The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [316]
2 (p. 366) “the Sarpent and his wife will be safe, and that is some happiness, in any case”: Natty is not thinking straight. How will the Sarpent and Hist be safe? Hist has already warned him that no deals can be safely made with the Iroquois. Judith certainly feels that the present situation is another case of Natty’s “stubborn uprightness,” as she has termed it earlier, but she knows she cannot push him further now. The proposal from Rivenoak, when it is presented in chapter XXIII, will be unacceptable.
Chapter XXIII
1 (p. 382) “detarmined afore tomorrow’s sun has set”: Deerslayer expects that he will be dead by the end of the next day. It is currently the fourth night since Hurry Harry and Deerslayer arrived, and tomorrow will be the fifth day, when events will culminate. Harry certainly has few redeeming characteristics, but Cooper and the novel’s characters do not give much of a break to a man who risks encounters with Iroquois scouts to bring relief to his friends. Deerslayer’s strictures to lead the troops back are a little gratuitous since Harry has already announced his intention of doing just that. Cooper endowed even Floating Tom with a few generous feelings; for Hurry Harry, he has none. Cooper has Harry declare the wish that he had scalped the whole Iroquois camp, and Harry has him blame Deerslayer’s refusal to join in the initial scalping expedition for Deerslayer’s current fix.
Chapter XXIV
1 (p. 389) it had been erased ... as to render it impossible to read it: Judith thus does not know her mother’s family name, the name of her grandfather, or that of her father. She realizes she is an illegitimate child. She has a greater identity crisis than does Deerslayer, who at least has a name and knows the names of his parents. The suggestion of traces of insanity on the mother’s part and the masochistic desire to punish herself and the British officer who has thrown her over (by marrying the outlaw Thomas Hovey) contribute to the characterization of The Deerslayer as Cooper’s “dark” novel. Judith realizes, moreover, that Deerslayer cannot fathom what she is thinking, and that she had no notion of what she expected from him in examining the contents of the trunk.
2 (p. 394) “they’ll not thank anybody for the key”: Deerslayer here displays his clear understanding of Iroquois negotiating tactics. He is less persuasive in arguing that keeping his word is a higher good than staying and contributing to the defense of his friends. But Judith understands and accepts his decision, although some readers may feel that Cooper has, after all, created a “monster of goodness.”
3 (pp. 399-400) Never before had so pleasing a vision ... by the light of the solitary lamp: This is one of the longest and most puzzling sentences in all of Cooper’s Leatherstocking novels. Why does the “highly moral being he was” negate the “so pleasing a vision [that] floated before the mind’s eye of the young hunter”? Is it because Judith is not a virgin that Deerslayer must reject her, or because his higher ethic of the woods calls for rejecting civilization? His later answer—after Judith says, ”I have no wish for a husband who is any way better than myself“—perhaps most fully reveals his thinking. ”A young man, in time, [might] forget his own onworthiness, Judith! Howsever, you hardly think all that you say. A man like me is too rude and ignorant for one that has had such a mother to teach her’ (p. 402). Translated into modern lingo this means: “It wouldn’t work; we’re too different.” Deerslayer and Judith leave the decision, however, unresolved with their penultimate exchange in the canoe following the great events of the next day.
Chapter xxv
1 (p. 414) “I’ve known white teachers ... be fri’nds there as we’ve been fri’nds here”: Deerslayer does not address here the question of whether Indians and whites have the same