Critical Analysis of the Octoroon

The Octoroon, unless considered second amongst antebellum melodramas, is a act upon written by Irish author Dion Boucicaut. The picnic focuses on the Plantation Terrebonne, the Peyton nation and its residents, namely its slaves. During the turn of its premiere, The Octoroon, inspired conversations about the abolishment of slavery as fountainhead as the overall mistreatment of the African Americans. Derived from the Spanish language, the word octoroon is delineate as oneness who is 1/8th cruddy. Zoe Peyton, , The Octoroon, is the supposedly freed biologic daughter of Judge Peyton, motive owner of the plantation. In shirk, the lovers, Zoe and the judges excessive nephew, George Peyton, are thwarted in their quest by speed and the the evil maneuverings of a material-obsessed super named Jacob MClosky. MClosky wants Zoe and Terrebonne, and schemes to buy both. Boucicaults play focuses on the denial of liberty, identity, and dignity, while ironically preserving common Afri can-American stereotypes of the antebellum period. The play does this by message of several characters, most importantly, through Zoe and the Household slave Pete. term the author attempts to evoke anti-slavery sentiments, the play is largely in shadowy of being a authorized indictment of slavery by further perpetuating the African American stereotypes.\nZoe, the octoroon, serves as a means for the author to explore themes of racial prejudice without an excessively black protagonist; she is black, solely non too black. She plays the division of the tragic mulatto a threadbare character that was typical of antebellum literature. The purpose of the tragic mulatto was to give up the ref to pity the engagement of oppressed or enslaved campaigns, but only through a veil of whiteness. by dint of this veil the reader does not truly pity one of a different race but rather the reader pities one who is made as close to their race as possible. This is made evident in particular in Zoes speech patt...