LITR 5535: American Romanticism
 
Sample Student Research Project 2005

Phil Thrash

                                                 Magua: Chief  Byron  

     James Fenimore Cooper’s Byronic treatment of Magua in The Last of the Mohicans effectively and relevantly created and captured many major themes of American Romanticism.   Cooper’s wide range, depth of settings, and attitudinal characterization of Magua shows many of the basic romantic spiritual and ideological elements of romanticism, which made this novel a prime example, prototype, and a genesis for American Romanticism literature.  Magua is a hybrid Byronic hero, and exhibits many of the attributes and characterizations attributed to a Byronic hero, yet, has anti-hero traits differing from traditional heroic traits to point of being the anti-thesis to heroic.   Some of Byron’s works, criticisms, and other’s characteristics of a Byronic hero will be examined, compared, contrasted, and analyzed in dialogue with Cooper’s treatment of Magua to show apparent European Romantic and Byronic influences on Cooper.  Desire and loss, rebelliousness, nostalgia, gothic, quest, and journeys crossing physical, social and racial boundaries are romantic ideals Cooper captured through his Byronic treatment of Magua.  Cooper, as America’s first major novelist, sets out on a literary cerebral adventure in this masterpiece of literature.  He embodies an adventurous plethora of romantic ideas, with some complex ambivalence regarding his portrayal as hero, or villain, Magua, Chief Byron.

     Magua first appears in Mohicans, as an exhausted Indian runner who had brought Munro’s request for reinforcement of Fort William Henry, from pending French attack, to General Webb of Fort Edward.  Magua initially is recovering from a journey, a romantic device, to set up the situational historical-romantic conflict of the first global war, between the French and English.   Munro’s daughters, a military officer, and a religious song singer are looking at horses for their trip to Fort William Henry, when Cooper first introduces Magua.  Cooper’s initial description of Magua includes, “Although in a state of perfect repose, and apparently disregarding, with characteristic stoicism, the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sudden fierceness mingled with the quite of the savage, that was likely to arrest the attention of much more experienced eyes, than those which now scanned him in unconcealed amazement.   His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native  wildness.” (Cooper, 18)  Cooper has pictured Magua as a Byronic stoic loner, uninterested in the affairs the persons surrounding him and with a “sudden fierceness of a savage.” (Cooper, 18)  The immediate romantic facets of racial and social separation or boundaries are established from Cooper’s Byronic descriptions of Magua.   This description could also infer that Magua’s mental make-up evidences Byronic characteristics of independence, self-centeredness, and self-reliance.  As a savage, he is socially separated from those around him much as Byron separated himself from others, with whom he did not wish to associate.  A glimpse at Magua’s first physical manifestation shows his eye is like a “fiery star, amid clouds in a state of native wildness.”  (Cooper, 18)  Cooper utilizes the gothic “good vs. evil” romantic treatment of light and dark in his words, “fiery star,” or light, and dark, “amid clouds,” in this first physical description of Magua.  Magua through this description exhibits the Byronic paradox of having good and evil characteristics.  Cooper has utilized Byronic hero characteristics as well as romantic devices, to portray Magua’s introduction as being anti-social, an outsider, with dark qualities, defiant nature, and a wanderer, returned from a recent journey, yet, on a greater personal, darker quest.

        Cooper by having Cora attracted to some of Magua’s physical attributes, injects Byronic sexual allusions.   Byron liked women, and women liked Byron.   Byron’s physical attributes included extremely good looks which appealed to the opposite sex, and he had a deformed foot which invoked pity from others.  In Mohicans, while getting ready for the trip to Fort William Henry, Cooper describes Magua’s movements and Cora’s and Alice’s responses; “a slight exclamation came from the younger…as the Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly....Though this sudden and startling movement of the Indian produced no sound from the other, an indescribable look of pity, admiration and horror, as her dark eye followed the easy motions of the savage.   Her complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds.” (Cooper, 19)    Cooper captures romantic aspects of desire and loss in this passage.  Alice shows fear or loss of security, and Cora shows a not too subtle desire for the “easy motions of the savage.” (Cooper, 19)  Magua the dark outsider, was attractive to Cora, much like many women were attracted to Byron for his physical attributes as well as his darker qualities.  Cora also indicated a pity, yet, admiration and horror, reflective of the sublime attribute in romanticism, as she looked at Magua.  Cora initially accepted Magua, without censure, as Byron thought Childe Harold should be accepted as acting on natural primeval laws of behavior.  Byronic hero characteristics of physical attraction and desire, associated sublimely with danger, and horror, seem to be used by Cooper concurrently with romantic mechanisms to present this initial relationship between Cora and Magua.  

     Magua up until this point in the story is vaguely hinted at, as having been punished by Munro, to receive little if any of the reader’s sympathies as a Byronic hero. He has been shown to be solitary and anti-social, much as was Childe Harold, in Byron’s poem. 

