Persuasion Characters

The baronet of Kellynch Hall, Sir Walter is the father of Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary Elliot. He is superficial and vain, spending more money than he can afford to sustain the aristocratic lifestyle he feels entitled to and judging others on their looks and lineage.

Henrietta is Charles’s younger sister and the elder of the Musgrove daughters. Like her sister, she is young and cheerful. She vacillates between her cousin Charles Hayter and the charms of the newly arrived Captain Wentworth.

The cousin and suitor of Henrietta Musgrove, Charles Hayter belongs to a lower social standing than the Musgroves because his mother—Mrs. Musgrove’s sister—married less well. More scholarly than the rest of his family, he is pursuing a profession in the church.

Mr. Shepherd is the Sir Walter’s family advisor and lawyer. He gives financial counsel to the Elliots when it becomes clear that they are deep in debt.

Formerly Miss Hawkins, Mrs. Smith is Anne’s girlhood friend from school. Impoverished, crippled, and widowed, Mrs. Smith nonetheless sustains an optimistic and good-natured spirit in the midst of her trials. She also provides a critical revelation of Mr. Elliot’s dark past and duplicitous character.

Lady Dalrymple and Miss Carteret are the Elliot family’s Irish cousins of noble lineage. They are uninteresting and unremarkable individuals, but Sir Walter and Elizabeth desire them as connections because of their aristocratic associations.

Naval friends of Captain Wentworth, Captain and Mrs. Harville are a warm and hospitable couple, who welcome the Musgroves to Lyme during their visit and nurse Louisa after her accident.