The Deerslayer | Social Hierarchy
In the following essay, Darnell explores social hierarchy and the tragedy that can follow aspirations to rise above “one’s place.”
The Deerslayer: Cooper’s Tragedy of Manners
Beginning with D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature in 1922, criticism of The Deerslayer for more than fifty years has ultimately examined it as a romance, emphasizing its mythic and pastoral qualities. While the persistence of this approach is not surprising considering the quest plot and Edenic setting of the work, what is remarkable is the absence of commentary on the strong textual evidence of a radically different dimension of the novel. This other dimension is most sharply...
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