The Last of the Mohicans

While the actual historical event of the French and Indian War (1757) frames this novel, Cooper uses history primarily as a springboard for the imagined relationships among his fictional characters. Moreover, the historical setting is not realistic. Cooper might mention one or two real battles, but he intentionally tempers this realism with such devices as outlandish disguises and improbable last-minute heroics. Cooper includes the comic effects of Hawkeye dressed as a bear and Chingachgook disguised as a beaver. The Last of the Mohicans is a romance, a genre deriving from the British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century that emphasizes imagination over reason and allows for comedy. Cooper uses history as a frame and fills it with the imaginative movements of the romance plot.

For Europeans, the frontier was almost uncharted territory, land not yet controlled by a government or divided up into parcels. The wilds of the frontier seem to inspire illicit desires, such as Uncas’s and Cora’s desire for one another. It also seems an appropriate backdrop for outbreaks of violence such as the Indians’ sudden massacre of the English at Fort William Henry. The frontier allows for communion with nature. Hawkeye lives the idealized version of frontier life. A mixture of white and Indian cultures, Hawkeye lives according to the natural rhythms of the landscape, which encourage and celebrate his long-lasting friendship with the Mohican Chingachgook. The Last of the Mohicans prizes nature over European civilization.