Essay Database

In Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, the author expresses her views on a African American slave openly and passionately, which in the Seventeenth century was unsuited for a person , let alone a woman, to do. By establishing the story from a first person account there becomes a juxtaposition of both author and character. By doing so the reader is able to feel more passion and anguish towards Oroonoko rather than through some fictional fable. Throughout the …

…about and praise Oroonoko for his greatness. In the closing lines of her story, Behn concedes that she, "by the reputation of her pen" has the authority to convey such a story. Behn not only acknowledges her authority of Oroonoko's story, but her own greatness as author as well. And by being overwhelmed by Oroonoko's life, Behn takes the privilege to inform us about who she and the others around her viewed as a Hero.