O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou....Orlando?

I have a really, really bad feeling about this story. I feel like I am stuck in some sort of Shakespearean tragedy and that is not a wonderful feeling. I am getting the idea that this story does not have a happy ending. If the introduction is anything to go by, “she lacks the power to save Oroonoko and might even be implicated in his downfall”, and the fact that the poem that comes before the actual story does not end in the favor of the guy at all, this story is not going to end well (Behn 2179). On that note, I am, weirdly, enjoying the story. I think it is really engaging and hard to put down.

Oroonoko reminds me of two characters from Shakespeare, hence the title. The fact that people are trying to keep him and his love from one another reminds me a lot of Romeo. That being said, the way he reacts to being separated and the way he acts when he falls in love reminds me a lot of Orlando. He seems to be the perfect combination of these two characters. Unfortunately, I am thinking he is more Romeo than Orlando. This may be why I have such a bad feeling about the end of story, but I am hoping that I am wrong.

In regards to the poem at the beginning of the story, was I the only one who was initially confused why the story started off with that? The entire introduction focused on the author and this awesome character named Oroonoko, but then we get this poem and I couldn’t help but think “Okay, well, all this guy wants is to get into her pants. What is so novel about that?” I mean, it made more sense as I got into the story, but it set a really weird tone for the story. I was pleased to see the actual tale was a lot more romantic than that, but I was really questioning Virginia Woolf’s assessment that is noted in the introduction.

As I was reading, I was excited to come across a quote by Virginia Woolf. I am pretty ashamed to admit, but before this semester I had no clue who this woman was. Yeah, I had heard of her, but I did not realize how popular her books were. I am taking a class on her and Forster. The fact that she complimented this author’s work at the beginning made me really excited to read this story. Woolf’s novels focus a lot on how voiceless women were in her time period. For her to say this author “earned them the right to speak their minds” gave me a really good impression of this story right at the start (Behn 2178). While I am impressed with the story, don't get me wrong, I was actually expecting a stronger female character. Having Woolf at the beginning gave me that impression, but the female character in this story seems kind of weak. At least, so far she does. That being said, I do not think Woolf is wrong, it is a very interesting story.