                  Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng;

                  But viewed them not with misanthropic hate;

                  Fain would he now have joined the dance, the song;

                  But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate?

                                                                                        (Childe Harold, I, 84)

Magua could be compared to Childe Harold as a child of nature with gothic characteristics.   Magua was confronted by Heyward, after Hawkeye told him that Magua was not leading them to Fort William Henry.  Magua, seemingly possessed of a Byronic hero’s supernatural awareness, sensed Heyward and Hawkeye’s plan to capture or kill him for his apparent treachery, and escaped into the woods.   Magua did not mingle with the throng of the white men, nor join or succumb to Heyward in his attempts to patronize him into allowing himself to be captured.   Magua returns to nature in this his latest fate.  He separates from the whites he was supposed to guide, as a Byronic outcast, apparently dangerous to those he was to guide and protect.   The Byronic characteristic of paradox is evidenced in Magua at this point, as he appears to be a rebel without a cause.

     Cooper has Magua cross many boundaries throughout the novel.  Magua’s initial alliance with Munro is defied.   He rejects Munro’s authority and seems to be bent on a Byronic quest to blaze his trail of individualism.  His quest at this point is speculative, yet, it is apparent that he exhibits Byronic tendencies to go outside the white man’s virtues and laws and delights in evil by defiantly following his own mission.

The following characterization from Byron’s Childe Harold is associated to one descriptive of Magua:

                                    But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell,

                                    And there hath been thy bane; there is a fire

                                    And motion of the soul which will not dwell

                                    In its own narrow being, but aspire

                                    Beyond the fitting medium of desire;

                                    And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore,

                                    Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire

                                    Of aught but rest; a fever at the core,

                                    Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore.

                                                                                                          (Childe Harold III, 42)

Magua is shown through Cooper’s treatment to have the Byron’s Childe Harold characteristics of fire in his soul that is unquenchable, tireless, requires adventure, yet will be nihilistically fatal in the final part of the novel.  Much as Byron’s Childe Harold delighted in evil company and loose women, Magua will be further developed by Cooper to show these Byronic characteristics.  Cooper uses this Byronic and romantic mechanism to establish a schism between the Indians and Whites.   The Indians of Magua are portrayed as evil, and the white’s expansion seems accepted as good.  Again the gothic color tool of light vs. dark or good vs. evil is used.  The romantic ideal of crossing boundaries shows the both historical perspective and romantic notion of separation of the races in early American society.   Cooper’s delineation in this area is indicative of his remarkable ability as a social commentator of the historical period, and the versatility of his historical romantic novels.   Cooper’s characterization of Magua in Byronic terms was of a general nature in the first portion of the novel, and left Magua’s, or Chief Byron’s specific motivations and objectives of his quest as uncertain, dark speculations in the reader’s mind’s eye.

      Magua fled into the woods, evaded harm’s way, in a manner Cooper, will mention later was characteristic of “an ancient poetic hero’s avoidance of hazards.” (Cooper, 335)  Hawkeye explained that Magua had intended to capture the small party.   Hawkeye knew the peril of the small party and volunteered to help, and led them to the Glen Falls caverns for a safe haven.   Magua, on his Byronic quest, to seek his own justice through revenge, together with his loyal band were on their trail. After a fierce fire fight, which depleted the party’s ammunition, Cora suggested that Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook save themselves, by departing via the river.  The scout, and the two Indians departed, and Magua and his band captured Cora, Alice, Heyward and David.   Cooper blends Byronic characteristics in Magua’s dialogue with the captives, to the point that one can see clear parallels between Magua’s motivations and actions and to those of Byron’s own actions and his hero’s actions in his poems.   Magua spoke to Cora, “Magua was born a chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes; he saw the sun of twenty summers and the snow of twenty winters run off in the streams, before he saw a pale face; and he was happy!  Then his Canada fathers came into the woods, and taught him to drink the fire-water, and he became a rascal, and eventually was a warrior with the Mohawks.  The Hurons drove him from the graves of his fathers, and his wife was given to another Huron chief.” (Cooper, 102-103)  Byron had been a “chief” as a Lord, and an overnight literary success after Childe Harold, in a manner that Magua had been a fulfilled Huron chief before the pale-face arrived.  Byron pursued pleasures of the flesh with his half-sister who bore their child after the incestuous relationship.  He was scorned by the English, and left England, as an outcast, for his perceived sin of incest, which could be seen as analogous to Magua’s banishment by the Hurons for his consumption of alcohol.   Byron’s misfortunes were chronicled in Childe Harold, as were the Native American’s misfortunes captured by Cooper’s Mohicans.

