SOME l.EVELS OF THAGEDY IN
11:iflMJ..m nrr MOHICANS
by
Richard C. Poul~pn
Brigham Yaung University
Oi1e vo;;ue ~mong students of AnE:rican literature for rou"hly a
century has beH\ to scoff at the .....or!<;s of james Fenimore CooPer. esF"'­
cial1y the five novels uf the Leathers tocking series. 1 I heard t:1e dis­
gruntled complaints from my professors as an undergraduate student; heard
them during my Ph.D. oral exams: h"ar them from "1'( con~dgues. and see
ther.l liberally sprin!<;led through scholarlY articles. It is I;mouqh to say
that many of these dlEm1ssals are justifled; but many are not.
I qulc!<;ly admit that when I include a Cooper nove"] 1n the readIng
list for a course, I oHer it somewhat apologetically. with SOm", ",mban-ass­
mont, for Oil'" ...,,,nnot easlly be serious, certainLy nct 1ntellectually ric;or­
OUS, with an author who 1s seen as a species of cosmic joke, However, I
rece~tly lnduded T~ Last di ~ Mohicans in Q readny list for a course In
Natl'/e American Literature. My student~ came to the book after reading
Stith Thompson's~,of the North American~, Wa'.ter Dyk.'s~ of
Old Mam HaL "rid }ohn G. Nelhardt's Blac!<; Elk Spea!<;s. 1he day we rH~t
to begin oU' diSCUSSion of Cooper's book, I Was, to say the Lea:ot, surprised
at my students' responses: in short, they four.r.! tha book oompeJllny end
prul'ound •
Since th",t dily r have often puzzl"d \.lver my Etudents' enthusia~m
and Ol.lr Sl.lbsequ€ n t discussi.on, a dlscUFS10n .....hich cQused me to cOnc:\lde
that when The Last of the Mohicans is a~proached as a fully rl",velopBd
work of tragedYILd;;e5lJ1deed become a ;:>rolound anc inteLectually complex
work of fiction.
Before one can approach the boole as serious tragedy he m'-'st lat
aSide part of the critical baqc;age With which we moderns appraaC':l Hcti::m.
In our time we have bC"n condlUUllt:U to approach a p:ece 0: discourse,
ficho,", included, with a "sent"'nce sense." If one approacr.es COOper non­
holistically, he is bound for disappointment, for Coop<?r cannot be re"d
from ~entence to sentence, nor in a loglcallingl.listic ordering, because
hIs sentences lac\; an essential clarlty. His Vision is, so ~o Spe.'l.K, not
found In loglcal d:scours ... b,,~ must bo "?proached frum scene to scene. 2
Cooper's Vision Is contemporary, and tragic, but it is not conveyed with
language we have come to associate with the tragic;. .uch as the ter~"',
~XPO~ltOry prone cf I1eminywdv, or the t)uld, complex prose of James or
:"aulkner. Precise 1mages and clear pictures arE: seldom found in Cooper's
sente~ces .
When defining In.gE:dy in its Hellenic context Aristotle, of course.
saw langl.laoe as "" important comp071ent. Om! of his 5lx Pil.:ts of tragedy
Is diction, 3 and ir. his general definction cf the genre :1e wrote:
trdgedy Is, then, an [mitaUcm of a nob;e and
complete actior:, having the proper magnitude:
It employ, lang'larJ" that has been a,ll,;ttCdlly
enh"l.nced by each of the Kinds of Hnguistic
adornment, applied separately in the various
9
~
OF THE MOHICANS
".
'Waity
~an
literature for roughly a
:DIes Fenimore Cooper, espe­
; series, 1 I heard the d1s­
In undergraduate student; heard
n from my colleagues, and Bee
rtlcles. It Is enough to say
but many are not,
Cooper nove"l1n the reading
retiCillly, with some embarras'!;­
tainly not 1ntellectually rigor­
~8 of cosmic joke. However, I
in a reading 115t for a course In
me to the book after reading
b!!Ind1ans, Walter Dyk's Son of
Elk SpeaJc:.s. The day we met
was, to say the least, surprised
ound the book compe1l1ng and
ill
oyer my students' enthusiasm
on Which caused me to conclude
)ll.ched as a fully developed
'found and intellectually complex
; aerJ.ous tragedy he must lay
b. we modems approach fiction.
roach a piece of discourse,
If one approaches Cooper non­
, for Cooper cannot be read
linguistic ordering, because
a vision Is, so to speak, not
oached from scene to scene. 2
, but It Is not conveyed with
e tragic, such as the terse,
, complex prose of James or
I are seldom found in Cooper's
c context Aristotle, of course,
me of his Six parts of tragedy
the geme he wrote:
on at a noble and
proper magnitude;
been art1stlcally
Is of Hnguistlc
y 1n the various
parts of the play; it is presented in dramatic, not
narrative form, and achleves, through the repre­
sentation of pitiable and fearful incidents, the
catharsis of such pitiable and fearful incidents. 4
Since Aristotle asserted later in the ~ that the most virtuous
diction is the clearest (see Chapter XXII) it seems unlikely he would have
praised Cooper's sentences, but, "linguistic adornment" certainly is not
lacking in Cooper,
Aristotle's method in defining tragedy was essentially descriptive-­
he worked from the plays, prose and poems of his contemporaries and pre­
decessors. His values were largely drawn from current examples. These
facts are important--Important when assessing and interpreting the tragic
In the literature of the essentially modern Western World, a world in which
the tragic may be significantly different from the tragic in Aristotle's world.
