Critical Analysis of the Octoroon

The Octoroon, only considered second amongst nonmodern melodramas, is a find written by Irish cause Dion Boucicaut. The play focuses on the woodlet Terrebonne, the Peyton estate and its residents, namely its hard workers. During the time of its premiere, The Octoroon, inspired conversations close to the abolition of bondage as well as the overall mistreatment of the African Americans. Derived from the Spanish language, the invent octoroon is defined as star who is 1/8th depressed. Zoe Peyton, , The Octoroon, is the purportedly freed biological daughter of think Peyton, former owner of the plantation. In play, the lovers, Zoe and the judges prodigal nephew, George Peyton, are foreclose in their quest by racecourse and the the evil maneuverings of a material-obsessed overseer named Jacob MClosky. MClosky wants Zoe and Terrebonne, and schemes to buy both. Boucicaults play focuses on the self-renunciation of liberty, identity, and dignity, while ironically preserving cru de African-American stereotypes of the antebellum period. The play does this finished several characters, to the highest degree importantly, through Zoe and the Household slave Pete. While the author attempts to take out anti-slavery sentiments, the play is largely in ineffectual of being a true indictment of slavery by further perpetuating the African American stereotypes.\nZoe, the octoroon, serves as a means for the author to seek themes of racial prejudice without an excessively black protagonist; she is black, just not too black. She plays the role of the tragic mulatto a stock character that was emblematic of antebellum literature. The purpose of the tragic mulatto was to allow the ref to blessing the plight of oppressed or enslaved races, but only through a veil of pureness. Through this veil the reader does not truly tenderness one of a unalike race but quite a the reader pities one who is make as close to their race as possible. This is made spare especially in Zoes bringing patt...