      Reading Cooper from a Native American’s perspective, one could be very sympathetic to Magua’s misfortunes as being a result of the White man’s subjugation of the Native American in early American history.   Cooper further illustrates Magua’s misfortunes, as Byron did his own in Childe Harold, by Magua’s continued conversation with Cora after her initial capture.   Magua said to Cora, “If an Indian swallowed the fire-water, it would not be forgotten by her father Munro.  Magua foolishly opened his mouth and the hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. The Huron chief was tied up and whipped like a dog before all the pale-faced warriors.  Magua was not himself, it was the fire-water that spoke and acted for him, but Munro did not believe it.  The Spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers forever!” (Cooper, 103)     Magua had committed a Byronic sin or severe indiscretion in the eyes of the white man, and was receiving punishment, even though it was the white man who introduced alcohol to the Indian.   Magua like a Byronic hero felt the injustices of a new institution, the emergence of the White race’s dominance over the Indian race and lands.   As a Byronic hero from the Native American perspective, Magua understandably seeks justice from those who rendered him these injustices and misfortunes. Cooper creates through these Byronic inferences, ambivalences in the novel to show two conflicting perspectives, the White perspective, and the Indian perspective, of the historical development of America, and separation of the races in early America.   The revenge actions of Magua towards his captives, representative of oppression of the White expansionist methods, could be justified, by one trying to understand and empathize with the plight of the Indian created by the White man’s expansion.

      As Byron had many unrequited love affairs, Magua had been stripped of his wife.   Part of his revenge quest or journey towards his Byronic justice was to take Cora as his wife.  This could show the Byronic hero’s impulse or desire to pine for human acceptance despite his loner’s angst.  Magua had clearly voiced his melancholy restatement of his misfortunes, and need for a cure, through the dialogue with Cora.  As Byron was jaded by his unrequited love affairs, and scandal, he left England on his journey, as did Childe Harold, and did so without remorse.    This could be analogous to Magua’s plight as seen through the following from Childe Harold.

                                 And now Childe Harold was sore

                                       sick at heart,                            

                                And from his fellow bacchanals

                                        would flee;

                                 Tis said, at times the sullen tear

                                        would start,

                                 But Pride congealed the drop within

                                       his eye:

                                 Apart he stalked in joyless reverie,

                                 And from his native land resolved

                                       to go,

                                 And visit scorching climes beyond

                                       the sea;

                                 With pleasure drugged, he almost

                                       longed for woe,

                                 And even for change of  scene would

                                        seek the shades below.

                                                                                 (Childe Harold, I, 104)

Byron through this passage of Childe Harold set up the Byronic hero’s melancholy separation, yet, strong individualistic quest.  This passage seems to indicate a Byronic characteristic of nihilism through the words, “With pleasure drugged, he almost longed for woe.”  Magua spoke further to Cora, “Let the daughter of the English chief follow, and live in Magua’s wigwam forever.” (Cooper, 104)   Magua’s love life had been interrupted and destroyed by his initial banishment from the Hurons, like Byron’s love affairs had been unrequited in England.  Magua set out on his Byronic journey for justice, as did Byron when he left England forever on his self-exile, both without remorse for their alleged sins.   Magua and Byron had the similarities of being dealt  perceived injustices by outside forces, and would come to terms of dealing with life on their own Byronic self established rules of behavior and morality, or immorality as the case may be.    Cora rejected Magua, and enraged, he set out to torture the captives.   Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook attacked Magua’s band set the captives free, yet, Magua, through his Byronic supernatural skills managed escape.

       The captives, scout, and the two Indians went to Fort William Henry, which became besieged and fell to the French.   Montcalm, the French general, guaranteed free and safe passage to the defenders of the Fort.   The group abandoned the fort and was attacked without mercy by Magua and his band of Indians.   Magua seized Cora and Alice and took them as captives again.   Hawkeye, Munro, Heyward, Uncas, and Chingachgook, knew that Magua had taken the captives and pursued them.  Magua had entrusted the care of Cora to a friendly tribe of the Delaware, while he kept Alice.   Alice escaped, and by tribal rights Magua got Cora back from the Delaware and vanished into the woods.   The tribes became influenced by Uncas, the very “Last of the Mohicans,” pursued Magua, and defeated his band of Indians.   Magua, aware of the defeat, seized Cora and fled to the mountains, with Uncas, Heyward and Hawkeye in hot pursuit.   Cooper alludes possibly to Byronic poetry in describing Magua’s recent escape through the words; “Still Magua, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort against his life, with that sort of fabled protection, that was made to overlook the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry.” (Cooper, 335)   The parallels here to the Byronic hero appear evident.  Magua surrounded by his adversaries, saw that he was nearing the end of his Byronic quest and said to Cora, “Woman, choose, the wigwam or the knife of le Subtil!” (Cooper, 337)  Cora rejected Magua’s offer, and Uncas suddenly appeared, and Magua killed Cora with his knife.    Uncas was distracted and Magua killed him.  Magua let out a victorious cry, “so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in the valley, a thousand feet below.” (Cooper, 337)   The Byronic hero had nearly finished his quest for justice, and ascended the mountain, to a point where, “one more leap would carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his safety.  Before taking the leap, he paused and shouted---The palefaces are dogs!  The Delaware women!  Magua leaves them on the rocks for the crows!” (Cooper, 337)  The delay brings to mind the line from Childe Harold, “With pleasure drugged, he almost longed for woe.”  This line by Bryon seems indicative of a nihilistic philosophy.  Magua was nihilistic towards the end of his quest when he determined the futility of pursuing Cora as a wife.  He became aware of his failure in this effort, yet, seemed to “be drugged with pleasure” of his victory in killing Cora and Uncas.  He was at a point in his Byronic quest for revenge and justice to be just one step, or one leap away from the peak or zenith of his journey.  He paused, filled “with pleasure drugged” from his recent kills, to verbalize his recrimination for the White man and the Delaware.  The Byronic line “he longed for woe,” was fulfilled as Cooper has Hawkeye dispatch Magua, as Magua fell short in the final leap for his quest.                          

