Hope Leslie, or Early Times in the Massachusetts

Everell Fletcher is a stalwart character from boyhood through the novel’s conclusion. He is brave, dependable, loyal, and religious. He is always willing to help those who need help, and to adhere to both his own standards of duty and those of God. His primary torment in the novel is his love for Hope Leslie. The barriers that make their union improbable are all of a nature to compromise his integrity were he to unite with her. His patience and courage are rewarded in the end as he is finally able to marry Hope. 

Everell’s father is a dour presence in the novel. He represents the overall spiritual mood of the early Puritanical colonists. Uncomplaining and stoic, he works hard and believes that God’s will must always be done, for better or worse. His faith is tested when the Indians slaughter his family, but he comes to the end of the novel with his faith in providence and his unwillingness to seek revenge, vindicated. 

Hope is the daughter of Alice, the early love interest (and a distant relative) of Mr. Fletcher. After her parents die, Hope comes to New England to live with the Fletchers. She is baptized and her name is changed from Alice to Hope.