Oroonoko Close Reading - Research Paper Example

Oroonoko as an Anti-Slavery Text Slavery as a strong social has met with many rebellions and mutiny, movements and struggles. Oroonoko isa prose narrative exploring slavery. This is interwoven with the royal love of two beautiful young people. Aphra being the first professional woman writer in the 17th century has chosen a unique theme of slavery and introduces the concept of ‘noble savage’ later propagated by Rousseau. The narrative work is publicized as an anti-slavery text. This can be agreed upon to a certain extent in that the author has attempted a faithful portrayal of slave trade; however, she refrains from any explicit campaigning against slavery in her voice. So, Oroonoko puts on various identities as a novel, as a travelogue, or colonial discourse than an anti-slavery text. The narration presents contradictions in the perspectives of the fictionalized author narrator and the hero, Oroonoko and creates doubts about its characteristics as an anti-slavery text. Set in the seventeenth century, Oroonoko is often seen as a precursor of the anti-slavery literature which became popular later during the nineteenth centuries. Norton Anthology says that “In the early 1660s, when the events described in Behns Oroonoko are supposed to have taken place, England was not yet a major power in the slave trade” (The Norton Anthology of English Literature). This has Oroonoko as a reference text when it comes to details on slave trade.  In its section on the biography of Aphra Behn, the anthology says that the novel had great impact on people who fought against slavery and slave trade. Oroonoko also has been critically acclaimed to be an anti-slavery text by many critics. Laura Brown in her “the Romance of Empire: Oroonoko and the Trade in Slaves” says that, "the novella had been recognized as a seminal work in the tradition of antislavery writings from the time of its publication down to our own period"(42). Oroonoko captures the transatlantic slave trade and is set in the colonial Africa and West Indies. One of the most outstanding aspects of the novella is that Oroonoko has an African prince as its hero. Though set in the British colonies, it is unlike a mere travelogue or a documentary. On the other hand, it makes a strong statement regarding slavery in its portrayal of the cruelties of slavery. The details about the process of slave trade are described. The author of Oronooko says, “Who want slaves make a bargain with a master or a captain of a ship, and contract to pay him so much apiece, a matter of twenty pound a head, for as many as he agrees for, and to pay for em when they shall be delivered on such a plantation” (7).They are counted as commodities and not as individuals and humans while being sold and transported from Coramantien to work as slaves in Suriname. Aphra Behn has attempted to capture the life of the slaves till death rescues the prince from the otherwise unbreakable chains of the inhuman bondage. When looked at from a realistic point of view, the text attempts to paint a faithful picture of the slavery stricken colonies alongside the romantic love story of the Oroonoko and Imoinda. A closer reading of the text reveals that the novel has their courtly romance and classic love as one of the core themes of the novel and the slavery as yet another. Both become inter twined in the second part of the novel. In the first part, Behn creates sympathy toward the two characters, who love sincerely but suffer pangs of forceful separation. However, toward the end, the tragedy is heightened further when they suffer cruel death as slaves, unable to gain freedom from the shackles of the lowly bondage. It could be interpreted symbolically that perhaps the author likes his readers to sympathize with the young lovers and the classic love being destroyed and the lovers meeting with a cruel death at the hands of slavery. The truth about slavery and its capacity to destroy love, lives and humaneness is driven home. The narrative voice creates sympathy for the slaves, especially Oroonoko and Imoinda. Oroonoko fights in vain for freedom from the slave bonds, as he does not want his child to be born a slave. The readers empathizing with the lovers are made to see slavery, as a colonial institution, the sole cause of the tragic end. No doubt, many critics look at Oroonoko as an anti slavery text. The depiction of slavery and the inhuman treatment of the slaves, associate the novel with anti-slavery literature to some extent. However, the description of slavery alone cannot mean that the novel works for the cause of anti-slavery. The text lacks in intensity and genuine support against slavery. For instance, according to the author, the purpose behind the prose narrative is to “entertain my reader with adventures…enough of reality to support it, and to render it diverting, without the addition of invention” (Behn, 2). Though claimed to be true to the reality, the atrocities of slave trade and the inhuman