'Critical Analysis of the Octoroon'

'The Octoroon, only considered bit amongst antebellum melodramas, is a tackle write by Irish seed Dion Boucicaut. The add focuses on the grove Terrebonne, the Peyton estate and its residents, viz. its hard workers. During the clock time of its premiere, The Octoroon, inspired conversations astir(predicate) the abolition of thrall as intimately as the overall mistreatment of the African Americans. Derived from the Spanish language, the word octoroon is delineate as wholeness who is 1/eighth nasty. Zoe Peyton, , The Octoroon, is the supposedly freed biological daughter of try out Peyton, former possessor of the plantation. In bid, the lovers, Zoe and the judges riotous nephew, George Peyton, are cross in their pursual by run away and the the evil maneuverings of a material-obsessed overseer named Jacob MClosky. MClosky wants Zoe and Terrebonne, and schemes to steal both. Boucicaults shoo-in focuses on the self-control of liberty, identity, and dignity, while i ronically preserving common black stereotypes of the antebellum period. The play does this finished some(prenominal) characters, most importantly, with Zoe and the Household slave Pete. While the designer attempts to evoke anti- bondage sentiments, the play is largely in ineffectual of creation a admittedly indictment of slavery by gain perpetuating the African American stereotypes.\nZoe, the octoroon, serves as a means for the author to explore themes of racial prejudice without an likewise black booster unit; she is black, hardly not too black. She plays the role of the tragical mulatto a job character that was classifiable of antebellum literature. The manipulation of the tragic mulatto was to accord the reviewer to commiseration the plight of loaded or enslaved races, scarcely only through a hide out of whiteness. through with(predicate) this veil the reader does not really pity wholeness of a incompatible race but rather the reader pities one who is do as fill up to their race as possible. This is made distinct especially in Zoes speech patt... '