Oroonoko

Behn is vague in her support of slavery -- though she portrays it as as atrocious and horrid institution, she never says that she is against it, and in her novella portrays Europeans as superior to the Africans in many ways. Her description of Oroonoko demonstrates this, as she describes not a typical African male, but instead an idealized version, saying that “his face was not of that brown, rusty black which most of that nation are, but a perfect ebony or polished jet. His nose was rising and Roman instead of African and flat. His mouth, the finest shaped that could be seen, far from those great turned lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so noble and exactly form that, bating his color, there could be noting in nature more beautiful.” However, Behn also details the horrific torture and abuse of Oroonoko at the hands of the treacherous white governor. She is ambiguous in her support of slavery, for she has arguments in both sides of the debate but never fully commits to one, even in the issue of superiority. For example, Oroonoko slays two tigers that no white man could overcome.