In: Psychology
Some scholars read Oroonoko as an anti-slavery narrative, while others see that theme as secondary to the book's attempt to vindicate European monarchy. Behn herself was a noted Royalist who served as a spy for King Charles. In your own estimation, is Oroonoko an anti-slavery book or a royalist narrative? Both? Why, or why not?
A richly evocative tale, Oroonoko is not, of course, straight political allegory, and the fictional character of the slave prince is far more than a portrayal of King James II. As a text, Oroonoko is complex, clashing in styles and full of tensions and contradictions.Genres mix in this slippery text: romance and fantasy collide with violent episodes; reality and heroics jostle; and tragedy can veer suddenly into farce. At the beginning of her career, when attacked by critics as an uneducated woman, Behn had claimed that writing plays was not especially difficult and that she was as fully capable of doing so as any man. By the end of her theatrical career, she had a keen sense of her abilities and wanted her work to last. In the preface to a play staged in 1686 she wrote ‘I value fame as much as if I had been born a hero’. Oroonoko was written just before her death in 1689, when she was at the height of her powers. She ended it with the boast, ‘I hope the reputation of my pen is considerable enough to make his glorious name to survive to all ages’. She would have relished the fame that Oroonoko is bringing her in the 21st century.