The Last of the Mohicans

Alice is one of Colonel Munro’s two daughters who is traveling to Fort William Henry with Cora and Heyward before they encounter Bumppo and his group. As a character in the novel, Alice is not given a great deal of dialogue. In some ways, she represents a stereotypical damsel-in-distress, such as when Bumppo and his group work to retrieve her after she is captured by Magua. On the other hand, Alice does show a streak of independence or moral fortitude, as when she speaks up to convince her group to let Gamut accompany them, or when she refuses to respond to Heyward’s confession of his feelings for her until she can rejoin her father.

As readers discover through a conversation between Colonel Munro and Heyward, Alice is named after Munro’s second wife and first love, who died not long after Alice’s birth. Thus, she is particularly special to the Colonel. This background information helps to explain the symbolic importance of the reunion of the Colonel and his daughters. When they are reunited, it represents a link to the British/Scottish past of the settlers, which will dramatically transform in the decades after the action of the novel as the United States is established as independent—echoing the dramatic transformation of Munro’s family by the end of the novel, including Cora’s death.

Chingachgook is a respected Mohican warrior, Bumppo’s friend, and one of the “last” Mohicans that give Cooper’s novel its title. Chingachgook, like the other Native Americans in the novel, is not given much dialog, but his actions throughout the text demonstrate his bravery, skill in battle, and knowledge of the wilderness. By the end of the novel, Chingachgook is changed in the sense that he becomes the last of the Mohicans (of those in Bumppo’s group, not of the tribe as a whole), after his son Uncas is killed by Magua in the novel’s final battle. Chingachgook’s character does not undergo an evolution over the course of The Last of the Mohicans, but rather maintains his characteristics. Even in the emotional scene of Uncas’s and Cora’s funerals in Chapter 33, Chingachgook is depicted as being the model of stoicism and strength he has been throughout the novel.

Colonel Munro is an officer of the British army, and as such is the primary representative of the British colonial power within the novel. As he shares with Heyward, his origins were quite different than the distinguished position he gained: He grew up very poor, pining for his first love, and was only able to establish himself after serving in the military in the West Indies. Munro lost both his first and second wives, but has remained devoted to his daughters, and is overjoyed when they are reunited. However, by the end of The Last of the Mohicans, Munro is broken, having suffered a military loss at William Henry, witnessed the massacre at the fort, and lost his daughter Cora. His losses symbolize the changing face of America as British colonial power began to loosen and the groundwork of the independent United States emerged.

Cora Munro is the elder of Colonel Munro’s daughters and the child of his first wife, who was distantly descended from slaves in the West Indies and had a diverse racial background. She is devoted to both her father and to her sister Alice. Within Cooper’s novel, Cora is given more of the spotlight than Alice. While Alice is sometimes fearful, Cora is consistently brave and cunning. She shows her intelligence when attempting to leave a trail for Bumppo to follow after she and Alice are captured by Magua. Her bravery is shown on several occasions, as when she directly asks what Magua wants, then refuses his request for her and Alice to live with him. Similarly, she refuses to leave her sister when Alice is later recaptured, and she shows boldness when directly addressing Tamenund and suggesting he talk to Uncas when negotiating Magua’s demands. Cora is consistent in showing herself to be brave and outspoken, not fearing to speak directly to her friends and foes alike. 

David Gamut first emerges as a mysterious figure in The Last of the Mohicans, stumbling into Heyward’s traveling party in the wilderness and not even revealing his name at first. Later, he reveals his identity as a Connecticut music teacher. His poetic, cultured personality forms a stark contrast to the scrappy wilderness savvy of Bumppo or the Mohicans. However, as the plot of The Last of the Mohicans unfolds, Gamut’s strengths shine. On numerous occasions, he skillfully uses the power of music to calm or rally those around him. Moreover, he also shows bravery and selflessness, as when he agrees to travel with Alice ad Cora to protect them, and above all when he offers to pose as the captured Uncas in the Huron encampment, fully realizing he may lose his life when the ruse is inevitably discovered. Early in the novel, Gamut declares he has no interest in battle, but in the end he kills a Huron, showing how he has transformed over the course of the novel as a result of his experiences with Bumppo’s group and among their Huron enemies.

Referred to as either Duncan or Heyward throughout the novel, Duncan Heyward, born in the Virginia colony, is a major in the British forces. His official duty is to oversee the transport of Alice and Cora back to their father Colonel Munro at William Henry. Throughout the group’s adventures and misfortunes, Heyward acts with bravery and intelligence. However, he lacks the experience of foresight to navigate the wilderness and the nuances of Native American culture. For this reason, he is often dependent on the knowledge and experience of Bumppo, such as when the frontiersman has to urge Heyward to duck down in their canoe (which Heyward thought cowardly, according to British military customs) to avoid being shot by enemies. 

However, as the novel’s plot unfolds, Hayward shows a readiness to learn and to adapt in order to complete his mission and protect Alice and Cora. This is most notably shown when Heyward agrees to go directly into the enemy Huron encampment, disguised as a French medicine man, fully aware that doing so that he does so at great risk to his life, but guided by his strong desire to rescue Colonel Munro’s daughters.

Even more so than the French forces, Magua is the antagonist of The Last of the Mohicans. His opposition to the British, to Bumppo, and to Bumppo’s allies is both ideological and personal. He is working to undermine the British presence in the Hudson area because he views it as the enemy of his tribe and way of life. At the same time, he has a personal vengeance against Colonel Munro, who humiliated him after he became addicted to alcohol. Thus, Magua’s demands, including his desire to take Alice and Cora for his own, are both a way of damaging the British in general and a way of getting revenge against Munro.

As the antagonist, Magua does not undergo a real personal transformation or evolution over the course of the novel. If anything, it can be said that his anger toward and hatred of the British becomes more entrenched, and it leads to more violence. However, the revelation about Magua’s weakness—his alcoholism, which he attributes to the British—does make his character seem more vulnerable and perhaps worth some sympathy, at least when viewed against the larger context of the brutal and sometimes systematic decimation of the Native American inhabitants of colonial America.