In class last Thursday, the topic of Cora as a strong (or at least stronger than usual) female character came up in the discussion. Cora acts as a female character that strays away from normal stereotypes. She's heroic, willing to sacrifice herself, and does not sit idly by. Sounds like a pretty exceptional female character, right? Eh, not quite. She provides a prime contrast to Alice, who is a fairly weak character in comparison, yet does not achieve the same level of desirability. Is it just her mixed ethnicity that is off-putting, or is it her heroism as well? Is it the fact that Cora is more independent and daring that makes her less appealing? The conventional relationship of Alice and Heyward has hope to prevail at the end of the novel, leaving a fiery atypical female character without a happy ending (though I was not surprised considering this is a novel written in the early 1800's).
However, I came across this article, and what struck me most after reading the fates of these two women in The Last of the Mohicans alongside this article was the prominence of this idea of a "strong female lead that still needs saving," even in today's society. This novel, written before any obvious women's suffrage movements, shows an early demonstration of how female characters, even when they are apparently strong and independent, are unable to fulfill a happy ending without the aid of some heroic figure, if at all. After reading the aforementioned article about the weakness in today's lead female characters in popularized films, I found parallels between the author's criticism of so-called strong female characters and how Cora fits into The Last of the Mohicans. In particular, the author of the article notes that when a strong female character is threatened or captured by the villain (cue Cora's capture scene), it seems that breaking down her pride is fundamentally her primary importance in the story. And so of course, Cora gets captured, needs her heroic lead to rescue her, but even that doesn't happen, and the significantly less multi-dimensional Alice is rescued instead.
With this, is Cooper basically implying that submissive women are more successful? Maybe. Or at least that's the fate of this novel anyway. And has that sentiment changed overtime in today's pop culture and film? Not really, as even "strong female leads" quite often depend on their heroic rescues. This is not to say that all movies and films in pop culture today are anti-feminist and there does not exist any "true" strong female lead, but rather to show how the weak female character development in this novel, even being written centuries ago, has not quite yet been outdated.
Really interesting article! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting comparison and I like that you don't refute the appearance of strong female leads in modern movies or books, but that you attach older female characters to a necessary strong male "rescuer." I'm not sure that the capturing of Cora is meant to break down her pride, however. I'm partial to the belief that Cora is made into a martyr throughout the story. She pleads/argues with Magua and Tanemund on behalf of the natives and in the end dies as a "strong," pure female character that is revered by the natives (ignoring Cooper's racist implications here). I don't think Cora is the damsel in distress because women are weak characters and the men should be the heroes, rather because Cooper needed one of the women to die in order to turn her into a martyr for (watered down versions of) open-mindedness, courage, and purity. I believe Cora would be considered one of the heroes of the story, at least morally, to a 19th century audience.
ReplyDeleteI think all the layers of your argument are really interesting... On the one hand, you have the modern concept of women, and the fact that we as a society believe we've made great strides in gender equality. Then, it appears that we still subconsciously have issues with strong women; finally, you point out that we haven't really progressed past the time of this novel. I really struggle with Cooper's treatment of women in the novel, as he seems like he's almost, maybe making a progressive point about women, right up until Cora dies and meek little Alice gets eternal love. I think the topic makes a good case for the argument that he didn't entirely know what he was doing when it came to novel writing.
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