Keşkek 1

Nurgül Keşkek

Assist. Prof. Dr. Alev Karaduman

IED 282 Novel I

21.04.2015

The Novel of Oroonoko by Aphra Behn and the Effects of Imperialism in the Novel

During the Elizabethan Times in the 17th century, the Great Britain started to send his

seamen to outside so that they could find different places to settle down. Thus; the colonizing

affairs of the Great Britain started. With the colonizing they found not only new areas

providing natural and beautiful sources but also they encountered new people providing cheap

workforce and so, besides material trades, people trades have also improved and human

beings separated into two groups as “powerful, oppressor, master” and “powerless, oppressed,

slave”.

Slavery is an issue which has been handled for centuries by many people including in

politics, writers, thinkers and so on. Aphra Behn is one of them who tried to reflect the society

where she lived ,Surinam a colony of early Britain and then Dutch in her novel Oroonoko or

The Royal Slave. The novel is about the adventures of an African Prince, called Oroonoko.

Summarily, Oroonoko and Imoinda love each other very much but the king,

grandfather of Oroonoko also wants Imoinda. After the king understands that he cannot

possess Imoinda, he sells her as a slave to Surinam. Oroonoko’s tribe is a supplier for the

slave trade. One day an English ship arrives and the captain invites prince Oroonoko to come

abroad. The captain takes advantage of Oroonoko’s trust and takes Oroonoko and his men

prisoners. He is sold as a slave to a British gentleman. There, he encounters with Imoinda and

they get back together and Imoinda becomes pregnant. Oroonoko wants his family to become
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free and struggles for their freedom. He leads a slave revolt but he is caught. He would rather

die than become slave forever and he kills his beloved Imoinda and then, eventually. He is

sentenced a very suffering, cruel and inhuman death for the sake of his own liberty.

The nameless and first person narrator only reflects the situations as a mirror. Before

introducing the characters, she gives brief information about the colony and the inhabitants.

She tells the beauties and qualities of the land “. . .a thousand little Knacks, and Rarities in

Nature; and some of Art, as their Baskets, Weapons, Aprons. . . We dealt with ‘em with Beads

of Colours, Knives, Axes, Pins, and Needles, which they us’d only as Tool. . . their Ears and

Noses and Lips. . .”(Behn 10). In the novel, it can be seen an Orient admiring by describing

the beauties of both land and the main characters Oroonoko and Imoinda. “He(Oroonoko) was

pretty tall,. . . The most famous Statuary could not form the figure of a Man more admirably

turn’d from Head to Foot. His face was not of that brown rusty Black. . . His nose was rising

and Roman, instead of African and flat”(15). The narrator shows Oroonoko as different from

other “Negroes”. Also, she describes him as “Black Mars”(16). Even if the narrator shows an

anti-slavery attitude, she always sees Oroonoko as more valuable both physically and

emotionally than the other black natives so she chooses a noble among the all slaves to lead

them on the other hand everyone cannot attempt to rebel against the “master”. Hence,

Oroonoko is praised in several places in the novel as a hero and mentioned about his

achievements and the narrator proves that only man like that can rebel against the authority

and fight his own liberty. Furthermore; at the end of the novel he is slayed cruelly and

“They cut Ceasar into Quarters, and sent them to several of the chief

Plantations: One Quarter was sent to Colonel Martin; who refus’d

it, and swore, he had rather see the Quarters of Banister, and the

Governor himself, than those of Ceasar, on his Plantations; and

that he could govern his Negroes, without terrifying and grieving

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them with frightful Spectacles of mangled King”(82).

These sentences are clue that Oroonoko is the only man to rebel and naturally cannot

success so each part of his body is both a threat and an example for the other colonies which

think any revolt against the authority.

