The Coquette

by

Hannah Webster Foster

Eliza Wharton’s former fiancé. Mr. Haly’s engagement to Eliza was arranged by Eliza’s deceased father, who was particularly fond of Haly. Not much is known about him, although it is implied that he was also a preacher like the Reverend Boyer. Haly was a middle-class man of respectable merit, and he took sick not long after becoming engaged to Eliza. She nursed him until his death, and while Eliza did not love him, she did grow to respect and esteem him. To Eliza, Mr. Haly represents the confinements of her patriarchal society. Even though she did not love him, she was still expected to marry him and devote her life to him.

Mr. Haly Quotes in The Coquette

The The Coquette quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Haly or refer to Mr. Haly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Women and Society Theme Icon
).
Letter 5 Quotes

What, my dear, is your opinion of our favorite Mr. Boyer? Declaring him your favorite, madam, is sufficient to render me partial to him. But to be frank, independent of that, I think him an agreeable man. Your heart, I presume, is now free? Yes, and I hope it will long remain so. Your friends, my dear, solicitous for your welfare, wish to see you suitably and agreeably connected. I hope my friends will never again interpose in my concerns of that nature. You, madam, who have ever known my heart, are sensible, that had the Almighty spared life, in a certain instance, I must have sacrificed my own happiness, or incurred their censure. I am young, gay, volatile. A melancholy event has lately extricated me from those shackles, which parental authority had imposed on my mind. Let me then enjoy that freedom which I so highly prize. Let me have opportunity, unbiassed by opinion, to gratify my natural disposition in a participation of those pleasures which youth and innocence afford.

Related Characters: Miss Eliza Wharton (speaker), Reverend J. Boyer, Miss Lucy Freeman/Mrs. Lucy Sumner, Mrs. Richman, Mr. Haly
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 14 Quotes

From a scene of constraint and confinement, ill suited to my years and inclination, I have just launched into society. My heart beats high in expectation of its fancied joys. My sanguine imagination paints, in alluring colors, the charms of youth and freedom, regulated by virtue and innocence. Of these, I wish to partake. While I own myself under obligations for the esteem which you are pleased to profess for me, and in return, acknowledge, that neither your person nor manners are disagreeable to me, I recoil at the thought of immediately forming a connection, which must confine me to the duties of domestic life, and make me dependent for happiness, perhaps too, for subsistence, upon a class of people, who will claim the right of scrutinizing every part of my conduct; and by censuring those foibles, which I am conscious of not having prudence to avoid, may render me completely miserable.

Related Characters: Miss Eliza Wharton (speaker), Reverend J. Boyer, Miss Lucy Freeman/Mrs. Lucy Sumner, Mrs. Richman, Mr. Haly
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mr. Haly Quotes in The Coquette

The The Coquette quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Haly or refer to Mr. Haly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Women and Society Theme Icon
).
Letter 5 Quotes

What, my dear, is your opinion of our favorite Mr. Boyer? Declaring him your favorite, madam, is sufficient to render me partial to him. But to be frank, independent of that, I think him an agreeable man. Your heart, I presume, is now free? Yes, and I hope it will long remain so. Your friends, my dear, solicitous for your welfare, wish to see you suitably and agreeably connected. I hope my friends will never again interpose in my concerns of that nature. You, madam, who have ever known my heart, are sensible, that had the Almighty spared life, in a certain instance, I must have sacrificed my own happiness, or incurred their censure. I am young, gay, volatile. A melancholy event has lately extricated me from those shackles, which parental authority had imposed on my mind. Let me then enjoy that freedom which I so highly prize. Let me have opportunity, unbiassed by opinion, to gratify my natural disposition in a participation of those pleasures which youth and innocence afford.

Related Characters: Miss Eliza Wharton (speaker), Reverend J. Boyer, Miss Lucy Freeman/Mrs. Lucy Sumner, Mrs. Richman, Mr. Haly
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 14 Quotes

From a scene of constraint and confinement, ill suited to my years and inclination, I have just launched into society. My heart beats high in expectation of its fancied joys. My sanguine imagination paints, in alluring colors, the charms of youth and freedom, regulated by virtue and innocence. Of these, I wish to partake. While I own myself under obligations for the esteem which you are pleased to profess for me, and in return, acknowledge, that neither your person nor manners are disagreeable to me, I recoil at the thought of immediately forming a connection, which must confine me to the duties of domestic life, and make me dependent for happiness, perhaps too, for subsistence, upon a class of people, who will claim the right of scrutinizing every part of my conduct; and by censuring those foibles, which I am conscious of not having prudence to avoid, may render me completely miserable.

Related Characters: Miss Eliza Wharton (speaker), Reverend J. Boyer, Miss Lucy Freeman/Mrs. Lucy Sumner, Mrs. Richman, Mr. Haly
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis: