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Aphra Behn's Oroonoko as the First Modern Novel Essay

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During the seventeenth century, the art of writing was like uncharted waters for women, in which most who ventured were rendered pathetically unsuccessful. No matter the quality, publications written by women were typically ridiculed by their male contenders. However, a handful of women defied the common standards and were prosperous; one of these was Aprha Behn. Virgina Wolf says of Behn, "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Although she was a woman of outstanding accomplishments, one of her publications truly glistens. Oroonoko (1688), the epic tale of a heroic black slave, has often been dubbed the first modern novel in that …show more content…

His face was not that of brown, rusty black which most of that nation are, but a perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of them being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth, the finest shape that could be seen; far from those great turned lips that were natural to most Negroes. (Behn 80-81)

Furthermore, the female narrator present is yet another uncanny character in Oroonoko because influencial women were not typically presented in literature in the seventeenth century. Janet Todd describes the narrator as, "a watcher and a listener, a recipient of gossip and news, commonsensical in her comments, but not omniscient and not able to deliver poetic justice in a place of real life-happening or to provide a simple and single version of people and events" (19). Likewise, great care is taken to focus on a specific location in which the tale takes place. It is clearly stated that the novel takes place "in a colony in America, called Surinam, in the West Indies" (Behn 75). The story goes on to examine the place of the main character's birth, Coramantien. Thus, Aphra Behn demonstrates particularity in her concise depiction of characters and their environments.

The theme is a major component of a novel. Not only does it gives the work purpose, it also produces concert and unanimity. Paul Hunter says, "The

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