Chingachgook
Known also as Le Gros Serpent, he is the noble Mohican woodsman who has been the life-long friend of Hawkeye.
Uncas
The son of Chingachgook, he is the last of the Mohicans. Popularly called Le Cerf Agile, he is a significant participant in one of the two love stories in the novel, and his tragic death marks the death of the entire tribe of Mohicans.
David Gamut
Follows the profession of the psalmodist, carrying his faith through song into the wilderness. He functions as a comic persona and as a partially developing character reacting to conditions of the frontier.
Hawkeye
His real name is Natty Bumppo, and his wide reputation as a rifleman has given him the additional moniker of La Longue Carabine. He is technically the main protagonist because of his abiding position in the total plot and because of his pervading image as the upright, ideal individualist who has taken unto himself the best of both civilization and so-called savagery.
Major Duncan Heyward
The sentimental hero in the second love story. Though a brave and active man, as a characterization he is limited to unoriginality because he comes straight from the stereotyped tradition of the sentimental novel. He often serves merely as a foil to the knowledgeable frontiersmen.
Magua
Accurately nicknamed Le Renard Subtil, he is the antagonist, a dispossessed and displaced Huron and a thorough villain, though his complex motivations make him a convincingly well-rounded fictional character.
General Montcalm
Marquis Louis Joseph de Saint-Veran is the opposing French militarist who captures Fort William Henry and whose laxity allows the infamous Indian massacre.
Colonel Munro
He commands Fort William Henry until its fall, after which he goes into a steady decline. He is the father of Alice and Cora, whose determination to visit him during crisis instigates the action of the novel.
Alice Munro
The sentimental love heroine who complements Major Heyward is palely flower-like and lacks real vitality.
Cora Munro
The darker and older sister is involved in miscegenation. A far more convincing characterization than Alice, she is beloved of the admirable Indian Uncas.
Tamenund
He appears late in the novel as the venerable patriarch of the Delaware Indians. Because of his experience and length of life (he has survived three generations of warriors), he is revered as judge, decision maker, and spokesman.
General Webb
He appears in the early scene so briefly that the reader forgets ever seeing him, and has background importance as the officer who declines to send adequate support to the besieged Fort William Henry.
(Note: Numerous minor characters, such as the cowardly young Huron and his father, appear with brief significance to plot or theme, but they seldom are named.)
