1. Unlike the narrator of Fantomina, the narrator of Oroonoko puts herself in the story. What do you learn about her from her narration? What details about her life, values, or personality emerge?
2. Oroonoko becomes Caesar when he is purchased by Mr. Trefry. What (if anything) is significant about this name change?
3. The subtitle of this novel is "The Royal Slave," an oxymoron. To what ends does Behn yoke together the notions of royalty and servitude?
4. What leadership qualities does Behn ascribe to Oroonoko? How does he display his royalty?
5. What in the depiction of Surinam leads you to believe that Behn might or might not have actually been there? What details seem authentic--or not?
Deadline: Friday (4/15), start of class.
11 comments:
The slave name given to Oroonoko by Trefry when he arrives in Surinam could be an allusion to Julius Caesar, the Roman emperor who was murdered by his “friends.” The name also displays Oroonoko as a royal and mighty leader. Furthermore, upon his arrival in Surinam, Oroonoko finds himself separated from the African's he was taken hostage with on the slave ship, now he finds himself alienated from his race.
To go along with Vivian, when Oroonoko arrives on the plantations, he is treated differently than the other slaves. He gets his own strip of land and a house. Even the slaves who he took from battles and sold as slaves fall at his feet and call him a king.
Julius Caesar was also betrayed by his friends, and so the name foreshadows the fate of Oroonoko, who is betrayed by the people who promised to set him free.
I agree with the previous comments. The reason that Oroonoko was given the name of of Caesar while on the plantation is a reference to Julius who was betrayed by the people that he considered his friends. I believe I read somewhere that Caesar was stabbed in the back literally and one of the person that had betrayed him was Brutus to which he said "Et tu, Brute" which is translated to even you Brutus. The name Caesar foreshadows that the same will happen to Oroonoko. He is betrayed by the people that he considered most closest to him. At the beginning Oroonoko is treated like royalty, but that is only to keep him under restraints. He commands great respect even from the people that he has conquered and sold off to slavery. When Oroonoko becomes to much of a problem he is betrayed even by the slaves that he attempted to help gain freedom. Not only that but when he is captured, the people that he once trusted are the same people that order for him to be whipped. The only reason that they did not whip the women he loved, was not out of respect, but because they feared that they would another slave if they did that. Oroonoko was maintained happy, until he became too much of a problem for the white masters and they had to betrayed him. Of course this was planned from the beginning, under no circumstances would they ever allow him to escape being a slave. They only stalled enough so that he would never be able to leave, when he led other slaves against the whites, they knew that he could no longer be lied to and had to be punished like any other common slave.
Like others have stated, the reference to Caesar is because Oroonoko believed several times that he would be set free, and that those who killed him were his friends that could be trusted. Of course, this was not the case, as he did end up being killed by these so called "friends" , just like Julius Caesar was.
"The Royal Slave" is such an oxymoron- but it makes sense. Ornoonoko is treated like absolute royalty when first arriving- he was not made to lift a thing due to his beautiful appearance, high social status and clearly good education. He is allowed to live in the plantation house as though he is not a slave at all. He is still enslaved, however, and although he is constantly assured he will be allowed freedom, it never comes.
There is nothing in Oroonoko that stands out as tangible proof of Behn having been to Surinam. The popularity of the travel narrative during this period is such that it is entirely possible that Behn simply picked up descriptive facets from other writers who actually went to exotic lands.
In response to the first question, I feel that, because the narrator is set within the story, many of her personal biases come out that might not have come out in a story like Fantomina. Oroonoko, even in the way he is described, is largely seen through this Western lens by an Western individual. Most things in the story are colored by this, and lacking in that objective third person knowledge.
Behn links together the notions of royalty and slavery to make her point that heritage means a lot. Even when Oroonoko is sold, he still acts like a prince, despite having his name and homeland taken from him. Even his master agrees that he deserves some respect by giving him the name Caesar, the name of a King, a conqueror who was stabbed in the back by his own people. I think that in linking the ideas of King and Slave Behn points out that Oroonoko has not become less of a prince in his actions, despite the fact that he has become a slave according to the rest of the world.
2. Oroonokoo becomes Caesar when he is purchased by Mr. Trefry, mainly because like previously mentioned in the blog that Oroonoko thought that he would be set free. When he arrived on the plantations he was treated very different from the others on the same plantation. Although, he took slaves and sold them they still were praising him and referring to him as a royal leader (king). Hence, the importance of the name change comes from the concept that these so called "friends," the ones who he thought he could trust killed him. Similarly, to what happened to Julius Caesar when he was betrayed by his friends.
3. I agree with the subtitle of this novel is "The Royal Slave," an oxymoron because when Oroonoko arrives on this plantation he is not at all treated as he is a slave. He is really treated like this royal leader mainly because he had a great educational background, was of great appearence and of course was of higher social class.
Responding to nimber 3, Behn links Oroonoko's royalty and servitude very well. Even when he is a slave, the white people know and realize he is different. They respect him and treat him much differently than the other slaves. He does not do barely any of the work. The white people listen to him when he speaks. The one other interesting part is that Oroonoko does not try and make other people see him as a prince, but rather tells them they are no equal slaves in this new land.
The Royal Slave is such an oxymoron. I think Behn shows this oxymoron perfectly when when Oroonoko is placed on a ship and is being shackled. She repeatedly refers to him as "the Prince" and described resenting indignities while also "struggling for liberty." Obviously, referencing a slave being shackled and still describing him as a Prince poses this oxymoron to readers and also calls into question the inhumane treatment of other humans.
Whether or not Behn herself purposefully posed this question to readers can be argued, but it is pretty obvious that Royal and Slave are words that do not exactly belong together.
1. By placing herself in the story, Aphra Behn places her values front and center. For instance, it is obvious that Behn values the European modes of propriety because she does so heavily compare Oroonoko in glowingly European terms. Also she values European feminine traits, as evidenced be her insistence that despite her origins, Imoinda is in fact a very "modest" and proper young woman.
It is apparent that Behn's European values are in contrast with her own code of morality because she does not seem to buy into the typical justifications for slavery. By making Oroonoko as noble as she makes him, she calls into question Western notions of their innate superiority over the people they've enslaved. While she doesn't go so far as to be completely abolitionist in her writings by roundly condemning slavery, she does question the foundations of the system.
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