Slavery in Oroonoko
ENL 4230
Dr. Oliver
Oroonoko- The Ultimate Slave Narrative:
Women and Their Masters
Aphra Behn presents us with an extensive parody in her novel Oroonoko: a complete slave narrative, depicting the enslavement of both man and woman. She uses historical fact as well as semi-anthropologically accurate setting to reveal the truth in her words. Historically speaking, women were slaves for centuries before the white man enslaved the black man. Women were bartered and sold into marriage, abuses and forced to work under the watchful eyes of her husband. Aphra Behn demonstrates this though Imoinda’s character development, or lack thereof. The fact that this is considered a “historically” accurate text validates the reality of the issue at hand: women’s subjugation. Through Imoinda’s decisions, blind loyalty to her husband and her social status, Behn excites the reader into taking a deeper look at the treatment of women, their state of mind, and the male dominating ideology women are subjected to throughout the novel as well as in society, historically a well as presently.
Oroonoko is a story also known as the “Royal Slave” in which a prince, betrayed and sold into slavery by his very own grandfather, is then brutally executed. What is often left out of the brief synopsis is his wife, Imoinda, and her trials and tribulations as not only his lover but a woman in the eighteenth century slave circuit. Though her troubles do not begin with the economic slave trade commercialized by the Europeans; as a woman, Imoinda lived life as a slave since her birth. Moira Ferguson, in her article “Birth of a Paradigm”, develops this notion completely: “In line with feminist contemporaries and heirs, in a narrative with a geographical span from Britain to the African continent and the South America mainland, in a unique formulation Behn pronounces women’s lives a form of slavery, and introduces a virtuous West African female co-protagonist. This choice enables Behn to assault at
Dr. Oliver
Oroonoko- The Ultimate Slave Narrative:
Women and Their Masters
Aphra Behn presents us with an extensive parody in her novel Oroonoko: a complete slave narrative, depicting the enslavement of both man and woman. She uses historical fact as well as semi-anthropologically accurate setting to reveal the truth in her words. Historically speaking, women were slaves for centuries before the white man enslaved the black man. Women were bartered and sold into marriage, abuses and forced to work under the watchful eyes of her husband. Aphra Behn demonstrates this though Imoinda’s character development, or lack thereof. The fact that this is considered a “historically” accurate text validates the reality of the issue at hand: women’s subjugation. Through Imoinda’s decisions, blind loyalty to her husband and her social status, Behn excites the reader into taking a deeper look at the treatment of women, their state of mind, and the male dominating ideology women are subjected to throughout the novel as well as in society, historically a well as presently.
Oroonoko is a story also known as the “Royal Slave” in which a prince, betrayed and sold into slavery by his very own grandfather, is then brutally executed. What is often left out of the brief synopsis is his wife, Imoinda, and her trials and tribulations as not only his lover but a woman in the eighteenth century slave circuit. Though her troubles do not begin with the economic slave trade commercialized by the Europeans; as a woman, Imoinda lived life as a slave since her birth. Moira Ferguson, in her article “Birth of a Paradigm”, develops this notion completely: “In line with feminist contemporaries and heirs, in a narrative with a geographical span from Britain to the African continent and the South America mainland, in a unique formulation Behn pronounces women’s lives a form of slavery, and introduces a virtuous West African female co-protagonist. This choice enables Behn to assault at
Cited: Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko. In Oroonoko and Other Writings. Ed. Paul Salzman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. 3-73. Ferguson, Margaret W. "Juggling the Categories Of Race, Class And Gender: Aphra Behn 's Oroonoko." Women 's Studies 19.2 (1991): 159. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. Ferguson, Moira. "Oroonoko: Birth Of A Paradigm." New Literary History 23.(1992): 339-359. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 2 Dec. 2013. Rogers, Katherine. "Fact and Fiction in Aphra Behn 's Oroonoko," Studies in the Novel 20.1 (Spring 1998): 1-15. Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literature. London: Oxford University Press, 1977. 108-15. Print.