      Remarkable similarities exist between Cooper’s and Byron’s oeuvres.  Byron was born in 1788, Cooper 1789, both during the beginning of the movement of European romanticism in literature which became the bridge or “reaction against the age of reason, neo-classicism, to bring emphasis on the imagination and emotions.” (Benet, 871)  Romanticism’s first manifestation appeared in Germany, with works of Schiller, and Goethe, and moved to France in Rousseau, sometimes considered the father of romanticism.  “English romanticism flourished from 1789 to 1832 and Byron became an overnight success with his first two Cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, published in 1812.” (Bernbaum, 187)  Childe Harold became and remains one of the most characteristic works of the Romantic Movement, and is the original source of the Byronic Hero concept.  Byron became one of England’s first romanticists, and his influences on literature, Western thought and philosophy are legend.

     American romanticism developed at a later date, and showed influences of its European predecessors in reflecting “German idealism, Rousseauistic nature worship, the Gothic novel, and the historical romance novel.” (Benet, 872)   Cooper was the first major American romanticism author and published The Last of the Mohicans in 1826.   It shows all of the aforementioned European Romanticism influences in addition to being a chronicle of the developing nation.   Being a literary person, Cooper was aware of Byron’s works, as Childe Harold was published in 1812.   His portrayal of Magua as a hybrid Byronic hero seems to be evident, when viewed with some more recent academic views of the Byronic hero.   Thorslev regarding the Byronic hero indicated,   “Romantic hero types—the Noble Outlaw, the Gothic Villain, --- Faust, Cain, or Satan, are invariably solitaries, and fundamentally and heroically rebellious, at first against society, and later against nature and God.  They are solitaries by choice of conscious moral decisions, which usually culminates in a tragic climatic event.” (Thorslev, 66)    The ‘Gothic Villain’ and the ‘Noble Outlaw’ are seen by Thorslev as hybrids of the Byronic hero who have many of the Byronic hero’s traits, yet, do not get the total sympathies of the reader.  “He is a figure having been wronged by society, and his rebellion is given a plausible motive. He is a leader of comrades with undying loyalty.” (Thorslev, 69)   Cooper depicted Magua clearly as a hybrid Byronic hero in the context of Thorslev’s characteristics of the ‘Gothic Villain’, and the ‘Noble Outlaw,’ both descriptive of a hybrid Byronic hero.

       “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.   There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.”  (Ecclesiastes 1: 9, 1: 11, RSV, 694)   Romanticism in literature is pervasive, seamless, still alive, yet it draws on ideas hundreds of years old.  The basic concepts have to be foundational verities, so that there very well may be “nothing new under the sun,” regarding fundamental romanticism concepts.  Students, and scholars of Romanticism, however, strive and thrive on the “remembrances of men of old,” and are romantically excited about “those who are yet to follow.”   The Byronic hero’s influences surfaced in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of The Mohicans as possibly some of the first Byronic influences in American Romanticism Literature.  Cooper’s influences are vast, and he is remembered and appreciated by students and scholars of American Romanticism.

                                              Bibliography; Works Cited:

Benet, William Rose, The Reader’s Encyclopedia, Second Edition, Thomas Crowell Publishers, Established 1834, New York, NY, 1965.

Bernbaum, Ernest, Guide Through the Romantic Movement, University of Illinois, The Ronald Press Company, New York, NY, 1949.

Cooper, James Fenimore, The Last of the Mohicans, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 1986.

Ecclesiastes, 1: 9, 1: 11, The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York, NY, 1952.

Thorslev, Peter L., The Byronic Hero, Types and Prototypes, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1962.