Nonetheless, Aristotle's perceptions of the nature of tragedy are enduring,
and they are useful (if not alwaYs definitive) tools for understanding tragedy
in American literature.
In delineating the tragiC hero (a term which he did not use) Aristotle
focused not so much on the peculiar or particular attributes of the hero, but
on the effects the hero has on those observing the tragedy, Pity and Fear
were essential tragic elements to Aristotle; the tragic hero should, by un­
deservedly falling into misfortune, arouse pity in the observer; also, byen­
countering the tragic misfortune, the hero should evoke fear in those who
watch or read, because we recC>,;lnize that someong Ilke ourselves Is suf­
fering. Finally, Oedipus-like, the hero is one who enjoys reputation and
great good fortune before the fall. 5 Beyond effect. there should, according
to Aristotle, be a change of fortune from good to bad "not because of de­
pravity, but through some great miscalculation" by the hero. 6
The main problem I see in Aristotle's perceptions of tragedy Is that
they are so closely bound to the historicity of Greek drama they become
dated. If history does not repeat itself, as Don D. Walker asserts,? then
historical events and perceptions are not necessarily valid tools for measur­
ing the present (relatively speaking) or the future. Once again, this is not
to suggest that Aristotle's judgements are not useful, but it is to suggest
that in the continuum of time there may be other tools as valid or as useful
or as definitive to deal with tragedy.
Focnsing on the literature of the West, Levi S. Peterson has given
uS an organic tool for the measurement of tragedy in a given work. Accord­
Ing to Peterson, "tragedy depends upon the valuation we place upon things
we lose. ,,8 This definition is genuinely prehistoric; that is, it does not
depend upon the historicity of a geme for meaning, as do Aristotle's per­
ceptions. Obviously, if tragedy depends on the proportionate relationship
between value and loss, there may be genu1ne literary tragedy without a
tragic hero, or Without pity, or even Without Aristotle's three part plot of
reversal, reccqnltion, and suffer1ng. 9
If the frontier experienCe in America has embodied a loss of some­
thing highly valued, then that eXperlence alone, as Peterson suggests,
"is the cloth in which the West drapes Its grief, "lO __ or its fear and pity.
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II
ler dB fluid interface between
Is continually experienced as
!aUon. [n Western Literature,
1 end in itself 12 ) it is possible
: least.!! role) of tragic hero,
LlItes or magnifies the charac­
y the land. Thus Meriwether
lee of the Medicine and
nelghoourhood had made a
fas disposed to amuse herself
at leaBt on that rune 14 evening,
nalevolent action. Thus Lewis'
Its inhabitants; their malevo­
:>ached the traglc--in action and
'ht. 14 Don Graham has admir­ :ma fide Arl~totelian tragedy in
stress the fact that the event
I Is the Sdnd Creek Massacre.
taM In the novel because it is
Ilf C<m and does embcdy tragic
[the Mohicdns: its historicity
but rather enhances it. But
y in the novel, some other
e or may include:
I Henry itself
are genulnely puzzled by both the popularity and the purpose of the book.
Robert H. Zoellner claims that it is the lack of complexity which dccounts
for the novel's tremendous popularity,18 But in some respects (the battle
scenes, the reversals of pursuit) the novel is very comple~. One critic
claims that Cooper was not in control of the bOOk,19 thdt Mohlcdns is his
most ambl uous novel, 20 dnd thdt the dmbigu1t1es are a result of moral
anarchy. 2 In my opinion, the novel has enjoyed unprecedented populdrlty
because U embodies the tragedy inherent in the Americdn, the Western,
the frontier experience.
1
In the novel the frontier experience is c:losely tied to an historical
event. the battle of Fort William Henry. At ledst two critics hdve noted
that Cooper's historical details are reHable,22 but a careful reading of
Parkman's Montcalm and Wolle raises some questions, at least In my mind,
of historical authenticity. At any rate, it seems likely thoU at ~~ Impression­
able age, Cooper learned of Montcalm's attack dod Its results.
Of illll
the Leatherstocking novels, Mohicillns Is the only one thdt is not subtitled
either a tale or romance; rather Cooper chose to Cdl! it a nillITatlve, which
also very probillbly reflects his interest in the history of Fort WI1l1am Henry,
and In making the historlcilll events the core of the novel.
