Subtle Criticism in Aphra Behns Oroonoko Essay -- Behn Oroonoko Essay

Subtle Criticism in Oroonoko In reading Oroonoko it might be easy to miss the criticism offered against the European culture. Upon studying the novel however, this criticism which had been presented subtly becomes quite clear. An important mention is that the reference and the cashier are not in fact the same. Although the author is out to provide a criticism of European culture and values, she is loath(p) to let it come through the narrator. This critique comes through mainly in less direct forms, through her non-European characters, most often Oroonoko, and through comparisons surrounded by cultures and the characters encountered in each.As a female writer trying to absorb a living, and as the narrator of the story represented herself, Behn couldnt have the narrator offer too beefed-up a criticism for fear of losing her audience. The narrator is presented as very European. She is very ethnocentric and seems to have no line of work with the slave trade, only with the treat ment of one specific individual (namely, Oroonoko). Occasionally, however, in that location will be a slip, a slight inconsistency in the narrators character, which offers a glimpse of Behns true sentiments. For example, throughout the novel, the narrator is a strong believer in religion. She tells Imoinda . . . Stories of Nuns and endeavours to bring her to the knowledge of the true God.(41). She also tries to reason Christianity to an unbelieving Caesar. When discussing the natives of Surinam, however, she mentions that . . . all the Inventions of Man . . . woud here but destroy that unconcern . . . and . . . woud teach em the natives to know Offence . . . (10). The first thing she includes as an Invention of Man is religion, implying that it is not essentiall... ... Banister truly does kill him want a dog as he said, he woud declare, in the early(a) World, that he was the only Man, of all the Whites, that ever he heard say Truth.(64)Through each of these forms Behn is high ly critical of European values, or perchance more precisely the lack there of. She criticizes religion, namely Christianity, for not enforcing morals in people the most noble character in the novel, Oroonoko, does not believe in any God at all. She also criticizes those in the culture who do not hold themselves to their promises the blacks and natives who are seen as so inferior are more true. She offers all this, yet, in a air that gives no offence and so keeps her audience for the next criticism she whitethorn offer.Works CitedBehn, Aphra. Oroonoko. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. AH Abrams. New York. WW Norton and Company, Inc 2000.