Kill Hero = Maintain Anger

The ending of Oroonoko almost accomplished a feeling of "at least the bad guys didn't completely win" until our great hero was quartered and mailed. I truly do not understand why he did not spite-suicide himself like he convinced Imoinda to. He still had the physical energy to kill the first soldier to approach him, so why not use that energy on self sacrifice? Perhaps he could have used his body to communicate a message if not with words with symbolism. My theory is that the author couldn't let the underdogs win entirely (or the sympathy would be lost? or the roused anger at real world injustices would have been hampered), and thus the descriptive and upsetting defeat of the favored character.