A Tragic Hero

Figure 1: The Cover of Oroonoko

 

It is no secret that the story of Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave by Aphra Behn is a tragic tale. It seems as if at every turn Oroonoko faces a road block, a hurdle that seems impossible to get over and each one becomes even more challenging than the previous. His tale of woe begins with a girl and don’t they all? Oroonoko meets Imoinda, falls madly in love with her and returns to find that his grandfather has taken her for himself. Once the pair reunite, they are forced to separate where Oroonoko returns to his army camp and Imoinda is sent away to be bought as a slave. Soon word reaches Oroonoko that Imoinda has been killed for her actions in regards to her affair with Oroonoko. Just when things can’t seem to get any worse, they of course do. Oroonoko comes aboard a ship under the pretense that he is just having dinner, visiting, but is soon taken against his will and sold into slavery. There is an upside to this rather depressing state, he is once again reunited with his beloved Imoinda, but his impatience and desires lead ultimately to Imoinda’s downfall and shortly afterwards his own. For these reasons, Oroonoko is fatally flawed, his choices bring about his spiral into defeat and eventually demise. Oroonoko is a tragic hero.

 Oroonoko’s poor decisions, ultimately, do not start effecting him until it comes time for him to aboard the captain’s ship. What seemed like a night of wine, merriment and pleasure soon turned into a nightmare for Oroonoko and his men. The captain enslaves the men by getting them drunk and shackling them to the floors. This act of deviance shows that the captain cannot be trusted, that he is a bad man who is sneaky and is motivated by greed. Nonetheless, when the captain realizes that Oroonoko’s men are taking his lead by starving themselves, he realizes he must tread lightly and convince Oroonoko that this was all just one big misunderstanding. This is where Oroonoko’s first really poor decision comes into play. Oroonoko, despite the cruel treatment he has undergone, decides to trust the captain and convinces his men to follow his lead in obeying the captain’s orders. Oroonoko was convinced he could believe this man because “Oroonoko, whose honor was such as he never had violated a word in his life himself, much less a solemn asseveration, believed in an instant what this man said” (Behn 112). Oroonoko had never given his word before only to go back on it and because he has never done so he believed that other men could not, would not either. Oroonoko clearly felt that when you gave your word, you would follow through and there was no going back on it, almost like it was a sin. This would also explain his devotion to Imoinda because he promised her forever and that she’d be the only woman for him. Now that the captain has won over Oroonoko’s trust the captain wants Oroonoko to be a role model for his crew and convince them to obey him. Behn describes Oroonoko as “too generous” (Behn 113) to not follow through with his promise to rouse the crew as well and so he makes himself a presence to his people. The usage of the word “generous” here fells entirely out of place, like it couldn’t even belong in such a situation if it tried. When you are being forced to do something, you do not do it out of “generosity”. When you have been held against your will, treated poorly and been forced to play mind games, you would not be in a “generous” mode. Anything you did would not come from a place of “generosity”, it would come from a place of anger or a way to show some type of control still reachable. As expected, the captain does not release Oroonoko or his men and sells them as slaves.



Figure 2: This would be Oroonoko and his men. chained.

 

When Oroonoko is bought by Trefry he immediately tells him of the misfortune that has befallen on him. He explains that he is a prince and can’t possibly be a slave. Once again, Oroonoko is far too trusting, this time with slightly different reasons. Oroonoko believed that Trefry would be his friend, a man who bought slaves and had just bought him. He mistook his intelligence, etiquette and accomplishments for more than they were worth. Oroonoko mistook these traits to mean honor, “he (Trefry) promised him on his word and honor he would find the means to re-conduct him to his own country again; assuring him, he had a perfect abhorrence of so dishonorable an action, and that he would sooner have died than have been the author of such a perfidy” (Behn 115). This shows that Oroonoko has again trusted the honor, the word of a man against better judgment. He has not learned that some people give their word and it means nothing. As we see the story progress, it becomes apparent that Trefry does not plan to make good on his word.

