# Charlotte Temple — Character guide

> Key figures in Charlotte Temple by Susanna Haswell Rowson.

- [Charlotte Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/charlotte_temple.md): Charlotte is a sheltered young woman sent to a boarding school where flattery and forbidden letters awaken desires her upbringing never prepared her to govern. Her fatal softness — a reluctance to wound anyone, even thos
- [Montraville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/montraville.md): Montraville is a soldier of feeling rather than principle, capable of genuine remorse yet too weak to let it govern his conduct. He seduces Charlotte believing himself in love, then discovers his heart is more fickle tha
- [Mademoiselle La Rue](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/mademoiselle_la_rue.md): La Rue presents herself as a refined governess, but her past and her appetites make her a dangerous guardian for impressionable girls. She encourages Charlotte's correspondence with Montraville less from kindness than fr
- [Mrs. Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/mrs_temple.md): Mrs. Temple raises Charlotte with affection and careful instruction, only to watch her daughter slip beyond the reach of both. Her sorrow runs through the book as a counterweight to Charlotte's ruin, and her later care f
- [Mr. Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/mr_temple.md): Mr. Temple is defined by an impulsive, noble-hearted charity — he shelters a stranger on his doorstep without pausing to weigh the cost. That same warmth makes his grief over Charlotte's fate almost unbearable, and his f
- [Belcour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/belcour.md): Belcour is the novel's coldest voice, mocking Montraville's conscience and dismissing Charlotte's virtue as a triviality. He pursues his own designs on her while pretending friendship, and his willingness to stage a comp
- [Mrs. Beauchamp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/mrs_beauchamp.md): Mrs. Beauchamp is Colonel Crayton's amiable daughter, married to Major Beauchamp and living quietly outside New York when Charlotte's melancholy figure in the neighboring garden moves her to pity. Though she fears the ri
- [Mrs. Crayton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/crayton.md): Having schemed her way from French teacher to Colonel Crayton's bride, Mrs. Crayton enjoys wealth and position while her husband's affection blinds him to her temper and artifice. She embodies the novel's warning that vi
- [Julia Franklin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/julia_franklin.md): Julia Franklin belongs to the respectable circle around the Temples in New York, and her tender attentions help pull a dangerously ill man back from delirium and grief. Where Charlotte is impulsive and unprotected, Julia
- [Mr. Eldridge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/mr_eldridge.md): Mr. Eldridge is the father of Lucy Temple (née Eldridge), and his long separation from her—through poverty, disgrace, and distance—gives the Temple family's story its emotional undertow. When father and daughter finally 
- [Lucy Eldridge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/lucy_eldridge.md): Lucy Eldridge is the daughter of the ruined Mr. Eldridge, and her marriage to the worthy Mr. Temple is the novel's model of love rewarded by constancy rather than fortune. As Charlotte's mother, she stands at the head of
- [Colonel Crayton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/colonel_crayton.md): Colonel Crayton is beloved for his benevolence and unsuspicious temper, qualities that make him an easy mark for La Rue's calculated charm during the Atlantic crossing. Within months of their marriage he sees her conduct
- [Madame Du Pont](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/madame_du_pont.md): A French woman who runs the boarding school Charlotte attends.
- [Henry Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/henry_temple.md): Charlotte's younger brother.
- [George](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/george.md): A servant or young man who assists the Temple family.
- [Miss Weatherby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/miss_weatherby.md): A minor acquaintance at the boarding school.
- [Colonel Blakeney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/blakeney.md): A historical military figure mentioned in the narrative.
- [John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/john.md): A servant or minor character assisting the officers.
- [Lucy Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/lucy_temple.md): Charlotte's daughter, born after her abandonment.
- [Charlotte Stanley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters/charlotte_stanley.md): A minor character with a similar name to the protagonist.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/charlotte_temple_se/characters