This is an African love story based on the writers experiences with slaves she encounters in Surinam. Oroonoko and Imoinda are a true testament of endless love. Below is a description of their first meeting: Here for the first time he sees his mentors daughter, the beautiful and modest young Imoinda: a beauty, that to describe her truly she was female to the noble male, the beautiful black Venus to our young Mars, as charming in her person as he, and of delicate virtues (9). They fall instantly in love. Oroonoko asks Imoinda to marry him, and she quickly agrees. He promises her that despite the fact that his countrymen take as many wives as they can maintain, he will never take another wife, even after Imoinda is old and her beauty has fled. He will remember that her soul is young. (In this culture, their promises constitute a wedding of sorts, but they do not yet consummate their love.) The king, Oroonokos grandfather, hears rumors of Imoindas beauty. He has become increasingly feeble and yearns for his physical prowess to be rekindled. Although he knows of his grandsons attachment, he finds an opportunity to clandestinely view Imoinda. The old man cannot help himself, falls instantly in love, and sends Imoinda the royal veil which marks her as one of the kings women. It is the highest of honors, which no girl is allowed to refuse. Upon her arrival in the otan, the royal seraglio (which houses the kings women and where no man but the king is allowed to visit), Imoinda pleads and tells him of her binding promise to wed Oroonoko: she was anothers and could not be so happy his. But the king is absolutely enamored and puts aside his feelings for his grandson: what love could not oblige Imoinda to do, duty would compel her to (12).
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:58:47 +0000
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