Persuasion
Captain Harville
Wentworth’s friend in Lyme
A warm, hospitable naval officer who welcomes the whole party to Lyme and later debates constancy with Anne.
Captain Harville lives in Lyme with his wife and children. He is warm-hearted, hospitable and ingenious, and he is a close friend of Wentworth. He makes his small home work for the large party that arrives.
He is also the brother of the late Fanny Harville, whom Captain Benwick had planned to marry. He treats the party like family, and he is good at making do with a small house and a big heart.
“If you could see what men suffer when parted from those they love, you would not doubt our enduring hearts.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
After Louisa’s fall, Harville and his wife take her in and nurse her. In Bath he talks with Anne about whether men or women love longest when all hope is lost, and he defends the deep constancy of sailors.
That conversation, which Wentworth hears while writing a letter for Harville, is what prompts him to write Anne his own. Anne and Wentworth stay close to him.
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