The Other Problem With Women In Aphra Behn's Oroonoko

The understanding of the life of a slave woman is far beyond the knowledge of you or I, unless you have actually been an enslaved woman. These literary elements depicting the passage from this story are the only

Traditionally, men are viewed as strong, dominant and logical, while women are regarded as the weak sex, thus being dependent on the males to make decisions and to protect them as well as their children. These roles go far back in time when males in fact had to protect their families from other tribes, wild animals etc. Even today the same values are applied both in real life and in media. In general a woman is depicted as wife, mother or a sex object. (Sex, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation”, Year unknown).

The slave owner’s exploitation of the black woman’s sexuality was one of the most significant factors differentiating the experience of slavery for males and females. The white man’s claim to the slave body, male as well as female, was inherent in the concept of the Slave Trade and was tangibly realized perhaps no where more than the auction block. Captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones of such scenes were particularly pronounced in the case of black women. Throughout the period of slavery in America, white society believed black women to be innately lustful beings. The perception of the African woman as hyper-sexual made her both the object of white man’s abhorrence and his fantasy. Within the bonds of slavery, masters often felt it was their right to engage in sexual activity with black women. Sometimes, female slaves made advances hoping that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master. Most of the time, slave owners took slaves by force.

Throughout history, slaves have been treated like animals and thought of as property, not human beings. Even Oroonoko, a handsome, statuesque prince is turned into a slave because of his race, and is degraded and mistreated. To racist slave owners, the horrible treatment of Africans was acceptable because they were a different species, and no amount of education or beauty could save them. Behn shows how unjust and brutal slavery is in Oroonoko. The treatment of slaves is comparable to the treatment of the poor, as both have few rights, and both are unjustly judged and mistreated based on social status.

The claim of women as property to men displays how in both time periods, gender inequality influences how women are not treated as a human, but rather an object to men whether it is a husband or even a father.

White explores the master’s sexual exploitation of their female slaves, and proves this method of oppression to be the defining factor of what sets the female slaves apart from their male counterparts. Citing former slaves White writes, “Christopher Nichols, an escaped slave living in Canada, remembered how his master laid a woman on a bench, threw her clothes over her head, and whipped her. The whipping of a thirteen-year-old Georgia slave girl also had sexual overtones. The girl was put on all fours ‘sometimes her head down, and sometimes up’ and beaten until froth ran from her mouth (33).” The girl’s forced bodily position as well as her total helplessness to stop her master’s torture blatantly reveals the forced sexual trauma many African females endured.

Since the dawn of early civilisation and subsequent traditional gender roles, one of the most prominent issues with which society struggles is gender inequality. The Book of Negroes illustrates Aminata’s worries as she is provided only one option: to entertain men with her body. “...I wondered how I would earn enough for food, clothes and repairs for my shelter. ‘What?’ Sam said. ‘You think rebels don’t have brothels? As long as there are fighting men, there will be work for girls like Rosetta - and work for you as well.’” (Hill 312) British soldiers and American rebels both sexualised the bodies of black women to the point of encouraging the prostitution of young girls. In a similar context, a 2008 study conducted by researchers from Wesleyan

Slavery for many was a time of despair and anguish, it felt like hell not only by the heat of the sun, but, by the treatment many received from their owners as well. Despite written almost 100 years apart, two of the most famous and well known slave narratives that give the modern day reader just an idea of what slavery was like are, Aphra Behn’s “Oroonoko, or, The Royal Slave” and Olaudah Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”. The journey of these two young men, although in many ways are similar, from a larger perspective could not be more different. For Oroonoko a somewhat established young man who comes from royalty, optimizes what it means to be a noble savage. As for a young Equiano who seems to spend most of his childhood in slavery, must find a way to overcome the hand he has been dealt and work hard to earn his freedom. Throughout both of these stories there are similarities and there are differences as well. Some of the most interesting aspects that might stand out to the reader are, the aspect of slavery and or the lack of it, suicide and how both characters go about it in their own way and points of view and how the reader is influenced by it.

Oroonoko, the story of the royal prince. Oroonoko was a beautiful and well educated African American prince. He ends up getting forced into slavery. While he is enslaved, he ends up being reunited with his lost love, Imoinda. The two of them become with child. Oroonoko did not want his family to be enslaved, he orchestrated an escape plan. When his plan failed, he took matters in his own hands.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

This perception of women has resulted in the inequality between the genders as men refuse to give any sort of power to woman in fear of being deceived. The tone exhibited by Iago emphasises the negative connotation and degrading of women as perceived by Iago. Another example of gender inequality is Iago’s derogatory perception of women. He states, ‘They are lazy around the house except that they are active in their bed’. The quote suggests that women are like prostitutes. The derogative comparison of all women to prostitutes supports the discriminations based on sex.

When in the presence of the woman Romana trying to attack him, Condé writes, “He was about to throw himself on her, knock her down, kill her perhaps, when a voice reminded him of his difficulties in the Ashanti kingdom after the rape of Ayaovi. What would happen if he now committed murder? (Condé 265).” In two ways here, Malobali has grown up. First he realizes that all his actions have consequences and that he must realize them before making unwise decisions. In realizing this, Malobali represents Africans evolving as a whole to recognize that they must work together as a people. Secondly, Malobali realizes that Women are people too who can be reasoned with and respected rather than literally beat into submission. On a grand scale, Malobali’s second revelation represents a change in attitude toward women by African people. Still, more important is Malobali’s evolution in the context of the African Slave Trade.

The native women in "Ooronoko" are extremely bashful and modest. Strangely, the men are allowed to have more than one wife, and they're all his servants. I personally feel that the women in this story aren't represented well at all. My reasoning is because the women, whether white or black, have less power than the men, and the female slaves have even less power. When Oroonoko leads the slaves to freedom, the women aren't consulted, but they're expected to follow wherever they are led to go. The white women, the narrator's mother and sister for example, have some influence, but aren't consulted when important decisions are made. Especially when the men feel like their opinion will be different from their own. This is quite obvious because of

This leads to Oroonoko killing her by "first cutting her throat, and then severing her yet smiling face from that delicate body, pregnant as it was with the fruits of tenderest love." (Behn, Oroonoko 218). Thereby, Imoinda's loss of identity is complete: She has lost her agency, her name, her life and even her face has been torn off. She suffered all these brutalities by the hands of men who either wanted to possess her or claimed to love her (in Oroonoko's case both). The narrative ends with her as the narrator states: "Yet, I hope, the reputation of my pen is considerable enough to make his glorious name to survive to all ages, with that of the brave, the beautiful, and the constant Imoinda" (Behn, Oroonoko 224). This leaves the reader with the idea of Imoinda rather than the person presented towards at the end of the narrative whose face was torn

There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders" (Achebe 87). With the festivals, held in the public places, men presided and took the seats of honor in front. Women were forced to stand at the edges and look on from there because they simply weren't as important. It was the men who held the courts of justice and decided on punishment. Also, throughout the book, Achebe emphasizes the women's role in childbearing and their fault if the children are not born healthy. "Nneka has had four previous pregnancies and childbirths. But each time she had borne twins, and they had been immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were already becoming highly critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found she had fled to join the Christians. It was a good riddance" (Achebe 151). Because Nneka could no longer fulfill her role as a mother in Ibo society, she was no longer respected. She was not valued for her intelligence or her personality. She was valued by whether or not she could produce healthy children. Because she couldn't, she no longer had a place in her society.