by Jay Maul

Created on: March 10, 2011   Last Updated: March 12, 2011

Persuasion by Jane Austen is set in the beginning of the 19th century, and though much has changed in the succeeding 200 years, the influence, or persuasion of those around us, has not.

The two main characters of Persuasion are Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, who have had a tumultuous romantic history that was completely severed almost a decade before.  Throughout the novel, the influence of the people around them gradually bring them back together.  Captain Harville, though he appears seldom throughout the book, is one of the most influential characters.    

Captain Harville is a friend of  Captain Wentworth.  Harville was wounded two years before the novel takes place, and having finally been discharged from the navy, is living with his wife and family in Lyme, about twenty miles from Anne Elliot’s sister and brother-in-law’s estate in Uppercross.  Wentworth is anxious to see Harville, as the latter’s health has been poor since receiving the injury.  Anne Elliot, her sister and brother-in-law (Mrs. And Mr. Musgrove) and Mr. Musgrove’s sisters, all enamored with Captain Wentworth, join him on his journey to Lyme.  The two naval comrades reunite, along with their friend, Captain Benwick,  who was engaged to Harville’s sister before she died the previous summer.

It is during their reunion that the reader receives most of the nature of Captain Harville and Mrs. Harville’s kind generosity.  “Captain Harville, though not equaling Captain Wentworth in manners,  was a perfect gentleman, unaffected, warm and obliging.  Mrs.  Harville, a degree less polished than her husband, seemed however to have the same good feelings; and nothing could be more pleasant than their desire of considering the whole party as friends of their own…”

Anne Elliot, whom the third person narrative clings closely to, notices that though Captain Harville is not very studious, he does not lack in ingenuity.  “Captain Harville was no reader; but he had contrived excellent accommodations, and fashioned very pretty shelves…His lameness prevented him from taking much exercise; but a mind of usefulness and ingenuity seemed to furnish him with constant employment within.  He drew, he varnished, he carpentered, he glued; he made toys for the children…and if everything else was done, sat down to his large fishing-net at one corner of the room.” 

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