European Superiority in Oroonoko  

Throughout Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, we can see the comparison between European and African culture occurring in many places. In a majority of the imagery, Behn's attitudes can be seen behind the text weighing heavily toward portraying European characteristics as socially more admirable.

Oroonoko's introduction acquaints us with a person so refined in every way as to be almost god-like. Every feature of this great warrior-prince is shown in detail to be the most beautiful one could hope to behold. The narrator says,"...he was adored as the wonder of all that world, and a darling of the soldiers." (1869) He is even said to have,"...a native beauty so transcending all those of his gloomy race that he struck an awe and reverence even in those that knew not his quality;..." (1870) Clearly, this is the description of a person destined for greatness. Oroonoko, throughout his adventures, lives by these very features. After Oroonoko becomes sold as a slave, for example, he becomes a friend of the narrator and the overseer in the New World through virtue of his obvious quality. The overseer (Trefry), after finding out that Oroonoko was a Prince, says:

...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 him as his dearest brother, and showed

him all the civilities due to so great a man.

(1888)

Oroonoko the man has a kind of bearing which distinguishes himself from all ordinary men.

This natural charisma, though, proceeds from another source than his upbringing. In describing the character of Oroonoko, Behn, through the narrator, says something important about the aesthetic idea of beauty in her society. On one level, the fact that a male from such a different society could be so handsome as to transcend cultural boundaries demystifies a small part of the African continent for the English readers. The fact that Oroonoko's color is black is balanced by the ways in which the narrator describes his features:

His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African

and flat; his mouth the finest shape that

could be seen, far from those great turned lips

which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes.

The whole proportion and air of his face was so

noble...that, bating his color, there could be

nothing in nature more beautiful... (1871)

Here, the narrator judges Oroonoko by European standards of beauty. To make the reading audience identify with Oroonoko to a greater extent, the modifying of the features accredited a sense of authenticity and reality to the story. If bad things happen to a regular Negro, the feelings are not stirred nearly as much as if that particular Negro looked fairly like oneself. Although the admiration of the Prince is still valid, it only serves to reinforce the cultural centricity of the white European being the pinnacle of human evolution.

Behn could have written Oroonoko's description for several reasons. On one hand, we could dismiss it as cultural naiveté on the part of the author. The sophistication with which she writes, however, points us to another answer. If one can develop a connection between the readers and the main character, meaning can be generated within a story through example and analogy. The trials of Oroonoko can be read as a condemnation of slavery. This, I believe is what Behn was trying to do. Through "misrepresenting" Oroonoko as a "flawed" European, the entire idea of trading and buying people for profit becomes revolting.