Oroonoko *** by Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn’s Short Biography:

Aphra Behn was an English writer and one of the main important writer woman in literature. She had an important role in society due to the fact that she was the first woman writer to earn her living by writing. There is not a lot of things that we know about her but she knew how to speak more than one language, she had a highly education and she was a spy. Aphra Behn, never got married and didn’t have any child. In fact, there is a high suspicion that she was homosexual. She dies shortly after writing Oroonoko. She was a public woman writer and people in society used to judge her a lot.

Oroonoko’s Analyse:

Oroonoko is a well-known text published in 1688 and one of the most important short novel in literature. Oroonoko is the story about an African prince that loves deeply Imoinda. After a while his father, the King, starts to want Imoinda as well. Imoinda is a beautiful slave, that is eventually sold for Suriname a place which didn’t follow British rules. During the story, an English ship arrives and Oroonoko is invited by the Captain abroad to have some drinks and food. Oroonoko is taken as a prisoner by the Captain after dinner. After the ship arrived, Oroonoko is sold as a slave and had his name changed for Caesar (his slave name). He was sold for a British gentleman that admired Oroonoko as a prince. After a while, Oroonoko figures it out that Imoinda is on the same plantation that he is as slave but with a different name. Imoinda and Oroonoko get reunited and eventually they get back together resulting in Imoinda’s pregnancy. In order to save his child and looking ways for his child not to born as slave, Oroonoko tries to free his family. He didn’t have success trying to free his family as a result his request was denied and when he tried to run away he was caught and hardly beaten. At the end, he decides that he preferred to have his family dead by him than suffer the slowly slavery death. He kills Imoinda and his unborn child. After killing his family, he tried to revenge people that denied his freedom but Oroonoko wasn’t successful on that.