The Octoroon: An Effective Abolitionist Play

Overview of Octoroon Play

To what extent is The Octoroon an effective abolitionist play?

This report is about a very famous play Octoroon by Dion Boucicault. It includes the facts and figures that demonstrate how successfully play had shown its purpose. The main aim of this report is to gather the facts and figures about how much the play was successful in proving itself as an abolitionist play. The play actually demonstrated the problem of slavery in United States and how slavery destroyed the identity of a person as well the identity of the country in which the problem of slavery existed. According to the user reviews, the play was very successful at that time and was awarded as the second most popular play of that time. Users reviewed that the play was really very successful in demonstrating its purpose and moral values. This report will further explain its success and failure.

Octoroon play was first played in 1859. This play was designed by Dion Boucicault. The play was first played in the Winter Garden Theater, in the New York City. The play became very popular just after its first show. The Seven Road Company of the New York managed this play for years. The play was so popular that it was played for years. At that time, this play was considered as the second most popular play after “Uncle Tom’s cabin”. The concept of play had been taken from a famous novel of that time “The Quadroon”. This novel was the work of a famous writer Thomas Mayne Reid. The book actually explained about the inhabitants of Louisiana plantation, who were known as Terrebonne.

The main concept of the play is abolition of slavery. The play also includes the debate about the theatre’s role in politics. The melodrama and the romanticism in the play made it more entertaining. The Octoroon actually denotes one eighth black. Thus, in the play, Octoroon is one eighth of the black men. The play is divided into four acts. All the four acts are related to each other in a series. Boucicault demonstrates his play “The Octoroon” as an intervention as this play influenced the history produced at the antebellum period of United States. In this play, Boucicault used three main characters Zoe, Zacob M’Closky and George Peyton. All the three characters represented the three different aspects of slavery.

Boucicault himself argued on his play by saying that this play is an effective intervention in the debate of slavery. This play effectively shows the cruelties of slavery system. Thus, as described above, the play demonstrates the effect of slavery system on the society. This play moved around the slavery system present in the United States and how the people of United States were getting affected. The play supports the fact that there is no one in the world who can defend the time. No one in the whole world can fight against the time. Everything happens at the right time and at the right place.

Abolishment in the play

The play was really very successful in describing the slavery problem faced by the people at that time in United States. The famous demonstrators demonstrated that the Octoroon really shows a clear picture of Louisiana. In his work, Boucicault had presented the complex issues related to the problems present in the United States at that time. This play was considered really successful in showing the facts like how slavery ruins the identity of a person by referencing a young girl, and slavery also destroys the identity of a nation. As described above, the three characters notify the three different concept of slavery. George notifies the slavery related to Social Consciousness, Jacob describes that related to Economic power and Zoe as moral fiber. Thus, the three characters symbolizes the three different aspects of the slavery and each character demonstrates the debate on one type of slavery system.

In the history of United States, “The period of Antebellum” was really crucial as at that time the racism was on the top level. The white people were considered to be as leader and non-white people used to be considered as slaves. The time was so cruel that non-white people were not even considered as the human being in United States. No one was there to help the slaves. The character Zoe in the play was a highly educated girl and fashionable. She was a girl with independent thought in a broad context. Still she was treated as a slave.

The skin color difference is shown even among the slaves. Zoe and other slaves who had a fair skin were treated differently from dark skinned slaves in the play. The difference was in the terms of work allotment, food and residential facilities but then also they were treated as a non-human being. With this, the situation of the dark people can be imagined very well. This play demonstrated the fact that the dark slaves were not only treated cruelly by their masters but the fair slaves also used to criticize the dark skinned slaves. The name of mixed slaves did not even seem to exist in United States.

The slaves were used to send between the rocks and on the hard places to live. The reason of being treated so harshly was being much light among the people as demonstrated in the play. George Peyton, symbol of Social conscience debate clearly demonstrated that how slavery violated the right of freedom of a human being. This was represented in the play as an abolitionist belief which created an emotional touch in the play and forced the viewers to emotionally attach with the characters present in the play. Everything seemed to be in reality in the play.

