Oroonoko's Love for Imoinda

Keels English 2004 01 November 2017 Oroonoko & Imoinda Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave narrates the story of an African prince who went through many trials and tribulations to be with his love Imoinda. After the death of the general; Imoinda’s father and Oroonoko’s foster father, the two of them fall in love at first sight. They are subsequently separated when Imoinda accepts a gift of marriage from an old king, Oroonoko’s grandfather. Later, Imoinda is sold into slavery after the old king learns that

Yet, there stands a largely pregnant Imoinda “press[ed] near her Lord, having a Bow and a Quiver full of poisoned Arrows, which she managed with such dexterity, that she wounded several, and shot the Governor in the Shoulder” (64-65). Her slave name is given to be Clemene, yet unlike Oroonoko’s Caesar, Imoinda is rarely referred to as such; she becomes her own person rather than the English slavers property. Through all the strengths that she conveys, Imoinda is still portrayed as similar to her

as beautiful people who possess a pure, innocent love.  Behn does this in an effort to make her readers feel and question.  Her poetic description of their emotions magnify the horror of the final scene.  Behn's romantic love story is brought to a tragic end through brutality and death.  Why did she choose such an ending?  Her decision to have Oroonoko take the life of his wife and unborn child leaves her audience questioning.  Was what they had love?  If not, what was it?  What had killed their innocence

Imoinda is the only female character that receives some attention from the narrator. Imoinda is Oroonoko's lover and eventually his wife. She has very little power in the narrative since she is part of two repressed groups (slave and woman) (Ibbotson). She is praised by the narrator for her beauty and her loyalty. These are the traits that make her special but also responsible for the fact that she has little influence over what happens to her. Beauty makes her desirable for men regardless of whether

values are betrayed which exposes him to the treachery of Europeans. Showing his honor of the late general, Oroonoko pays his respects to Imoinda, the old general’s daughter. He presents her with slaves captured in her father’s latest battle as a token of his defeats. Almost instantly, Oroonoko and Imoinda share a mutual feelings and fall in love with one another. Imoinda, also one of a kind individual like Oroonoko, is described as beautiful and

Behn also shifts between travel narratives of the events taken place abroad the journey through the Middle Passage to Surinam, West Indies, and biography of Oroonoko’s noble characteristics. In the early events, it is evident that Behn thinks highly of Oroonoko and they share a trusted companionship. Behn heavily emphasizes on how Oroonoko’s trust in honorable truth is constantly turned against him thus leading him into slavery. The novel begins with the author portraying the original natives as

The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Oroonoko by Aphra Behn both have a love story in their writings. Hamlet is drawn to Ophelia’s beauty, while Oroonoko is attracted to Imoinda. Throughout both writings, we begin to notice that there are many differences in each of the characters and how their personalities begin to alter based on their past experiences. Hamlet’s father was killed and his mother married his uncle, whom later became King. Oroonoko was the last of a royal family, but later was

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko is a tale of an African prince and victorious general, Oroonoko, who loses his heart to the lovely Imoinda. First published in the year 1688 when African slavery through the barbaric trans-Atlantic slave business became established as an economic, transcontinental system. This tale draws on the popular literary themes of aristocratic romance, social censure and travel narrative. It indicates a few ways in which the British were starting to view cultural and racial differences

a Christ-like figure to all during his dismemberment, but Oroonoko was stronger and braver, but sadly his status as Prince and slave contradicted his own execution. Upon arriving in Surinam, Oroonoko is sold to Trefry. Trefry gains knowledge of Oroonoko’s higher status than all slaves, but not as Prince and General of his country in Coramantien, “Trefry soon found he was yet something greater than he confessed; and from that moment began to conceive so vast an esteem for him that he ever after loved

As Europeans discovered other cultures during the Age of Exploration, travelers returned with knowledge of new religious, political, and economic systems. Aphra Behn’s seventeenth-century travel narrative, Oroonoko, describes the life of Oroonoko, an African prince and slave in Surinam, while contrasting the cruelty of the Europeans with the morality of the Africans and natives of Surinam. Thomas More’s sixteenth-century Utopia displays his subtle criticism of English society behind the words of