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Oroonoko's royalty shines through to most of the people he comes into contact with. He is held in admiration and is also feared because of it by the slave owners and others in Surinam . Some people though view Oroonoko's royalty as a European based one and not at all concerned with his African heritage. Many people point to how Oroonoko is described in ways fitting a European in appearance and in learning as evidence that Oroonoko represents a European based royalty. Anita Pacheco says that it allows Behn's audience to identify with Oroonoko: “This double-edged strategy, which endows the African with human stature while simultaneously assuming that human stature is by definition European, makes it possible for a text to establish identification with the “Other” while at the same time remaining complacently European” (Pacheco 1). In a sense this says the only way some people could identify with Oroonoko is by giving him European qualities that others could look at and admire. This in effect can be seen as racist in that it has no understanding or acceptance of things that are different or not based in the society of the author's. This can come back to argue the point made by Hughes. It could also be a way by which the author gives an audience completely ignorant of foreign cultures and people a way to connect that might not otherwise be there and to also show that Oroonoko is a noble person.
Others see Oroonoko's royalty as Behn's support for the Stuart dynasty and also for monarchy in general. Elliot Visconsi in his article says that Oroonoko shows Behn's support for monarchy, and monarchy's role in protecting society from its own barbaric inclinations. Visconsi says: “Behn uses the colonies as spaces of historical description to point out two crucial facts for her Restoration audience: first, the national civilizing process is fragile and tenuous; and second, the lack of disciplined absolutist government in the colonies is reactivating barbaric tendencies which the nation has only recently overcome” (Visconsi 2). Visconsi views Oroonoko as a form of publicity for monarchy: “…both Behn's tragicomic Widow Ranter and the novella Oroonoko rely on the affective force of the tragic plot as a medium of political education, mobilizing the fear, pity, and anxiety of the reader to promote absolute monarchy as the only defense against the latent barbarism of the English race” (Visconsi 3). Instead of the noble savage that is so often talked about, here we have the English savage. Let loose without any authority figure, like a king, the English have returned to savages themselves and are without the nobility of the Africans they have enslaved or the Native Americans they are oppressing in the colonies. Both Africans and Native Americans are shown in the story has not having any real falsity or brutal tendencies like the English. The English as slave owners are cruel in their treatment of others and this is shown in the murder of Oroonoko. Monarchy is seen as a way to stop the spread of barbarism and bring the world back into order according to the interpretation of Visconsi. Visonsi says what Oroonoko's role in this is: “Oroonoko's aestheticized , graceful kingship is useful as a propagandistic representation of absolutist paternalism…” (Visconsi 7). This is one of the reasons Oroonoko must be royal.
Another way to look at Oroonoko is as a symbol. Daniel Pigg says Oroonoko is not just a character in the novel: “Thus on the fictive level, Oroonoko the character merges with the world view he narrates. He becomes synonymous with the action and thought processes which he embodies” (Pigg 3). Since the story is Oroonoko's according to Pigg then the world he creates shows what he believes to be right or wrong. Oroonoko's love of honor and loyalty show that he cares deeply about these things and he in effect becomes a symbol of them. Oroonoko also condemns dishonesty and treachery, two things that have gotten him into the position of slavery. Oroonoko is a kind of moral guide for some, even though many would see his actions as not always living up to his ideals. These actions include his own involvement with the slave trade and his position as a warrior who conquers and kills others and leads a revolt at the end of the novel which will cost him his life.
Oroonoko's position as a royal African influences how others see him in the story and also how others look at the story and draw conclusions from it. There are many different positions to different issues, all of them having valid points or examples to back up their claims. It can come down to how people interpret the story or actions in the book. Positions on these issues can also come down to what the society Behn wrote in was like, if it is taken into account or not, and how that society viewed things like race and slavery and how Behn was influenced by them or wrote her story as a way to educate or influence those beliefs. Behn's Oroonoko continues to be a book that divides readers of the novel on important issues and Behn's stance on those issues.
Bibliography
Chernaik, Warren. “Captains and Slaves: Aphra Behn and the Rhetoric of Republicanism,”
Seventeenth Century, spring 2002, vol. 17, issue 1.
Hughes, Derek. “Race, Gender, and Scholarly Practice: Aphra Behn's Oroonoko ” Essays in Criticism
Oxford University Press,January 2002, Vol.LII, No. 1.
Pacheco, Anita. “Royalism And Honor In Aphra Behn's Oroonoko” Studies in English Literature ,
Summer 1994, Vol. 34, Issue 3.
Pigg, Daniel. “Trying To Frame The Unframable' Oroonoko As Discourse In Aphra Behn's Oroonoko”
Studies in Short Fiction , January 1, 1997, Vol. 34, Issue 1.
Visconsi, Elliot. “A Degenerate Race: English Barbarism in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko and The Widow
Ranter” The John Hopkins University Press, 2002.
To download a Microsoft Word™ version of the paper, use this link -> Oroonoko.doc