204 Behn, Aphra
titular character of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is an aris-
tocratic hero trapped in a capitalist plot; at the same
time, he is also the hero of a romance adventure. The
novella describes the plight of Oroonoko when he is
separated from Imoinda, the woman to whom he is
betrothed and with whom his grandfather, the king
of Coramantien, is also in love. The two are later
reunited in the English slave colony of Surinam,
Imoinda having been sold into slavery by the king
and Oroonoko having been betrayed into slavery by
an English sea captain.
After he is transported to Surinam, Oroonoko
unsuccessfully tries to disguise himself by begging
the English gentleman who has purchased him,
John Trefrey, to give him clothes more befitting a
slave. Nevertheless, on arrival at Trefrey’s planta-
tion, Oroonoko is unable to hide his nobility; he
is greeted and worshipped by the other slaves, and
his aristocratic magnanimity is physically visible in
spite of the rags he wears. The subtitle of Behn’s
novella (The Royal Slave) is a paradox which further
alerts the reader to the fact that a change of place
and outward circumstances cannot alter the fact of
Oroonoko’s inherent honor and nobility.
Because of his physical beauty, regal bearing,
civilized manners, intellectual prowess, and ability
to speak English, Oroonoko is treated with unusual
distinction and respect by many of the English colo-
nists. Notably, the reader never sees him engaged in
slave labor. As befits an epic hero, much of his time
is instead devoted to performing such gentlemanly
activities as eel grabbing, tiger hunting, and saving
the narrator’s life. Oroonoko can additionally be
seen to take on many of the aristocratic values of
Restoration England: gentility, physical prowess,
and adherence to a strict code of love and honor.
The narrator repeatedly speaks of his greatness of
soul and proclaims him to be an expert captain. In
the account of Oroonoko and Imoinda’s courtship in
Africa, it is also made clear that the prince practices
the old social forms of romance, where true love is
preeminently valued and held up for veneration.
Oroonoko’s court in Coramantien is a world
in which noble virtues such as loyalty and honesty
are heavily prized. Vows are especially important to
Oroonoko; the reader is told he has never violated a
word in his life. This is in complete contrast to the
sea captain who twice deceives Oroonoko: first by
luring the prince onto his ship so that he can seize
Oroonoko and his men, and later by breaking his
promise to release the captured when they reach
land if Oroonoko will agree to eat. Similarly, after
leading an unsuccessful slave revolt, Oroonoko is
betrayed and enslaved by the deputy governor of the
Surinam plantation, William Byam, who appeals to
his honor and drafts an article of peace before hav-
ing the slave whipped and pepper rubbed into his
wounds.
The idea of heroism is most forcefully conveyed
by Behn in the scene of Oroonoko’s brutal death.
The narrator recalls how, during his execution,
Oroonoko stoicly endures the pain of his dismem-
berment while smoking a pipe. Similarly, Imoinda’s
death is romanticized earlier in the narrative. Con-
cerned that his and Imoinda’s unborn child will be
born into slavery and preferring his family to die
rather than live as slaves, Oroonoko escapes to the
jungle, where he kills the pregnant Imoinda by his
own hand. Imoinda bravely and serenely accepts her
fate, making clear her preference for death over
living without her husband. Her murder is also a
plot device engineered to facilitate the tale’s proper
conclusion: the tragic downfall of the novella’s hero.
While Oroonoko undoubtedly presents the prince
as the hero of the story, Behn portrays Oroonoko’s
heroism in a striking fashion. For Behn, the institu-
tion of slavery itself is not something that Oroo-
noko is fighting. Rather, he is protesting the slavery
specifically of him and his wife. Indeed, it is made
clear that in his past Oroonoko was a slave trader in
Coramantien. Nevertheless, the novella is written
in such a way as to invite the reader to juxtapose
the prince against the Europeans—figures in whom
the aristocratic values that Oroonoko symbolizes
(honesty and loyalty) are sorely absent. The result of
this juxtaposing is that Oroonoko firmly emerges as
the tragic hero of the tale—one who functions ulti-
mately to challenge Western notions of superiority
prevalent in the culture of Behn’s time.
Victoria E. Pricerace in Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave
Presenting the story of an African prince who is
tricked into slavery, Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is intri-