Post One

“The army beholding their officers return unsuccessful, with sad faces and ominous looks that presaged no good luck, suffered a thousand fears to take possession of their hearts, and the enemy to come even upon them, before they would provide for their safety by any defence; and though they were assured by some…” (Page 34, passage 11) Oroonoko is the tale of an African prince who has his psyche consistently delved into by the female narrator. In this daunting passage, the passion and emotion of the prince’s glory days as a combatant in the warlike army defending his homeland of Coramantian. In order to fully understand what war was like in these dramatized settings, I analyzed similar resources that Behn would have been exposed to as an inspiration for the beauty presented in this passage. Because this was a late 1600’s piece, I utilized the war-ridden epic The Iliad, by Greek poet Homer. The romanticization and dramatization of the battling Oroonoko is incredibly similar to the way that Homer was able to use beautiful dactylic hexameter to tell the stories of the Greek legends.

I didn't realize upon first read of this incredible wartime passage how dramatized these narrated scenes truly were. The main thing I noticed between these two archival iconic pieces of literature was how these words on the paper were literally transformed into portraits while describing such a bleak, intense piece of subject matter. You were able to hear the screaming general as if it were a flashback in a movie scene. It is almost cinematic how dynamic the movement is within the narrative. In the Iliad there was the same sense of urgency within the action and dialogue of the characters, such as Achilles and Paris. It’s so interesting to see how similar two iconic pieces of literature are in two completely different parts of history and the world.

Works Cited:

Behn, Aphra, Catherine Gallagher, and Simon Stern.

Oroonoko. , 2000. Print.

Homer. Iliad. London : New York :Dent;

Dutton, 1955.

Calloway, Catherine. “Obo.” War in Literature and Drama - Military History - Oxford Bibliographies, 6 Jan. 2020, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791279/obo-9780199791279-0004.xml.