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Krempel 1 Kailey Krempel ENG 241 Professor Oldrieve 12/12/11

European Superiority: A Treatment of the Others Within the pages of Oroonoko: or The Royal Slave A True History, Aphra Behn delicately represents the main character of Oroonoko and his love Imoinda as beautiful, respectable, and noble. Yet, Behn also has a tendency to backhandedly represent the European way of life as superior to those of her characters. She tries to represent Oroonoko and Imoinda as characters the readers could care about, and in order to do so, she Europeanized them so much that they lost their identity as Africans. Through different means of representation, both out of fear and of love not only for Oroonoko and the other African slaves but also for the native inhabitants of Surinam, Behn shows a tenuous relationship between the Europeans and the others that surround them. The first evidence that Behn presents of her European ideals occurs in her descriptions of the natives that inhabit Surinam. At first glance, Behn does nothing but grace the natives with compliments. She talks of the harmony in which they live with the natives, saying for those we live with in perfect amity, without daring to command them; but on the contrary, caress them with all the brotherly and friendly affection in the world, (Behn, 2137). Behn goes as far as to compare them to Adam and Eve before the fall. She points out that they are extreme modest and bashful, very shy, and nice of being touched. And though they are all thus naked, if one lives

Krempel 2 forever among them, there is not to be seen an indecent action or glance; (2138). Behn attributes this innocence to the natives being so close to the state of nature, without the European influences of laws or even of religion, which Behn insists would destroy their innocence and in fact teach them to commit offenses. While this seems like a wonderful description of the natives, Behn contradicts herself when describing their physical appearance, saying, Some of the beauties which indeed are finely shaped, as almost all are, and who have pretty features, are very charming and novel: for they have all that is called beauty except the color, which is a reddish yellow; or after a new oiling, which they often use to themselves, they are the color of a new brick, but smooth, soft, and sleek (2138). In all other ways, the natives seem to be perfect except for the color of their skin, which had it reflected the paleness of the Europeans, would have made them beautiful in every fashion. Later in the story, Behn portrays the natives in another light, as savage and barbaric. The peaceful relationship had taken a turn and left the English in fear of the Indians, and they no longer traveled into Indian territory, and Behn describes the Indians doing savage acts, they cut in pieces all they could take, getting into houses, and hanging up the mother, and all her children about her, and cut a footman I left behind me all in joints, and nailed him to a tree (2165). She also shows them as ignorant and impressionable, describing a scene where one of her kinsman lit a piece of paper on fire with a magnifying glass, and explaining how the admiration of something not seen before was attributed to their ignorance. She makes the claim that when they saw her kinsman perform this act, they were like to have adored him for a god, and begged he would give them the characters or figures of his name, that they might oppose it against winds and storms, which he did, and they held it up in those seasons, and fancied it had a charm to conquer them, and kept it like a holy relic (2167). She also describes the Indian prophet or shaman as a cunning trickster,

Krempel 3 practiced in sleight of hand as to persuade those he was healing into believing they had been cured, only to attain fear, love, and reverence from the people. These contradictory depictions of the Indians give clear examples of the European ideal of superiority and the treatment of those different from themselves. Behn first praises their ignorance of the European ways, saying that religion and laws would ruin their innocence, then she proceeds to deem their own religious practices and customs as barbaric and overly impressionable. By doing so, Behn shows the natives as respectable, but as wholly inferior to the European way of life. Another way Behn shows the inferiority of those who do not uphold European ideals is in her descriptions of the main character, Oroonoko. Again, Behn showers him in compliments, but they become back-handed. Because Oroonoko had been raised as a warrior on the battlefield, Behn makes the comment that twas amazing to imagine where he learned so much humanity or, to give his accomplishments a juster name, where twas he got that real greatness of soul, those refined notions of true honor, that absolute generosity, and that softness that was capable of the highest passions of love and gallantry, whose objects were almost continually fighting men, or those mangled or dead (2140). Instead of attributing all of it to the innate excellence of Oroonokos character, she attributes his qualities to a Frenchman who was a tutor to the young prince and to his affection for learning the language and customs of the English and Spanish who came to trade for slaves. She also makes the statement that oroonoko had nothing of barbarity in his nature, but in all points addressed himself as if his education had been in some European court (2140). This is an obvious show of European superiority, in that none of the qualities that Behn finds great in Oroonoko originated with him or were innate to his nature, but learned from the Europeans that came to trade. Another example comes from her description of Oroonokos appearance. She describes Oroonoko saying, His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African

Krempel 4 and flat; his mouth, the finest shaped that could be seen, far from those great turned lips which ar so natural to the rest of the Negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so noble and exactly formed that, bating his color, there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome (2140-2141). Behn describes his appearance as very European, with a Roman nose, and a mouth uncommon to the rest of his kin, making him as agreeable as possible with the exception of his color, like she did with the native Indians. In this way, though she makes Oroonoko hold almost all the ideals of European culture, she still places him in the inferior grouping of the other. A third example of Behns inferior treatment of non-Europeans would be her views on Christianity. At first it seems as if Behn doesnt hold a particularly high view on Christianity. She makes scathing remarks, such as Such ill morals are only practiced in Christian countries, where they prefer the bare name of religion; and, without virtue or morality, think thats sufficient (2142), and in her description of Oroonokos reply to the captain that took him captive and said that he could not trust a heathen, where Oroonoko says he was very sorry to hear that the captain pretended to the knowledge and worship of any gods who had taught him no better principles, than not to credit as he would be credited (2155). Oroonoko gives a similar reply to the mob that chased him and his kin while they tried to escape: But Caesar told him, there was no faith in the white men, or the gods they adored, who instructed them in principles so false that honest men could not live amongst them; though no people professed so much, none performed so little; that he knew what he had to do, when he dealt with men of honor, but with them a man ought to be eternally on his guard, and never to eat and drink with Christians without his weapon of defense in his hand, and, for his own security, never give credit to one word they spoke. (2170-2172)

Krempel 5 Though this shows Oroonokos obvious feelings towards Christianity, Behn narrates that she tried to convert Oroonoko and Imoinda, saying that she tried telling her stories of nuns, and endeavoring to bring her to the knowledge of the true God. But of all discourses Caeser liked that the worst, and would never be reconciled to our notions of the Trinity (2161). Why would Behn try to convert Oroonoko and Imoinda to Christianity when she makes such critical remarks on it herself? Behn, although she has some doubts about those who practice Christianity, is obviously a Christian herself, like all other Europeans of her time. This lack of religion by Imoinda and Oroonoko places them immediately in the category of the other, which is why Behn would try to convert them. She has already made Oroonoko as European as possible throughout the story, and trying to convince him to become a Christian is natural to complete the indoctrination of the European ideals. Finally, Behn shows the European idea of superiority by changing Oroonoko and Imoidas names. Instead of referring to them throughout the story with their original African names, she changes to the names they were given when they were sold into slavery, Caesar and Clemene. Behn describes this practice by saying, I ought to tell you, that the Christians never buy any slaves but they give them some name of their own, their native ones being likely very barbarous, and hard to pronounce; so that Mr. Trafry gave Oroonoko that of Caesar . . . For the future therefore, I must call Oroonoko Caesar, since by that name only he was known in our western world (2158). If Behn truly respected Oroonoko and Imoinda as Africans and royalty in their own right, why would she not continue to use their original names throughout the story instead of changing them when they were enslaved? This takes away not only the identity of Oroonoko and Imoinda as people, but also their identity as African. It strips them of their heritage, customs, and beliefs. This is the ultimate show of European superiority, by renaming a

Krempel 6 person of a different background to suit the Christian beliefs of Europe or to help ease the language barrier. By trying so hard to Europeanize Oroonoko and Imoinda, it casts them farther into the category of the other. Aphra Behn made a valiant attempt in trying to write a book that showed her anticolonialist perspective and her anti-slavery perspective, but it was not enough to cover the remaining feelings of European superiority. Through her descriptions of the Indians, Oroonoko, and the differing views on Christianity, Behn depicted those not European as inferior. By trying to compliment the Indians and the Africans and make them respectable enough for the readers to care about, she ended up pushing her characters farther into the inferior category of the other, and ultimately negating her original perspectives.

Krempel 7 Works Cited Behn, Aphra. "Oroonoko: Or The Royal Slave A True History." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch, Kevin J. H. Dettmar, and Stuart Sherman. 4th ed. Vol. 1C. New York [etc.: Longman, 2010. 2137-178. Print. The Restoration and The Eighteenth Century.

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