It Is true that Aristotle distinguished between tragedy and naITaUve,
seeing ndITillt!ve as In inferior form. and noting that the composiUon of
incldent~ In the nillITaUVe should not be slmlldr to that found in our his­
tories. 2
However, if Cooper's historical narrative In Mohicans involves a
problem of the frontier, his ndITdtive becomes trillglc, since, once dgillin, the
frontier expertance wall one of loss. It is rlght to assert that In the death
and destruction dnd pdin of the bdttle itllelf Hell d kind of tragedy, but cer­
tainly one level of historical tragedy, one which Cooper dwells on dt some
length, is thdt Montcdlm and his officers, although using every effort to
restore order 25 during the maSSdCre were finally impotent. If one uses
Aristotle's criterld for defining a tragic hero, Montcalm probably comes
closer as a complete hero than anyone In the novel.
American
lIIIents
!lements
: are seldom complete.
HUon of Leatherstocklng and
al roan In the newworld. n15
lew York, IB50, edition of th""
o. calling him d "man of
~ well as virtues, and of a
1£ any, of Cooper's critiCS
Ie world for a century "fter
nversely, most of Cooper's critics
But there ls another level of history In Mohicans, one Which is in­
herently traglc because It is not bound by the chronology of events, illnd
which focuses on the nature of man. In his Montcalm and Wolfe Parkman
llberally uses journdl entrtes from pillrtlcipants in the battle and siege of
William Henry to estdbLtsh tone dnd feellng. At one potnt he quotes the
Joumal of 80ugalnvl1le, one of Montcalm's officers, who wrote:
I sang the war-song in the name of M. de Montcalm,
and walS much applauded. It was nothing but these
words, "Let us trdmple the English under our feet,"
chanted over and over agat~t in cadence with the
movements of the savages.
This statement cdITles not the force of history, but the power of
rHual. It WdS, finilllly, the movements of the savages which led to the
slaughter on the shores of Lake Georqe. Seen as tragic hero, Montcalm's
flaw was his l.nabtllty to control the actions of his Indlilln dIlies, partly
because he did not understlllnd their nilture. Since, in the eyes of the
French, the Indians were Indil;;penslble In the wartare of the American
forests,27 Montcalm should have tillken better stock of his Indian allies;
the fact that he did not led to the tragedy of the massacre. The battle of
12
Fort WilHam Henry definitely Lnvolved frontier expansion, and thUS, in
trillQedy, the battle produced a two-fold loss: lives of the En'lHsh, and
a bit morE!' wilderness.
It seems Ironical, especially slnce Cooper stayed so close In the
novel to Ihe historical impl1ci'ltlons of the battle, bat some scholars have
been confused about the purposes of the book. If Cooper's approach Is
basically htstorlcal--even narrat!ve--then his purpose Is clear: to play
the predicaments ard problems of romantic characters against the back­
drop of hlstOry. Bul Mohicans is not so clear, and Cooper's history. at
important moments, transcends chronology.
One element of the novel
which richly conrpl1:::ates the rarrative (and thus Infuses it wUh tragic
significance) I:; Cooper'" treatment of 11,,, Indlan5. It IS true that Cooper'5
Iudlans are part of the historicity of the battle of Fort WilHam Henry, but
their presence Ln the novel Is basically prehistoric. In the prefd.ce to the
first edition, Philadelphid., 1826, Cooper wrote that" the 9red.test dl.fftculty
with which the student of Indian hllitory h"" to contand, I~ the utter con­
fusion that pervade~ the name£ {of the Indians!. ,,2 6 Cooper went on to
explain that the corr.plexltles of naming were compl1cated by be French,
Dutch, and Eng Ush who, Independently, named the tribes, as well as
indlvlduaJ lndlems. This seems to me convlncing evidence of the problem
oC oo:xpllcating the prehlstorlc 29 in a work grounded In historical authenticity.
As Claude Levi-Strauss has noted, "the sav(lge mind totalizes. nlO
SLnce Levi-Strauss made the statement In his chapter titled "History and
Dl"l ..ctlc," in Tho SavilIqc Mind It Is rlyllt to assen that to him "totali­
zatlon" has a gotXl deal to do with hlstQfy and prehistory. Slr.ce the
characteristlc feature of the savage mind is timelessness, 31 it Is quite
UteraUy l"llposslble to understand primitive man (Cooper's savages\32 from
an historical perspective. Tn his commer.t on namo~, it ~ccms fairly dear
that Cooper's own, novelistic, perception of the Native American was
basically prehistoric: the names given him by the respective conquerers
were meaningless (It,us confusing) because they were grounded in the
hlsloricity of European ciVilizatiOn, uot the prehistoric rliltl..ire of the Ame,.i­
can aborigines.
