Adapting Oroonoko: How Behn and Southerne Consider Audience Responses Anonymous College

In her 1688 novel, Oroonoko, Aphra Behn introduces her readers to an African prince who is sold into slavery in the Caribbean. Just seven years later, in 1695, Oroonoko was adapted by Thomas Southerne and performed on English stages. Using Behn’s work as a blueprint for his own, Southerne tells the story of the same man but with his own take on events. One of the biggest differences between the two works is the way that the two authors choose to portray the titular character, Oroonoko, and his wife, Imoinda. Southerne’s adaptation of Oronoko makes the characters more relatable for a predominantly white European audience while Behn’s version of Oroonoko creates characters that white European readers can sympathize with.

Behn’s Imoinda is canonically a native black woman of African descent who is born and raised in Africa. Her presence in Oroonoko’s life makes sense and does not have to be contextualized for readers. She fits well within the story that is being told. Imoinda is a native to Africa, and as such is characterized differently than a European woman: “This old dead hero had one only daughter left of his race; a beauty that, to describe her truly, one need say only, she was female to the noble male, the beautiful black...