# Hapley — Short Fiction character guide

> Hapley in Short Fiction by H. G. Wells.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Pawkins

**First appearance:** 0015-the-moth

## Snapshot

A microscopist whose twenty-year scientific feud with Pawkins has outlived its object, leaving him stranded in a Kentish village with nothing to sharpen his mind against.

## Who they are

Hapley built a European reputation almost entirely as a byproduct of his obsession with discrediting Pawkins, and when the rivalry kills his adversary, the victory curdles into a restless, unfeedable fixation. He tries novels, chess, and finally diatoms to distract himself, but every pursuit bends back toward the man he cannot stop thinking about. His inability to let go is what makes him vulnerable to the strange optical phenomenon he notices at his microscope one evening.

## In the story

### [The Moth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/the-moth)

The celebrated entomologist, engaged in a vicious feud with Pawkins, whose death leaves him haunted and hallucinating a moth.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters/hapley-pawkins
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters