Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn- Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave (1688)
Oroonko; or the Royal Slave is considered the first antislavery novel, in which Aphra Behn illustrates the value of her protagonist, Prince Oroonoko, and depicts the general point of view towards the slaves. However, this analysis only deals with an extract of the novel, presenting the purpose of the narrator, in this case I would say Aphra Behn, and the description of the protagonist.
Now, in order to find out who the narrator is, recognizing the first person narrator was just not enough, because not necessarily does it have to be the author of the book. So, I decided to do some research on my own, and found that up-to-date the narrator is not quite sure to be a representation of Aphra Behn, leading to a loss of truth in the story, something that will be fatherly discussed, an open discussion and will to choose. In my case, I have inclined myself to think of the narrator to be Aphra Behn, by stands of having lived and witnessed the New World’s way of living.
In addition to locating the first person narrator throughout the entire extract, I realized that the point of view within the former varied slightly as the story developed. As I mean to say, Aphra Behn employs three types of first person narrators in this extract: the first person protagonist, the first person re-teller and the first person witness. As it is known, the first person protagonist point of view is highly characterized by the use of the “I” and telling his/her story, as in these sentences from the first three paragraphs: ‘I do not pretend […] addition of invention’ (paragraph 1); ‘I was myself an eye-witness to a great part […] what I cou’d not be witness of […] I receiv’d from […] I shall omit […] new and strange’ (paragraph 2); ‘But before I give you […] I tell you the manner […] and colors’ (paragraph 4). Then, there are the first person re-teller and the first person witness combined together in the rest of the extract. Right after
Oroonko; or the Royal Slave is considered the first antislavery novel, in which Aphra Behn illustrates the value of her protagonist, Prince Oroonoko, and depicts the general point of view towards the slaves. However, this analysis only deals with an extract of the novel, presenting the purpose of the narrator, in this case I would say Aphra Behn, and the description of the protagonist.
Now, in order to find out who the narrator is, recognizing the first person narrator was just not enough, because not necessarily does it have to be the author of the book. So, I decided to do some research on my own, and found that up-to-date the narrator is not quite sure to be a representation of Aphra Behn, leading to a loss of truth in the story, something that will be fatherly discussed, an open discussion and will to choose. In my case, I have inclined myself to think of the narrator to be Aphra Behn, by stands of having lived and witnessed the New World’s way of living.
In addition to locating the first person narrator throughout the entire extract, I realized that the point of view within the former varied slightly as the story developed. As I mean to say, Aphra Behn employs three types of first person narrators in this extract: the first person protagonist, the first person re-teller and the first person witness. As it is known, the first person protagonist point of view is highly characterized by the use of the “I” and telling his/her story, as in these sentences from the first three paragraphs: ‘I do not pretend […] addition of invention’ (paragraph 1); ‘I was myself an eye-witness to a great part […] what I cou’d not be witness of […] I receiv’d from […] I shall omit […] new and strange’ (paragraph 2); ‘But before I give you […] I tell you the manner […] and colors’ (paragraph 4). Then, there are the first person re-teller and the first person witness combined together in the rest of the extract. Right after