What all thiS produces in Last ~ the Mohlcans Is a schlsm between
history and prehistory. Cooper's whites (except possibly Natty) cannot
mlnute1,' approach iln underst,mdl,,'l of til" reds ictus tlecause they are
prisoners of history: culture, manners, society, etc. What this- eventually
produces in the novel. and r have trouble beltevi'lg this is an unconscious
product of Cooper's lmaglniltior., is a bindIng (or chain\ll9\ of Mstol"Y to
prehistory, of Europed.n culturill more" to primitive ways. In the novellllls
joining produces high tragedy; hut the essential tragedy of this predicament
can only be understood with the frontier eXperience (loss) Hnnly in mlnd.
Manifest destiny in the novel (and all Its cultnral paraphernalia) drags
along a primitive SOcIety whose destiny (in 1616 at least] had ""ver bNon
:nanifest. As Natty so cogently remarks near the beginning of the novel,
"everything depends on what scale you look at things. ,,33 Or, In other
words, tragedy depends upon the valuatlo'l we place upon thlng6 we lose.
And loss Ir. Mohicans involves the demise of the fror.tier, and the InabUity
of historical miln and prchlstorlc(ll man t<.J "'ven appraxlmate mutual under­
standing. Such predicaments IneVitably prtXluced, the world rO:.lnd, the
fear and pl~y of misfortune Aristotle discussed. If readers see Mohicans
basically as meltXlrama, not tragedy, It is (liJo:ely) because they either
13
II!r expansion, snd thus, tn
: llves of the English, "'nd
approach the book through our modern perception of sentence-sense, IX
that they fail to see the tragiC implications In Cooper's manipulation of
history.
~0Qpef stayed ,.0 close in the
lttle, that some scholars have
k. If Cooper's approach Is
Beyond the ten9ions of the historicaL-prehistoric<!ll problem, there
Me cert<!llnly other levels of tragedy In The~ of the Mohic<!Ins; not the
least of these is Cooper's perception of the hero. Wrestling with Natty's
status in the novel, Robert Zoellner c<!lll9 Bumppo a mythic or epic hero,34
and hints that bec<!luse Leatherstocklng has "no rapport whatever with the
essence of the Americ<!In experience, ,,35 his alienaHon creates a hero
basically existentiaL Like most other critics, Zoellner malr::es no attempt
to define Natty as a basically tragic hero in the novel; lronic<!lUy, however,
Zoellner clearly defines Natty's tragic flaw, which graws enttrely [rom the
fronlter experience. He says; "OnLy Natty insists to the bitter end that
the wllderness remain inviolate ......36 It i9 fooUsh to assume that Natty,
unl1ke Montcalm in the novel, is a fully fonned Aristotelian tragic hero.
There, for example, seems to be no reversal, recognition <!Ind subsequem
suffering, although In t.he context of the frontler N<!Itty suffers a good de<!ll
from the loss of wilderness, personified to an extent here, though not fully
formed as in The Pioneers, by the woodsman's axe. 37 The de"truction of
the forest and defilement of the land create in Natty the Pity and Fear of
tragedy, <!IS well as within his reader", especially if one recalls that to
Natty Wilderness affirms the eXistence of God, 38 So that his very theo­
logical base is felled by the axe or turned under by the plow. For Natty
the encroachment of civilization will destroy the beauty ot both hunting
and war. 39 Subsequently, of course, this means destruction of his whole
reason for being.
is purpose Is clear: to play
hamcters against the b6Ck­
tr, and Cooper's history, at
One element of the novel
thUI5 Infuses 1t with tragic
dtans. It 1s true that Cooper's
18 of Fort WllU6m Henry, but
Istone. In the preface to the
ate that "+.he greatest difficulty
to contend. ts the utter oon­
~s). ~2B Cooper went on to
I lXlmpUcated by the French,
ned the trtbes, as well as
~c1ng'
evtdence of the problem
:lUnded In hIstorical authentIcity.
the s~lVage mind total12:es. ,,30
I chapter titled "Hlstory and
I /Jssert that to him "totall­
1'1::1. prehistory. Since the
timelessness. 31 It Is quite
nan (Cooper's sav<!lges) 32 from
n names, it seems f<!luly clear
f the Nattve American was
)y the respective conquerers
:fIey were grounded in the
prehistoric nature of the Amer1­
. Mohicans Is a schLsm between
cept possibly Natty) cannot
dsklns because they are
rtv. etc. What this eventually
lIevtng this is an unconSCious
g {or ch<!linlng} of history to
mlttve ways. In the novel thLs
tial tragedy of thls predicament
mence (loss) flnnly in mind.
lturel paraphernaLia) drags
L826 at le<!lst} had never been
r the beginning of the noveL
atthlngs.,,33 Or, In other
Ie place upon things we lose.