After the narrator, if we handle our protagonist Oroonoko as a hero, we can say a lot of

things about him. First, he is, initially, very proud man even a Prince. His courage and honour

are very respected by all his people and he is a really charismatic leader who makes his

followers come his behind. Besides his courage and fearless, he is quite naive, too. He is

easily caught the trap of English Captain and he never has any doubt Captain’s intention about

himself. Secondly, he is very fond of his liberty. Since his slavery, he struggles in order to

take his freedom back and he dies for the sake of his freedom again. The narrator points out in

several places that: “He had rather die, than live upon the same Earth with such Dogs”(71).

Even, he kills his very beloved lover Imoinda not in case she and their child live as a slave

forever and he is slayed inhumanly. Before he dies, he says:

“. . .This was the first piece of Bravery that ever Banister

did, and he never spoke Sense till he pronounced that

Word; and if he would keep it8 he would declare in the

other World, that was only Man, of all the Whites

that ever he heard speak Truth. . .”(81).

In short, Oroonoko is a character who is brave and keen on his freedom and somebody

that can do everything for his freedom. He would rather die rather than be a dog of his master

and he kills his wife with his own hands to prevent that his offspring’s birth to a slavery life.

Even if, Oroonoko is treated in different way from the other slaves and the point of the

narrator’s view towards Oroonoko is quite sympathetic, the narrator is a White and Noble
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woman and sometimes she reflects her own ideas about her country and by inferring about the

Great Britain she says: “Tis a Continent, whose was Extend was never yet known, and may

contain more noble Earth than all the Universe beside;. . . it reaches from East to West one

Way as far as China and another to Peru”(54). What is more, Oroonoko also mentions about

the ideologies of that Imperial System and the relations between the slaves and the masters.

“. . . it was not for Days, Months or Years, but for

Eternity; there was no End to be of their Misfortunes:

They suffered not like Men, who might a Glory and

Fortune in Oppression; but like Dogs, that loved the

Whip and Bell. . . They had lost the divine Quality

of Men, and were become insensible Asses. . .”(65).

These lines are clue for the attitudes of colonizers and the masters towards their slaves so,

Oroonoko is aware of this situation as different from the other slaves and he fights for the

sake of his liberty. The other reason is that, Oroonoko is a figure who declines his upper

statue to the lowest one suddenly and being a slave is very hard for him after being a prince

so, that is the reason why he is so fond of his liberty and leads the slave revolts.

In the novel the other issue is the gender question. Imoinda is a beautiful and very desired

girl by the king and beloved by Oroonoko. The narrator points out that: “. . . the old King,

who had many Wives, and many Concubines, wanted not Court-Flatters to insinuate into his

Heart a thousand tender Thoughts for this young Beauty. . .”(18). The old king is so greedy

that he sold Imoinda as a slave not due to “possess” her. The other point is the Oroonoko’s

attitude to Imoinda. He can decide whether she will live or not and he can find a right himself

to take someone’s life. After he kills Imoinda with his own hands, he is very upset and he

explains his feelings like that: “No, since I have sacrificed Imoinda to my Revenge, shall I
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lose that Glory which I have purchased so dear, so as at the Price of the fairest, dearest, softest

Creature that ever Nature made?”(77). Although he is upsets and sorry of her death and he

claims that he has done it for her and their child, it does not mean that he can decide whether

she lives or not. Thus; here is a patriarchal society in which man decide what will be happen.

In conclusion, Oroonoko or The Royal Slave is an anti-slavery novel of a man initial an

African prince then a slave in the colony of Britain and about his struggle for his love and

freedom until his death. In the novel, the narrator is a White woman who belongs to noble

class and she tries to reflect the society in terms of gender and class differences and depicts

Oroonoko as a “Black Hero” and feels sympathy to him and respect by saying at the end of

the novel: “Thus died this Great Man, worthy of a better Fate, and a more sublime Wit than

mine to write his Praise. I hope, the Reputation of my Pen is considerable enough to make his

Glorious Name to survive to All Ages. . .”(82). Namely, Oroonoko is one of the unique

examples that prefer to die to live as a slave. He reminds me a famous philosophy’s word, he

says: “I live without bread but I never live without freedom.”

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