As published in the book of Jenny Martinez, the slave trade act was first published by the Great Britain in human rights laws after the movement of nineteenth century. Before that, the slavery was destroying the humanity in the world and, if people from some other planet had analyzed the earth, the report would have showed two different species of human being for different purposes and properties, on the planet. George also represented these points of views in the play. In play, George was actually a person who spent his childhood in Europe and when he came to United States, it was really hard for him to assimilate the Racism present in the United States, as he had different perspective about slavery. According to him, different races do not define the differences of masters and slaves; however, the reality in United States of America was very different.

Conclusion

The role of George was designed so well in the play that it perfectly suited the debate of slavery as social conscience perspective. The design of situations, script and role of character was so perfect that the audience clearly understood the perspective about what Boucicault wanted to say. The differences between the slavery concept of the two different parts of the world, Europe and United States, is clearly demonstrated by the writer. The character of George clearly defined how slavery destroys the identity of the country. The above discussion can be clarified from the scene when George replied to Mrs. Peyton that he will never acquire the customs of the United States as he didn’t like the trend of treating women and slaves in United States. He refused to understand the wounds of a lady’s feeling more than Mrs. Peyton as he was really demoralized by the United States environment.

In the play, George loved Zoe and wanted to marry her by ignoring the fact of racism. He ignored the reality that Zoe was an Octoroon. According to George’s perspective, Zoe is an astonishing woman by unnoticing her Octoroon racism. The demonstration of the feeling of being surprised and the situation, when he came to know that it is illegal to marry with Zoe she was an Octoroon, is presented in a great manner. This clearly explained the differences of slavery and racism and how these created the problems in love life of George and Zoe. George became a colorblind person for the octoroons and stood for the freedom and happy life of the slaves in United States. The sacrifices of George in the play against the slavery indicated that moral obligations emerges the desired social changes by ignoring the selfishness.

Jacob’s role in the play was completely anticipated George’s role. As in the play, George categorized as the symbol of Social Conscience, Jacob categorized as the symbol of economic power. It is obvious that financial holdings create the basis for economic power. In the history of United States, Capitalism referred to the economic power. The definition of economic power clearly suits Jacob M’Closky and their movement against the slavery. In the play, the economic power is defined as the ability of purchasing slaves. Owning a fair female as a slave was considered as the symbol of wealth. For getting respect in the society, masters used to own fair slaves which then became a symbol of richness.

In the play, Jacob was attracted towards Zoe but didn’t want to marry her. He just wanted to purchase her for showing his economic power in the society. Jacob tried to make Zoe agree to live with him by manipulating her with his wealth but Zoe refused his proposal for her affection towards George. Thus, Jacob was demonstrates as the economic power but Zoe had prioritized the real love more than the wealth and money. It was clearly demonstrated in the play, the environment and the situation at that time as to how the law was prohibiting the marriages of white and black people but the sexual relationship between them were allowed. The people used to purchase the fair female slave for just the experience of sexual relationship. This was done by presenting the girl with naked body for examining the reproduction quality of the female. Thus, these scenes were explaining the clear view of the cruelty towards the slaves in United States at that time.

According to the above discussion, Zoe acted as the moral fiber between them. She created a role which created various moral values. Zoe became the base for the movement against the slavery system in the United States.  According to the above discussion, it can be clearly said that the play has proved itself as a successful abolitionist play. Every script and act is very well organized. It creates a clear image of the cruel nature of the masters at that time in United States. The differences of the racism and the color differences in the play is performed in such a way that the viewers get various moral values from the play.

Conclusion

The above essay is the result of various study and researches. From the above discussion, it can be clearly said that the Octoroon was a really great play of that time. This play was awarded as the second most popular play of that time after the play “Uncle Tom’s office”. It basically moves around the three main characters of the play George, Zoe and Jacob who represent three different symbols in the play. The play is actually aimed to create an image of the problems created by the slavery system for a human being and how the slavery system destroyed the identity of the human being as well as the identity of the area and country related to the slavery. From the above discussion, it can be said that even in the lack of resources at that time, the play had successfully proved itself as the abolitionist play. The script and the situation demonstrated in the play had successfully explained the purpose of the play.

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