'the frontler, and the inability
-en approxlmate mutual under­
:tuced, the world round, the
!d. If readers 15ee Mohicans
Jkely) because they either
Natty's world view is as tragic as Oedipus' or Antigone's; he In­
sLstently comments on a person's gifts ("'Twould h<!lve been a cruel and
an Inhuman <!Ict for a whiteslc.Ln; but 't 1s the <;lUt and natur' of an !ndi<!ln.,,40)
saying time and again th<!lt the purposes and <!Iffairs of men are controlled
by Fate--a man has his gifts; the~' are unalterable. Man's gifts Will even
determine his status in the hereafter. "L believe," says Natty, "that para­
dise is ordained for happiness; and thai men will be indulged In It accQrding
to their dispositions and gifts. ,,41 Further, accon:ling to Natty, "PrOVidence
[s partial in its gifts.,,42 Thus the god of Mohicans is as arbitrary, in his
way, as the gods of Antigone, even if paradise Ls on:lalned for happiness.
Through the Immlnent destruction of wildemess (a possible reversal
in Mohicans) Natty is forced to recognize that hunting and War, in their
states of primitive glory, will be destroyed, and that he will experience the
suffering unto death, the total alienation he lat¥ f<!lces in The Prairi~. Even
Natty's statement, persistently cffered throughout the novel, that he is a
man Without a cross 43 has tragic implicatIons. If the lack of a cross
signifies that he Is "a man of absolute and somehow lethal puritY, ,,44 his
very being is again doomed, Absolute purity on the American frontier sug­
gests absolute In<!lbil1ty to compromise--there is no escape [or Natty from
the inroads of civiltzation, and his westward movement is a journey toward
physical and spiritual death; his existence, his realizations, offer no es­
cape (rom the horrors of enCroaching civilization, He is doomed.
The historical and human problems in the book, and Natty's predi­
caments and realizations sharply create a tragic effect that is genuinely
cath1Htic. Perhaps the cathar"is accounts mainly for the popularity of the
boolr:: around the world. But in America the bool, may have functioned as a
..
­
14
salve tor sore consclences--as an allevLll.tlon from the destructive UnpH­
caHons of ma,nUeat destiny.
Nature is, says Natty, sadly <'Ibused by
man when he qets the mastery. 4S
If. as Levi Peterson su'mests. affirmat10n and relief ¥ise, paca­
doxically, from pain and despalI, 46 then the alchemy of catharSis found
in Mohicans may have allowed some Americans and others to view the
destruction of the landscape as essenttaJJy pO!Jjt!ve. Most Americans
believed reHqlously In manUest destiny, but today we normally assume
that exaltation over the expan.e e of emplrA produced the booster-club Joys
ollook.1nq tar west, when 1t seems very possIble those Joys were Cl:lthartlc
rather than ni51vely posltlve. The truth oC this assertion seems plausible
If one remembers that on vtrtualllll.ll levels of society, Cooper had cap­
tured the nat10nal ImaglnaUon. ~ What the catharsis became was the
"myth meaninq" D.H. Lawrence attrlbut~ to th.. novel. 48 LaWrence sew
the novel d1vf.ded between narrative and romance, calling- the narrative
chiefly record, but the rom/llnce full of the meaning- of myth. PossiblY,
myth meaninq, reinforced by the traqic impltcat10ns 1n the historical
n6lTatlve, led to the catharsis, whtch f1naHy took the form in the minds
of many of seeinq COOper'6 land9cfe as a place of Mythic roality, a
place where destruction bred joy. 4
Another tragic element In The Last of the Mohicans Is the demise
of the Native American, not Just theMOh1CMl~ The novel's la6t para­
qraph, spoken by the legendary Tamenund, ts " dreary Indictment of the
whites. Dlv1ne Judgement has lallen upon the "chIldren of the Lenape."
The pale-lace:s are masters of the earth; the redman's Ume has not yet
come /llqain. SO De6plte the suggesUon that the Indian may sometime rise
to power t'lQ'atn, the gcx:ls are unpleased, their chUdren have been jJUfllshed;
it Is the traqtc movement of the frontler that has crushM the old ways. It
is slqnif1cant that Cooper chose to end the book on such a note; his choice
sugqests that the demise of the Indian ranked htqh, pouibly highest, on
his scale of traqic helrarchy.
In a piece dealing with Uncas as hero in Mohicans, Donald Darnell
claims that Natty'6 role a6 hero in the book Is us~ly usurped by uncas. S1
A1thouqh Darnell COfl'ectly asserts that "to understand the significance of
Unca6 his race must be known, »52 he does not conv1nctnqly e!ltabllsh
Uncas' place as essential hero In the novel. Because Henry Na6h Smith
has wrltten that Natty falls to qualify as a 'technical hero of romances" S3
Darnell ",eeks for a substHute hero and f1nds h~ in Unca6. Uncas then
become6 a mythic, messianic hero, a prophet.
D<!I"nell !tnally claims
that throuqh death Unca6 achievee true trt'lQ'lc stature. SS However, there
are problem6 with both Smith's and Darnell's Ideas of the hero In Mohicans.
