In the text book, “He told her his design, first of killing her, and then his enemies, and next himself, and the impossibility of escaping, and therefore he told her the necessity of dying. He found the heroick wife faster pleading for death, than he was to propose it, when she found his fix’d resolution; and, on her knees, besought him not to leave her a prey to his enemies. He (grieved to death) yet pleased at her noble resolution, took her up, and embracing of her with all the passion and languishment of a dying lover, drew his knife to kill this treasure of his soul, this pleasure of his eyes; while tears trickled down his cheeks, hers were smiling with joy she should die by so noble a hand, and be sent into her own country (for that’s their notion of the next world) by him she so tenderly loved, and so truly ador’d in this: For wives have a respect for their husbands equal to what any other people pay a deity; and when a man finds any occasion to quit his wife, if he love her, she dies by his hand; if not, he sells her, or suffers some other to kill her.”
“Oroonoko” is a short novel which is written by the female author Aphra Behn, who casts herself as a participant narrator. In the video, from 4:37 to5:35, the end of the tragic love story attracts me. I asked myself, what kind of love author wants to show us?
This tale tells the tale Prince Oroonoko becomes to the royal slave. Oroonoko is not just any old slave—he is the last descendant of a royal line. He is educated and ability to speak French and English. He is good at hunting, visiting native villages, and capturing an electric eel. In the story, love is the play’s dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on the love between Oroonoko and Imoinda. In the beginning, they cannot be a couple because Oroonoko’s grandfather wants to marry Imoinda. Imoinda refuses the old king. She also is punished for her actions and being sold as slaves. However, when English captain sells Prince Oroonoko as a slave to an English colony, Oroonoko meets Imoinda again. Then, they can live as husband and wife, and when she becomes pregnant, Oroonoko petitions for their return to their homeland. He organizes a slave revolt. Finally, he fails. Oroonoko has lost hope in returning home or living happily with Imoinda, and now only hopes to avenge his honor by killing his enemy. Before he avenges, he plans to kill Imoinda because of love. He does not want his unborn child is a slave. I believe it is a special love to his baby as well. Here, a fate worse than death.
Imoinda, in the beginning, is enforced to married to the old king, and she realizes that obedience is not always a form of love when free will is not present. In the end, She willingly accepts her murder at Oroonoko’s hand, happy to be able to prove her faithfulness. As we know, “love is a violent, ecsdtatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.”
As Maria Popova says, “Every generation believes that it must battle unprecedented pressures of conformity; that it must fight harder….” I want to say, we must fight harder than any previous generation to protect our soul.