treatment of the slaves with all its horror is to amuse the European target audience for whom Aphra Behn has written Oroonoko. To the author, the hero’s life as a slave being torn apart from his love and homeland and the failed attempts to get freed are meant to be adventures and have no say in the cause of anti-slavery. In addition to the author’s purpose behind Oroonoko being doubtful, the narration too makes the author’s intentions even more uncertain. Slavery and the associated brutalities are narrated from the perspective of a white woman, who belongs to the privileged class of employing slaves herself. She attempts to paint the picture of slaves and slave trade. Nowhere does the reader get to hear the facts from the slaves’ point of view. “The White Mistress and the Black Slave: Aphra Behn, Racism and the Beginnings of Novelistic Discourse,” explores the tone of the narrative voice. The attitude of the narrator in Oroonoko toward slavery is not easy to pinpoint. She never criticizes slavery directly, but the perspective of the victimized hero promotes a critique of slavery nonetheless. On the one hand, the narrator insists that she has a certain amount of authority in the colonial society of Surinam, which would seem to imply participation in the racist-colonialist ideology, but on the other hand, Oroonoko is portrayed more positively than most of the colonists. Despite her claims to social authority, it is precisely the marginal position of the narrator as a woman in patriarchal colonial society that lends her the authority to speak for the hero. And although she maintains that she has authority to save Oroonoko, she is unable to do so. (Nestvold) The voice of condemnation about slavery is not evident in the narration. Rather, it is one of objective narration. The narrative voice uses ‘they’ wherever the fictionalized author narrates the incidents of slavery and maintains a distant identity from the colonists. “The paradoxical positioning of the narrator is reflected in the contradictory use of pronouns” (Pearson 188). However, when it comes to the colony being affected by the slaves’ mutiny, she uses the pronoun ‘we’. “When the topic is the abuse of the slaves, the narrator refers to the colonists as "they"; when she is speaking of the peaceful coexistence with the Indians it is "we”…The relationship between the oppressed groups in Oroonoko is characterized by sympathy but complicated by the different hierarchies governing behavior. The narrator is a member of colonial society, and that is the side she takes when open conflict breaks out” (Nestvold). This clearly reveals that the author is neither disapproving the attitude and actions of the colonists nor is against slavery but just hints that she is not a part of it. The white narrator speaks about the black slaves and the royal slave too. The reader encounters yet another voice that of Oroonoko’s either in the form of reported conversation or direct speech. This presents dual views, of which the slave’s voice is subdued. Though the narrator is faithful in the representation of the natives and the life of the slaves, she does not speak against slavery in her voice. Being a person of rank residing in the colony, which employs slaves, the narrator herself would have been privileged with slaves. But there is a silence about it. The reader witnesses thoughts about anti slavery only from Oroonoko’s perspective when he delivers the speech toward the end to launch a rebellion and to lead all the slaves out of the bondage. This is an instance of his speech in the direct speech, which captures the anti-slavery spirit. “And why," said he, "my dear friends and fellow-sufferers, should we be slaves to an unknown people? Have they vanquished us nobly in fight? Have they won us in honorable battle? And are we by the chance of war become their slaves? This would not anger a noble heart; this would not animate a soldiers soul: no, but we are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools, and cowards; and the support of rogues and runagates, that have abandoned their own countries for rapine, murders, theft, and villainies. Do you not hear every day how they upbraid each other with infamy of life, below the wildest savages? And shall we render obedience to such a degenerate race, who have no one human virtue left, to distinguish them from the vilest creatures? Will you, I say, suffer the lash from such hands? (79) Every effort of Oroonoko to free his clan and other blacks from the slavery in Surinam goes unsuccessful. He pleads for freedom for his family which is postponed and refused. During all this time, the narrator does not take sides with the black slaves and support anti-slavery. But, she takes the side of the colonists in calling Oroonoko her friend but not trusting him. He on the other hand put his complete confidence in her. “…me, in whom he had an entire confidence. After this, I neither thought it convenient to trust him much out of our view, nor did the country, who feared