Difficulty converting escaped UTF-8 using Python - python-3.x

Question

I can't understand why one function works and the other doesn't. I have tried encoding the aristotle.txt file as utf-8 and other encodings, but still it only outputs the escaped codes. Code as seen below.
import codecs
def convert_to_utf8_1(from_file, to_file):
to_file = codecs.open(to_file,'w','utf8')
from_file = codecs.open(from_file, 'r', 'utf8')
#from_file = open(from_file, 'r')
for line in from_file:
to_file.write(line)
to_file.close()
def convert_to_utf8_2(from_string, to_file):
to_file = codecs.open(to_file,'w','utf8')
to_file.write(from_string)
to_file.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
a = "Aristotle$$$$Aristotle (/\u02C8\u00E6r\u026A\u02CCst\u0252t\u0259l/; Greek: \u1F08\u03C1\u03B9\u03C3\u03C4\u03BF\u03C4\u03AD\u03BB\u03B7\u03C2 [aristot\u00E9l\u025B\u02D0s], Aristot\u00E9l\u0113s; 384 \u2013 322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in Stagirus, northern Greece, in 384 BCE. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BCE)."
convert_to_utf8_1("aristotle.txt", "test1.txt")
convert_to_utf8_2(a, "test2.txt")
#########################OUTPUT FROM test1.txt###############################
#Aristotle$$$$Aristotle (/\u02C8\u00E6r\u026A\u02CCst\u0252t\u0259l/; Greek: #\u1F08\u03C1\u03B9\u03C3\u03C4\u03BF\u03C4\u03AD\u03BB\u03B7\u03C2 [aristot\u00E9l\u025B\u02D0s], Aristot\u00E9l\u0113s; 384 #\u2013 322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in Stagirus, northern Greece, in 384 BCE. His father, Nicomachus, died #when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens #and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BCE).
#########################OUTPUT FROM test2.txt###############################
#Aristotle$$$$Aristotle (/ˈærɪˌstɒtəl/; Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης [aristotélɛːs], Aristotélēs; 384 – 322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and #scientist born in Stagirus, northern Greece, in 384 BCE. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter #Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of #thirty-seven (c. 347 BCE).
Hex of a few lines as requested:
0000-0010: 41 72 69 73-74 6f 74 6c-65 24 24 24-24 41 72 69 Aristotl e$$$$Ari
0000-0020: 73 74 6f 74-6c 65 20 28-2f 5c 75 30-32 43 38 5c stotle.( /\u02C8\