Oroonoko’s downfall gains speed when he reunites with Imoinda and impregnates her. He is now even more desperate for release as he does not want his child to be born into slavery. The more and more he petitions his freedom the more it becomes clear to him that he will never see that freedom. He becomes doubtful of everyone and plans to retaliate, to make them release him and his family. He tells Behn that “he would act nothing upon the white people” (Behn 119), although this is not the case either. He is extremely paranoid, impatient and angry. He is determined to do something to change his child’s fate and that he does. He makes friends with the other slaves, he dines with them, plays with them and sympathizes, empathizes with them. He earns their trust until they think of him as a king. He manages to rally them into causing an uprising and the response is unanimous, “Caesar has spoke like a great captain, like a great king” (Behn 126). They will uprise and win their freedom. This choice, to go head to head with the man, is the first nail in the coffin. To take action against his captors, he is putting all that he loves and his men’s lives at risk. He is declaring himself an enemy to them and an enemy gets even less respect than a prisoner does, which he no longer wants to be.

 When the uprising is put down Oroonoko is furious and vows again to have his revenge. This time the target is Byam, who lied to him, betrayed him and punished him. Oroonoko is going to take matters into his own hands again rather than leaving well enough alone, rather than being patient and dealing with his mistake.  He devises a plan to kill Byam and then himself. After weighing the options of what would become of his darling Imoinda, he revises his plan to include killing her as well to save her from being raped, beaten and sold around. Impatience gets the better of him and he wants to set his plan in motion, but he first needs to tell Imoinda. Trusting her husband’s judgment and seeing the aspect of protection in it, she agrees that such an act must be done. She pleads with him to kill her now, “besought him not to leave her a prey to his enemies” (Behn 131) and so he kills her. Now that she is gone, Oroonoko doesn’t have the juice to fulfill his plan. He is overcome by grief and cannot carry out the second and third step. He just lays down next to her body, only to be discovered later and killed brutally.



Figure 3: Oroonoko killing Imoinda

In an article entitled, “Oroonoko:The Tragic Hero” written by Jonathan Dely, we can further understand why Oroonoko would be considered a tragic hero. Dely describes Oroonoko’s situation (the revenge he seeks and the way he brings death upon himself) perfectly “This longed-for revenge is Caesar’s last attempt at defeating slavery in the novel, albeit in some removed form, yet even so, he is unable to carry out his revenge plot, instead moved to kill his wife – who asks to die by his hand instead of live in chains – along with his unborn child, before stabbing himself to death. In this way, Oroonoko most excruciatingly and tragically fails to fulfill the epic heroism expected of him and instead assumes the role of the tragic hero” (Dely). With this quote, Dely is trying to say is that Oroonoko fits the role of a hero as he once was when he was fighting wars rather than fighting slavery, but now Oroonoko can’t fight the situation he is in. He cannot get free of the chains that bind him and his persistence to do so only brings about his downfall. He is considered a hero, but where it counts he cannot save himself or his family. He is fatally flawed and cannot assume another role, other than being the tragic hero.

Figure 4: Tragic Hero Diagram

 

Oroonoko is a tragic hero. He spends his short life making decisions that ultimately cost him everything. He too often trusts the word of another, believing that giving your word meant you were honorable and that honor meant good nature and intent to do what is right or promised. Oroonoko also lets his impatience get the better of him causing him to act irrationally and make decisions that put his and his family’s lives in peril. He demonstrates his fatal flaw, his eagerness to get revenge, time and time again leading him to an untimely and brutal death. His hubris in being a prince, a war hero, a better man than the others, leads him to make rash decisions such as uprising in order to win freedom and killing his wife in order to spare her suffering. Oroonoko is referred in the beginning of the reading to have been a hero and due to the fact that his actions destroy him and all that he holds dear, I would be inclined to say that he is not just any hero, he is a tragic one.
 

Works Cited

 



Dely, Jonathan. "ENG 359: The Origins of Literary Modernity." ENG 359 The Origins of Literary Modernity. Wordpress, 13 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://sites.williams.edu/engl359-f14/uncategorized/oroonoko-the-tragic-hero/>.

First Edition Cover of Oroonoko. Figure 1

"Oroonoko." / Aphra Behn. EBooks@Adelaide, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.

Oroonoko , 1735. Figure 3

Tragic Hero Picture Slideshow. Figure 4

Rare Photograph of Slaves While Still in Africa. 2012. By Fritz Zimmerman. Figure 2