Natty's inabilIty to qualify as a technical hero of romance does not mean
he is not, tragic hero. While it II true that Unca6 achieves a heroiC
statu6, as the title of the novel suggests, he does not necessarily become
the book's tragic hero. The manlle of prophethood may have enabled
him to tell truth, even to predict what wUl be, but a messianic calling
doe6 not mall.e a tragic hero; Sophocles E1howed this in the character of
Tei.-etilas, the prophet, in Dedlp'-.ls Rex. Because Cooper does not focus
primarily on Unca6, he is 1I secondary hero, not unlike Montcalm, ,uthough
more Important to the Issue of the novel. Natty Is really the only 1.rTeplac­
able character in the book, which produces, in part, his tragic nature. Un­
Hke the Indl"ns, who are dying, and the whites, who are returnIng to the
settlements, Natty 15 doomed to remain In the midst of the destructive forces
15
Ion from the destructive ImpH­
yB N/ltty, sadly abused by
'lIl4t1on and reUe! arise, para­
Ie
alchemy of c/ltharsts found
and others to view the
posUlve. Most Americans
id: today we normally assume
llIl1B
;lrOduced the booster-club Joys
Islble those Joys were cathartic
his assertion seems plausible
• of society, Cooper had capI
catharsis became was the
the novel. 48 Lawrence sew
:0
lance, calling the narTatlve
Deanlng of myth, Possibly,
lcatlons In the historical
Iy took. the fcrrm In the minds
place of MythJc re"Uty, a
!f the
Mohlcllns Is the demise
ani. The novel's last para­
II a dreary tndtctment of the
ltle "chlldren of the Lenape."
I redman's time has not yet
: the Indlll1l may sometime rise
Il'tr children have been punished:
t MS crushed the old ways. It
book on sueh a note: his chOice
lid high, possibly highest, on
ro in Mohicans, Donald Darnell
Is usually usurped by Uncas. 51
mderstand the significance of
not convtncingly establish
• Because Henry Nash Smith
'technical hero of romances"S3
• ~ In Uncas. Uneas then
et.
Darnell finally claims
lc ItllItun!. 55 However, there
s Ideas of the hero In Mohicans,
ern of romance does not mean
rt Uncas achieves a heroic
Ie does not necessllCUy become
i8thood may have enabled
)8, but II. messianic calUng
nd thIs tn the character of
caule COOper does not focus
• lIOt unlike Montci!lm, althOugh
IIltty Is rel'lly the only Irrepl"c­
• In part, his tri!glc ni!tUl'"e. Un­
Uel, Who are returning to the
be midst of the destructLve forces
of the frontier, In the no-man's land between sdv0gery and clvl1lzMlon,
In the Interface of becoming: he 15 a man without a cross.
SpeakIng of The !llil.§!s.l, Levi Peterson claIms the novel celebrates
the loss of wilderness values, thus bringing into "Cull eJtpresslon a feellnQ
submerged Ln the American consciousness from Cooper forward. ,,56 The
feeling submerged. in the American consciousness, assuming Peterson Is
correct. from Cooper forward Is one ot catharsls--catharsls growln';l from
the tIagLc predicament of Natty Bumppo. Our celebration exalts not the
frontler, but wilderness before there was a frontler, not the felling of the
forests, but the sUence that hung between the trunks before the axe was
conceived. We accompl1sh our celebrattons only throu';lh catharsts. Even
Thoreau'l; famoul; celebration of wUdemess came only atter he dtllcussed
the IIltuation of the American backwoodsman and the "westward star of
empire." [t was a cathartic longing for the wUd, perhaps sparked by
Cooper, that brought Thoreau to say: "The West of which I speak IB but
another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to Bay IB, that
tn Wlldness Is the preservatton of the World, ,,57 Ironically, thoreau's
statement about wildness grew from an enthuslastLc discussion of the Great
Western Pioneer pursuing his manifest destiny.
As tor tragIc innuences In Mohicans, a few matters remain:
Cooper's HI health during the wrltln';l of the novel, and Cora's mtscege­
natton, Evidently, COOper wrote parts of the novel durtng hLs bout with
a lingering fever, tn almost a fit of passion. Although Philbrick claims
that Cooper's poor health "significantly Influenced the texture and tendency
of the book as a whole, ,,58 there Is, I thLnk, little cause to believe his
sickness influenced his perceptLon of the fronUer, and thus his Important
statements about tragedy 1n the novel,
Cora's mlsceqenatlon, as meat for tragedy, Is another matter, Cora,
whose grandmother was mulattO, 59 could have functioned much more promi­
nently as tragic hero had Cooper chosen to exploit her racial predicament.
AlthOUgh there are brief allusions In the novel to her racial statUI, they
serve only to make her Beem slightly taboo. There Is little myth or magic
connected with her aetions or her personality: unfortunately, her defiance
and pluck In the face of danger are not closely connected to her genealoqy:
although her death Is tragic, she certainly does not l'ttatn the 'status of
tragic hero to the extent that Montcalm and Uncas do.
