Student Question
Did Oroonoko hunt in the novel?
Quick answer:
Yes, Oroonoko hunts. While still in Africa, he is described as being away from court hunting. He also goes hunting with the slave-ship captain who later tricks him. In South America, one way he expresses his fierce, restless spirit is through hunting wild animals such as tigers.
In Aphra Behn’s novel, it is mentioned several times that the titular protagonist Oroonoko hunts. The first mention is reported within an explanation of the old king’s scheme to take Imoinda as his own and separate her from Oroonoko. After the prince has been abducted and transported to the South American colony, he occasionally goes hunting and especially enjoys pursuing the large, wild creatures.
Oroonoko’s involvement in hunting is first established with a narrative detailing how the old king tricked Imoinda into coming to the palace and taking her as his wife. He waited until the prince was away from court hunting, and then sent false communications to her, allegedly from her beloved. After Oroonoko returned from hunting, he learned of the king’s duplicity:
[T]he prince, who was returned from hunting, went to visit his Imoinda, but found her gone; and not only so, but heard she had received the royal veil.
Before Oroonoko is abducted and transported to America, he entertains a ship captain he knows, and who will later trick him into coming aboard the slave ship. During the interval, they go hunting together.
After he arrives in America, although unable to escape enslavement, he marries Imoinda. The narrator recounts their activities while he awaits the liberation that he hopes the Lord-Governor can grant. Oroonoko, who has been renamed Caesar, tells the narrator that he longs for the active life he formerly led. In an effort to express his fierce spirit, he undertakes numerous activities, including hunting—even of huge tigers and snakes.
[A]ll endeavors were used to exercise himself in such actions and sports as this world afforded, as running, wrestling, pitching the bar, hunting and fishing, chasing and killing tigers of a monstrous size, which this continent affords in abundance, and wonderful snakes … which Caesar took great delight to overcome.
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