Oroonoko

In order to give her story added credence, Behn claims that it is a true history. She claims that she is reporting what she herself saw and experienced, as well as what the hero himself told her about his life. Perhaps there is some irony in the first words of her narrative "I do not pretend" (1866), with the implication that she is not writing fiction but non-fiction. We cannot know, of course, precisely how much of the story she actually did witness and how much she created or imagined. However, as to the question of her roles as character and narrator, those roles are essential to any understanding or appreciation of the story.

In the first place, so confused is Oroonoko by the misfortunes unjustly visited upon him throughout the story that he could not himself have told his story with any coherence. A narrator was required to give the story form and sense. In the second place, the viewpoint of the narrator is crucial, for the wealth of possible accountings and interpretations of the events of Oroonoko's life would confuse the reader without the grounding of a single perspective.

. . .
rse, through the very subjective eyes of Behn: I have often seen and conversed with this great man, and been a witness to many of his mighty actions, and do assure my reader the most illustrious courts could not have produced a braver man, both for greatness of courage and mind, a judgment more solid, a wit more quick, and a conversation more sweet and diverting. . . . He had an extremely good and graceful mien, and all the civility of a well-bred great man. He had nothing of barbarity in his nature. . . . (1870). Behn is even more amazed that such a wonderful and noble being could have emerged from a society which was so marked by war and bloodshed, a society which itself, like the Europeans, dealt in slavery. At each point, then, the character of Behn, expressed in all the various subjective choices of her narration, is essential to the story of Oroonoko. It might be fair to say that Behn is even more important than Oroonoko himself. Without Behn, obviously, the story would not have been told. But, even more importantly, Behn provides the reader with a lens through which to view the details of Oroonoko's life, as well as providing that reader with the elected details themselves. In that regard, we may be discovering
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Approximate Word count = 1620
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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