Zofloya, The Moor, The Slave, The Devil

Surprise, surprise, Zofloya is literally the devil himself! It hardly qualifies as a plot twist. Throughout the novel it is hinted that Zofloya is something other than human; he appears suddenly, makes dead bodies disappear, and is even able to read minds and predict the future. He is the one who tempts Victoria with the idea of murdering her husband. He continuously makes cryptic and sinister remarks about his relationship to Victoria like on page 239 when he says, "The Signora is not my wife,...she will be mine, however, for we are linked by indissoluble bands." So when we read the conclusion of the novel, it isn't much of a surprise. His role throughout the plot of the novel confirms his devilish nature.

However, Zofloya's infernal nature goes deeper than that, or rather there is more at play than just what he does and what he says that makes Zolfoya seem sinister. Zofloya is an English novel written in 1806, and the character Zolfoya is black. More than that look at the way Zofloya describes himself to Victoria as "the lowest of your slaves..."(153) and when explaining his back story he says "I became the property of the Spaniard..."(153) Not only is he a black man in a white man's world he is a slave, and he would have been read as a slave in 1806 when the slave trade was still legal in England. Just the fact that Zofloya is a black slave who dresses in exotic clothes already brings with it a myriad of associations and stereotypes that paint him as a racial other. From the introduction of his character Dacre's narrator doesn't miss an opportunity to point out Zofloya's "dark skin" or his status as a servant and a Moor. Even before the actual introduction of his character in the novel we are aware of Zofloya's race. The title of the book, after all, is Zofloya, or The Moor. 

So why does making Zofloya black make him more terrifying to Dacre's readership? There are, of course, the prevailing stereotypes about African men that made them out to be hyper-sexual and extremely violent, but we also have to consider the historical context of the novel. As I've mentioned before the novel was written in 1806, which is only a few years removed from the Haitian Revolution where African slaves revolted against their masters. This event must have been fresh in the general consciousness of slave owning Europeans, and, without a doubt, must of made many people anxious about the possibility of slaves taking vengeance over their oppressive masters.

Throughout the novel we get hints that Zofloya yearns to be treated as an equal and resents being treated as an inferior. When Zofloya speaks endearingly about his previous master in Spain he describes it as follows, "he treated me as a friend and an equal, rather than as a miserable captive and domestic." (153) As I've mentioned before, Zofloya does describe himself to Victoria as "the lowest of your slaves," but it's hard to imagine Zofloya saying that to Victoria without at least a hint of irony, especially when you consider his endgame with Victoria. Now let's flash forward to the scene in the Banditti cavern where Zofloya is taunting Victoria with cryptic language, he says, "A truce, fair Victoria, to folly!--am I not thy equal--Ay thy superior!--proud girl, to suppose that the Moor, Zofloya, is a slave in mind" (242) This is a huge jump from being "the lowest slave." Here we see a triumphant Zofloya who has successfully plotted and executed the murder of his masters and has completely dominated Victoria to the point to where she cannot deny any of his requests. Looking at this through a racial lens we see a black slave successfully seducing a white woman and convincing her to murder her husband. Yes, Zofloya is literally Satan who corrupts Victoria's immortal soul, but he is also an African slave who achieves the total destruction of his European masters. Which, considering the time the novel was written, might have been more terrifying to Dacre's readership than Satan.

Dacre is very aware of the deep seated anxieties and fears that she is exploiting by writing Zofloya the way she does. What she is doing is subverting the expectations that readers have for somebody like Zofloya: making the slave take on the role of master. What Dacre does with Zofloya is similar to what she does with Victoria. With Victoria Dacre subverts reader's expectations of a "docile," "innocent" female Gothic protagonist. With Zofloya Dacre gives a slave an immense amount of power and agency.

I wouldn't say that Zofloya is a multidimensional and well developed character. Yet there is much more to him than just a dark skinned representation of Satan. Dacre is tapping the racial anxieties of her readership and bringing those anxieties out in the open.

1. How do you think the meaning of the novel would change if it turned out that there was nothing supernatural about Zofloya, and he was just an extremely cunning and manipulative person? 

2. In the beginning of Chapter XXX on pgs 232-233 there is a lengthy description of the awesome scenery surrounding Victoria. Here Zofloya is described as being right at home in the midst of the sublime. To what extent is Zofloya an embodiment of the Sublime?