Although Aristotle gave us important tools for l'ssesslhg the extent
and worth of tragedy In literature, his tools are not necessarlly definitive
when dealing with tragedy in Western Uterature, for the frontIer experience
In America so complicated the poslllbllltles for tragedy thl't other tools,
other ways of Interpreting history in modern culture are needed. Usll'lQ new
and old tools to Interpret tragedy In Ihil.l&.i..t.,Qf..1l:l& MohiCanS not only helps
us Sge the essentially tragic nature of the book, but hopefully offen one
reason for the book's remarkable popularIty.
I have no way of knowing how many of my students 1n the Indtan
Literature course actultlly saw the novel's traglc 1mpllcatlons, but I am
reasonably certain they enjoyed the book largely because it is a complex
work of tri!gedy, and In that trllgedy thelt own catharsis was realized In
Cooper's portrlllYl'l of the frontier experience,
16
NOTES
1 Eighty-one years ago Twain's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary
Offenses, was published. It was, I think, Twain who began the full­
scale scoffing.
U
2 For a textual example of this lack of sentence sense see pp.
200-201 of Mohicans (Boston: The iUverslde Press, I95B), ed. WilUam
Charvat. In this scene Uncas and Natty and Heyward dlscuss moccasin
prints. The point of the scene (not the sentences) is that the Indians are
wtse: Heyward is lqnorant.
3 The remaining five parts are plot, character, thought, spectacle.
and melody.
4 Aristotle, Poetics; A Translation and Commental)'l2LStudent~
of Literature, eds. Leon Golden and 0.8, Hardison (Englewood Cliffs,
N. T.' Prentice-Hall, 1968), p. II.
5 Ibid., p. 22.
6 Ibid., p. 22.
1 Don D. Walker. "Riders and Redlity; A Philosophical Problem
in the HistorIography 01 the Cattle Trade," The Western Historical
~arterly LX (Spring 197B): p. 113.
B Levi S. Peterson, "Tragedy and Western American Literature,"
Western American Literature 6 CW-inter 1977l: p. 244.
9 Poetics, p. 20.
10 Peterson, p. 249.
II The words here are mine, but the ideas COme essentially from
Book J, "The Garden of the World," of Henry Nash Smith's YI..!':Ii!l Lar4
(New York: Random House, 1950).
12 Thomas Hornsby FeITH has noted that "Reeky Mountain Hterature
is devitalized by a low-grade mystlclsm dictated by landscape." He findS
this "God-finding" destructive and non-arUstlc. See "Writing in the
Rockies," Rocky MountaiQ Reader, ed. Ray B. West, PP. 395-403. FeITH's
article was originally pubLished in the Saturday Review of Books.
13 See Meriwether Lewls. Ori.qin~ 10\1I"nals of the Lewis anel Clark
Dtpeditlon: 1B04-..!.!I.Q§ , ed. Reuben G. Thwaites (New York; Dodd, Mead
and Co., 1904), VoL 2, pp. 155-159.
Jil Graham's article, "Tragedy and Western American Literature;
The D<ample of Michael Straight' 5 8 ~ Small Remnant," Is forthcoming
In the Denver QuarterlY.
15 Mohlca~, p. xviiI.
17
16 Ibid., p. 9.
17 Ibid., p. v.
~n1more
COOper's Literary
:, TwaIn who beg ",In the full­
~
of sentence sense see pp.
~e Press, 1958), ed. William
nd H~ard discuss moccasin
ltences) is that the Indians are
character, thought, spectacle,
and Commentary ~ Students
Hardison {Englewood Cliffs,
18
Robert H. Zoellner, "ConceptulIl Ambtvalence In Cooper's
Leatherstocklng," American Literature 31 Oanuary 19(0), p. 407.
19 See Thomas Philbrick, "The Last.Qf the Mohic;ami and the Sounds
of Di seord, n AmerIcan J;ctterature 42 (March 1!l7l), p. 2S.
ZOIbid., p. 25.
21 Ibid., p. 27. For 11 dlscusslon of moraL anarchy see Donald
Davie, The Heyday of S1r WaLter Scott (London, 19(1), p. Ill.
22 See David P. French, "James Fenimore Cooper and Fort William
ReIllY," Amerie!!" Literature 32 (March 19(0): pp. 28-38 and Thom<lS
Philbric:l<., "The Sources of Cooper's Knowledge of Fort Wllliam Henry, n
American Literature 36 (1964): pp. 209-214.
23 French, p. 29.
24 Poetics, XXIII.
tty: A PhHosophlcal Problem
th§'. Westem Historical
restern American Litera.ture,"
25 See Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (Boston: Little,
------Brown. and Company, 1924), Vall, p. 527. Montcalm and his officers
could do little or nothing to allay the blood-lust of the Indians.
26 Ibid., p. 490.
): p. 244.
27 It was Bougainville who claimed that "here in the forests of
America we can no more do without them than without cavalry on the
pLain." Montcalm and Wolfe. Vol. I, p. 499.
28 Mohicans, p. 3.
Ideali come essentially from
ry Nash Smith's Virgin Land
:hat "Rocky Mountain I1terature
~ated by landscape.
