Of inhuman bondage

Oroonoko and Imoinda are bound to the traditions of their people in the first half of the novel, and to the whims of Oroonoko's despotic and senile grandfather. In the second half of the novel, Behn states that Oroonoko/Caesar and Imoinda/Clemene are slaves by name only. An argument can be made that Oroonoko's bondage is of a greater degree before he is shanghaied and transported to Suriname, and that rejecting the taboo in his homeland feeds the impulse to go back on his word not to take arms against his masters.

It is not the purpose of this missive to make light or in any way exonerate the institution of slavery, but to point out that a man of high rank and stature can nonetheless be controlled by desire, culture, circumstance and tradition to as great if not greater an extent than one who is labeled a slave. Imoinda receives the royal veil and is bound by traditon and law to report to the king's otan. Though the king is over a hundred years old, already possesses numerous wives, and is apparently impotent, he nonetheless exercises his absolute authority as monarch and summons Imoinda to be his wife. "... [T]he obedience the people pay their king was not at all inferior to what they paid their gods, and what love would not oblige Imoinda to do, duty would compel her to." (Behn, 19) Imoinda and Oroonoko have no recourse but to submit to this whim of self-gratification. The narrator informs the reader that Imoinda would be executed should she refuse the invitation. Oroonoko is bound by the custom that a descendant is forbidden to marry a wife of his anscestor, and for him to pursue Imoinda would be to violate a sacred cultural taboo. Oroonoko declares himself bound by the taboo to his friends, stating that he could not violate the code without setting "an ignoble precedent for [his] successors." (21) Behn tells us that the people of Coramantien possess a native justice unpolluted by concepts of fraud and deceit; the natives rebuke a governor who fails to keep his word that he shall arrive at a certain time. (11) I suggest that among Oroonoko's European attributes, which for the most part Behn lauds as charismatic, there exists an inclination for Oroonoko to go back on his word. Twice he does this, to the great detriment of his fate. Driven by desire, Oroonoko pursues Imoinda and consummates his marraige to her despite acknowledging the cultural stricture. Once he is a slave in Surinam, he tells the narrator that "he would sooner forfeit his eternal liberty, and life itself, than lift his hand against his greatest enemy on that place." (49) Even though Oroonoko/Caesar "suffered only the name of a slave," (50), and his wife is reprived daily of her chores by fawning admirerers, he is overcome by his fear that his agreement with Trefry will not be honored, and that Caeser, Clemene, and their unborn son will remain slaves in perpetuity. While in transit to Surinam, the captive Oroonoko speaks to the importance of honor to the captain, in an effort to bargain for freedom aboard the ship. Oroonoko declares that a man without honor has greater concerns than punishment in the afterlife; he has lost credibility and is subject to the derision of those honest people who know him and his breach. (39) Despite his freedom to hunt and engage in whatever diversions he wishes, Caesar incites the slave community to rebellion, apparently motivated only by the fear that his family will not be granted freedom. Oroonoko's/Caesar's sense of honor is tainted and diluted by the society that has bound him; the betrayals he repeatedly suffers from Europeans instigates his own breach that leads him and his wife to their brutal deaths.