him; …that he should be permitted, as seldom as could be, to go up to the plantations of the negroes; or, if he did, to be accompanied by some that should be rather in appearance attendants than spies” (62). Spying on a friend makes it pretty evident that the narrator does not support anti-slavery, but takes sides with slavery. The efforts of Oroonoko, rechristened Caesar, are in vain and meet inhuman persecution and death at the hands of the colonists. Rather than fearlessly encountering the social institution of slavery, the narrator either remains neutral or sides the Europeans. The narrative voice of the author forms a political and cultural discourse attempting to stereotype the characters either consciously or unconsciously, imperialism and colonial discourse. The text speaks in a colonist voice differentiating and stereotyping the native characters. The white narration clearly stereotypes the natives and creates a sense of ‘otherness’ differentiating them from the mainstream colonists. On the other hand the voice of the hero rebels against slavery and fights for freedom. The dual pairs are employed to refer to the west and the east. For example, the royal slave is treated as a hero as he is civilized having learnt French. But, the rest are barbarians and savages. Similarly, the description of the physical appearance and beauty strictly reflect European aesthetics. Nothing about Oroonoko is African except for the color. His nose is ‘Roman’ too. He is noble and accomplished in all war arts and courtly romance quite different from the rest of the slaves. He is distinguished and could request freedom. The other slaves are marginalized. Oroonoko and Imoinda live in a plantation house but the rest are in insignificant residences. As the narrator says, the royal tag and the useful accomplishments of Oroonoko have a huge say on his treatment before rebellion. However, considering the economic implications, the potential slave to be born to Imoinda cannot be granted freedom. Economic concerns also figure in the narration about the treatment of slaves. It is necessity that calls for whatever little humanness that is shown toward the slaves. The narrator says, “they being on all occasions very useful to us, we find it absolutely necessary to caress em as friends, and not to treat em as slaves, nor dare we do other, their numbers so far surpassing ours in that continent” (Behn, 7). Friendship and comradeship too are considered after being evaluated based on utility. The tone of the narrator takes satisfaction in treating the slaves as friends but only out of fear that they outnumber the whites and might overpower them. Oroonoko with its white narrative voice and the dual perspectives in the narrator and the black hero, is not a complete anti-slavery text. It does portray slavery with its awful cruelty, but when the author’s representation of slaves is looked at closely, a clear Eurocentric attitude becomes evident. There is no strong evidence to support the view that the purpose of depiction is for the cause of fighting against slavery. Literally no efforts are taken to save Oroonoko but fear induces stronger fencing and protection against the slaves considering them as potential threats. Despite having slavery as its theme, a post colonial reading observes contradictions in the voice of narration. The intention of the writer is not to speak for or against slavery but only to depict details and pictures to evoke sympathy and interest in her readers. It voices the silence of the slaves but in the voice of a colonist. Rather than attempting to propagate freedom, it remains silent without questioning the social institution of slavery. It is not the facts but the perspective that takes the novel away from being an anti-slavery text. Work Cited List Primary source: Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko: Or, the Royal Slave. 1688. Adelide: ebooks. 10 Apr. 2009 . Secondary sources: Chernaik, Warren. "Captains and Slaves: Aphra Behn and the Rhetoric of Republicanism." Seventeenth Century 17.1 (2002): 97-100 Laura Brown, "The Romance of Empire: Oroonoko and the Trade in Slaves," in Felicity Nussbaum und Laura Brown, ed. The New Eighteenth Century (London: Methuen, 1987): 42). Moira Ferguson, Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery, 1670-1834, Chapter 2, "Oroonoko: Birth of a Paradigm." New York und London: Routledge, 1992: 27-49. Nestvold, Ruth. “The White Mistress and the Black Slave: Aphra Behn, Racism and the Beginnings of Novelistic Discourse”. The Aphra Behn Page. 21 Nov. 2000. 10 Apr. 2009. < http://www.lit- arts.net/Behn/racism.htm> Pearson, Jacqueline. "Gender and Narrative in the Fiction of Aphra Behn," Review of English Studies 42, 165 and 166 (1991): 188.) Pigg, Daniel. "Trying to frame the unframable: Oroonoko as discourse in Aphra Behns Oroonoko." Studies in Short Fiction 34.1 (1997), 105-111 The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 2009. W. W. Norton and Company. 10 Apr. 2009. Read More