The Last of the Mohicans Character Analysis

Hawkeye

Also known as Natty Bumppo and La Longue Carabine, Hawkeye is a white man who has lived with Uncas and Chingachgook, “the last of the Mohicans” in the New York forests, for many years… read analysis of Hawkeye

Uncas

Truly the last of the Mohican warriors, as he is the only son of Chingachgook, Uncas is devoted to his father and to Hawkeye, and fights with great valor against the Mingos and… read analysis of Uncas

Chingachgook

Uncas’s father, Chingachgook is a stoic and skilled warrior, and a close friend of Hawkeye’s. Chingachgook must watch over the funeral of his son at the close of the novel, and he celebrates his… read analysis of Chingachgook

Duncan Heyward

A Major in the “Royal American” (English) army, Duncan fights against the French and their Mingo allies. At the beginning of the novel, he is tasked with escorting Cora and Alice Munro from Fort William… read analysis of Duncan Heyward

Magua

The novel’s antagonist, and a high-ranking Huron warrior (itself a subset of the Mingo, or Iroquois, tribes), Magua wishes to defeat the English and Mohican / Delaware forces, and also to take Cora, Munro’s… read analysis of Magua

Cora Munro

The older of Colonel Munro’s two daughters, with dark hair and a strong, courageous disposition, Cora is the daughter of Munro’s first wife, herself of a partly West Indian line. It is strongly implied that… read analysis of Cora Munro

Colonel Munro

Commander of Fort William Henry, near Lake George, the English Colonel Munro is the father of Alice and Cora, and the head of a doomed attempt to resist the siege led by Montcalm… read analysis of Colonel Munro

David Gamut

A psalmodist, or singer and teacher of hymns, David Gamut meets with Heyward, Alice, and Cora on the initial trip from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry. Although Gamut has never fired a… read analysis of David Gamut

Marquis de Montcalm

Head of the French forces in the siege of Fort William Henry, Montcalm is considered, by English and French alike, a just and noble soldier. However, this assessment comes into doubt after Munro, and… read analysis of Marquis de Montcalm

Tamenund

Patriarch of the Native American Delaware village neighboring the Huron village, in the second half of the novel, Tamenund orders that Cora be taken off by Magua, since she is “rightly” Magua’s prisoner. Tamenund… read analysis of Tamenund

Minor Characters

Alice Munro

Munro’s younger daughter, Alice has fair hair and is of a more nervous, less courageous disposition. Her mother was an English noblewoman, and the second of Munro’s wives. Alice becomes engaged to Heyward at the end of the novel, though she greatly mourns her sister Cora’s death.

General Webb

Commander of Fort Edward, Webb refuses to send reinforcements to help defend the English Fort William Henry, thus causing Munro to have to surrender to Montcalm, and leading, indirectly, to the massacre there that nearly kills all the members of Heyward’s and Hawkeye’s band.