakespeare, had written

this play, colonialism was taking off. Shakespeare is using the voice of the other side of

colonialism, the short end of the stick. Caliban plays a sort of metaphor for these people that had

lost the land and life they had before white settlers came in and took It for themselves, followed

by enslaving the native people that where once free.

Unlike Aaron, Caliban has the least power of all the characters. With that being said, this

creates a pathway to gain power, because once power is reached the trouble is controlling it.

After the crew lands on the island, Caliban meets Trinculo and Stephano. Caliban sees this as a

chance to strike back and take his island back along with breaking out of the slavery he is bound

too. Caliban is a similar character to Aaron from Titus Andronicus, in the manor of being

mysterious and manacle. Caliban uses this to his advantage when convinces Trinculo and

Stephano that they need to help him kill Prospero so they can be the rulers of the island and help
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

him regain his freedom. By telling these two thick minded characters that they will be more

powerful than Prospero, Caliban can see his chances of breaking through the shackles that he

wears. While the two men and Caliban get drunk, Caliban uses their self-power to get what he

wants while he plays the lesser to get what he really wants. When their plan doesnt work due to

a pack of spiritual dogs set loose by the spirit of Ariel, the men are caught. In the end, Caliban is

not smart enough to outsmart Prospero and is unsuccessful when he tries to regain his island and

freedom. This leads to the question; Did Shakespeare write Caliban to symbolize that

colonialism will triumph no matter what? In the end of both Titus Andronicus and The Tempest,

both Aaron and Caliban are unsuccessful in gaining power and freedom. That isnt saying that

Shakespeare was a racist writer, but more of a product of his environment and influenced by his

cultural thoughts.

Shakespeare wasnt the only author to include a black character in their writings. The

next character was conjured and written by a female author, Aphra Behn. Behn was a late 1600s

British playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer from the Restoration era. Her character

displays a lot of traits that both Aaron and Caliban have. This characters name was Oroonoko,

an African prince who was influenced by the European ways at a young age. Oroonoko could

read, write, and speak multiple languages. Behn describes Oroonoko as a very handsome, well

put together prince who is very respected. Oroonoko is in love with a woman, Imoinda, whose

father died saving Oroonkos life. This part of the story is where Oroonokos troubles start to

happen when his 100-year-old grandfather (the King) decides that he should have Imoinda as his

wife so Oroonoko cant. After being caught by the king when he goes to see her she is sold to

slavery. The king tells Oroonoko that Imoinda has been honorably put to death.
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

Shortly after the British arrive to trade war captured men whom Oroonoko has taken as

slaves. When Oroonoko steps aboard the white mens ship because of a guest visit, he is captured

and the ship sets off. Behn makes a point here showing that, although Oroonoko himself was

trading slaves, he was out smarted by the people he trusted. She is making a point that these men

came over seas and lied, cheated, and kidnapped many men, eventually selling them into slavery.

She is showing her culture that she lives in that the slavery process is an ugly, fucked up process

that is unfair to any human race to be turned into animals.

After arriving at Surinam, Oroonoko is sold to a man named Mr. Trefry. Because of his

social class, Oroonoko is told he doesnt have to work. That still means that he must stay on the

plantation with the other slaves. Although Oroonoko is well respected, honorable prince, none of

that matters when he is on the plantation looking up to his masters. While on the plantation,

Oroonoko finds Imoinda and they are over joyed to see each other and fall in love again. Shortly

after, Imoinda becomes pregnant which causes a very big problem for Oroonoko. This is where

the traits of Aaron come in to play with Oroonoko. Much like Aaron and his baby, Oroonoko

refuses to have a child in the environment that he lives in. Where blacks are born into slavery,

born into suppression, born into racism. Much like Caliban, Oroonoko becomes very desperate to

regain his power and return to the way life was before he was thrown into slavery. He becomes

so desperate that he reaches extremes with Imoinda. They decide they need to leave the

plantation and get away together. Once they are away Oroonoko reaches his ultimate desperation

and decides that he needs to kill Imoinda and then followed by himself. He thinks this the only

real way him and his family will be together free again. Behn is showing that it is impossible to

run from the racism and slavery that these two characters were put up against. She is proving that
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

it makes people desperate to the point that they do the most drastic acts to get away from it. After

Oroonoko slits Imoindas neck, then proceeding to carve her face out, he realizes that he cant

follow through with what he has done. After seven days of mourning his wife and unborn child,

the white men find him. Condemned to death, he decides he is going to kill himself in front of

everybody by stabbing himself and pulling out his insides. Before he can die the men bring him

back to the plantation to stitch him up and carry out the execution themselves. After being saved

from his own suicide, he asks the men for a pipe and tobacco. He had learned to take tobacco,

and when he was assured he should die, he desired they would give him a pipe in his mouth,

ready lighted, which they did, and the executioner came, and first cut off his members, and threw

them into the fire. After that, with an ill-flavored knife, they cut his ears, and his nose, and

burned them; he still smoked on, as if nothing had touched him. Then they hacked off his arms,

and still he bore up, and held his pipe. But at the cutting off of the other arm, his head sunk, and

his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost, without a groan, or a reproach, (Pg. 140. Behn).

This is a very powerful scene, showing that no matter how civilized or great a person can be,

racism and slavery will turn the greatest into an animal. It turns a desperate lover into a murder.

Much like Aaron, Oroonoko punishes himself with an ugly death. But the both of them did not

give the satisfactory to their makers, instead they took their own fate into their own hands and

decided when it was their time to meet the reaper.

These authors were not just including a black skinned man into their stories to add

diversity, these authors were giving a first person view of what a whole race was going through.

Although in the centuries to follow not much has changed. Slavery was abolished and blacks

were given their rights. But history and racism still leaves deep wounds for the men and women
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

with colored skin. What happened to these people is no joke, and should not be over looked.

Aaron, Caliban, and Oroonoko where all just a small insight for the way that life really was when

these authors put the ink on the paper. All we can do is look at these characters for an insight in

the way the thoughts and beliefs that a culture had towards another race. So, is it still possible to

hold power when suppression is all around? History and literature can answer that.
Steve Bidus
12/13/16
World Literature
Dr. Erin Casey-Williams
Final Paper

Work Cited

(Shakespeare. Pg.103. Act 3. Scene 1.) Titus Andronicus

(Pg.37. Act 1. Sc.2. Shakespeare)- The Tempest
(Pg. 140. Behn) -Oroonoko