(Minute 2:05 – 4:35)

It really caught my attention how the two main characters of the short novel, both Oroonoko and Imoinda are presented as ideal figures and they are characterized by their awesome beauty. Clearly, Oroonoko’s physical beauty is really important to the female narrator. She describes every aspect of his face, pausing to describe every characteristic with great detail. It seems as if the narrator is contemplating Oroonoko and thereby making Oroonoko an object of her own desires. Usually, it was female characters who were made an object to the narrator’s desires, but since the story is told from a female perspective, the roles are reversed. Moreover, Behn also mentions Oroonoko’s long hair, which he carefully untangled and took great care of. I believe that such a description is something you would expect of a female character.

Oroonoko’s physical appearance and his great intellect are not the same as the body and the mind of the other ‘natural’ black men and for this reason, already from the beginning of the story, the reader expects big things coming from the black prince. Shaping the character Oroonoko with such care and precision predicts the importance of this male figure to the author.

“He knew almost as much as if he had read much” – Aphra Behn, Oroonoko

In the novel Oroonoko by Aphra Behn, the narrator spends much time describing Oroonoko’s noble characteristics and is particularly interested in detailing his physical beauty, which is a blend of Roman and African traits. In this quote the narrator is still discussing Oroonoko, this time focusing on his intellect. He is at a disadvantage in an oral society, where writing isn’t common and would have known more if he had lived in a literate society. Literacy then becomes another marker of civilization in the novel and suggests that the city where Oroonoko lives is less civilized than other countries because it is an oral society. Moreover, in this quote, we can see how Oroonoko is being authentic/genuinely by implementing writing instead of only oral. I think that Oroonoko can teach and civilized his society by making writing a common thing.