He finds
.stlc. See "Writing in the
B. West, pp. 395-403. Ferrtl's
~~..£! Books.
H
lUmals of the Lewis and Clark
raltes {New York: Dodd, Mead
estern Americi'ln Literature:
Remnant," Is forthcoming
~
29 By prehistoric I simply mean that which existed before, or In­
dependently of, history--l1l<.e the practice of naming among primitive
peoples.
30 Claude Levi-Strauss,.Illi'~M.1nd. (Chicago: The Univentty
of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 245 •
31
Ibid., p. 263.
32 Some may argue that Cooper's savages are not savage or
primitive in the anthropol09lcal sense of the terms, but merely cardboard
romantics drawn hom the era of the Noble Savage. There is some truth
to this argument, but there Is also a great deal of untruth. Cooper seems
to have captured the folkways of the Eastern lrtbes in some remarkable
ways. The lmport<tnce, for example, of the emblem at the turtle to the
Delawi'lres Is presented tn an ethn09ri'lphici'llly first-rate fashion. There
is evidence thi'lt COOper was an observer of the real [ndian in the woods of
New York. See J.A. Russell, "Cooper: Interpreter of the Rei'll i'lnd the
IS
Hlatorical Indian. " Journal5!f Amer1can _H~tory 23 (1929): p. 44.
33 Mohicans, p. 37.
340 Zoellner, p. 3911.
35 Tbtd .. p. 402,
36 Ibid"
p. 404.
37 1n a note to the text Cooper wrote: "Thua 1n <! r.ew countly, the
woeds and other ob1ecta, whteh ill an old countly would be maintained at
great cost, are got rid of. simply w1th a VIew of 'ImproVing,' elS It [s
called." Mohlcelna, p. 62.
38 Mohicans, p. 127.
39 Ibid., p, 22e,
40 Tbld .. p, 149,
41 Ibid., p, 206.
42 IbId .. p. 233.
43 rhtlbrlcll, In lI.ls artlc\e, "the Sounds 01 ~1.9cOfd." cllllB the
expresalon i:I. boast. ! Ilee It as '" lll&temcnt of angst ane despair. See p.
39.
44 Th\s Is Tnomae. PhHbrick's assertion 1n "The Last
and the So"'nds of Dla<,;o,(1," p. 39.
2! ~ MohIcanS
45 Mohicans, p. 132.
46 See p. 54 of Peterson's "J<,;<!ntta Broo~;.a: The MOnDon ::l:lstorla:)
aa Traqedlan," Io"'rnal of Marmo] History '3 (1976): p, 5",
47 "for a ctlBcus81cm of the Importance of Coo;ler'3 worlls to ei'lrly
perceptions oC the West, see my artld" , "femtmare Cooper (l,nd the
Exploratlon of the Great Weat," Heritage of ~r:l.!!as:
Journal ~!!:'!:
9-Le.'!tPlaJn!'l 10 (Spring' 1977): pp. 15-24.
a
T~.e
48 D.H. Lawrence, ~L1n ClauilcAmfdcan LlterAture (New York.~
Vlldng Press, 1966). P. 5A.
49 I am not r:lalll'l1nq Cooper was responsible for manlfest deattnY.
He obViously wasn't. But his wOl'ks directly affected many Aalert<.:aos'
t:h1nl<1ng abOut the we5tward movement.
50 Mohicans, p. 37Z,
51 Donald Darnell, "Vncas as Hero: Tre UI21 S"nt Fonnula In lh!!.
I&&QJ the Mohlcanl5.· ~c\l,n Literature 37 (Novel11bqr 1965): p. 259.
52 Iuld., P. 263,
19
tory 23 (1929): p. 44.
53 See V11lj11n Land, pp. 59-70.
54 DlImell, p. 26S.
55 Ibid •• p. 266.
56 "Traqedy and Western Amerlcan Literlllture," p. 248.
~
: bThus 1n a new country, the
CWItry would be maintained at
.. of 'Improving.' as it ts
J
1
57 Henry Davtd Thoreau. "welking-. " in.I!:!.£ WrtUn98 of 1:i.!..!x::i
Thoreau (BOlitoO: Houghton Mlfflln Co •• IllS3). vol. 9. pp. 266­
267.
58
"!!J£ Lost QJ the MoMeans and the Sounda of Dhcord, p. 28.
M
S9 Mohicans, p. 172 •
.mcls of Diae<K'<:l." calls the
t of ll.D;lst and despair.
See p.
on in "The Last of the Mohicans
rooks: The Mormon Historian
(1976h p. 54.
:e of Cooper's wor"'s to early
'em1more Cooper ;:lnd the
I!!:!..n!: A loumol of the
& American Lltera1:l,l,IJl {New York:
IOllslble for mantfest destiny.
V Ilffeeted many Americans'
,
The Wll Sunt Formu III In Ih!
3? (November ]965): p. 259.
-
---.J