CHARACTER SKETCH OF ALL IMPORTANT CHARACTERS IN HELEN KELLER

IMPORTANT CHARACTER SKETCH OF THE STORY OF MY LIFE                          

• Bishop Brooks was in Helen's words, one among many of the 'men of genius' with whom she  had the pleasure of acquaintance. As a child, Helen used to love sitting on his knee and    clasping the great hand in her own as Miss Sullivan spelt out his beautiful words about God and the spiritual world. She would listen with the wondrous delight of a child, her spirit could not reach up to his but he would give her a real sense of joy in life. Once, when she had been puzzled by the existence of so many religions in the world, Bishop Brooks had told her that there was one universal religion, the religion of love, the love owed to their Heavenly Father with whole heart and soul and to love every child of god, remembering that the possibilities of good were far greater than that of evil. Bishop Brooks' life was an illustration of his philosophy, love and the widest knowledge blended with faith in his noble soul giving him an insight into life. Bishop Brooks had not taught Helen any special creed or dogma. He had impressed upon her the two great ideas of the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man, which she came to believe as the overarching truths of her life. Bishop Brooks had taught her the creed of love.

• Mrs. Hutton was the wife of the writer and literary critic Laurence Hutton. At the Huttons' New York home, Helen Keller met many of the leading literary figures of the day, including William Dean Howells and Mark Twain. When Keller attended Radcliffe, Mrs. Hutton sent her encouraging letters. Keller also wrote letters to Mrs. Hutton updating her friend about her progress though college and reminiscing about the times they had spent together. For example, in a letter dated May 3, 1897, Keller thanked Mrs. Hutton for having taken her to the Players Club in New York. Keller also wrote Mrs. Hutton about the time she spent in the countryside around Boston, in Wrentham, enjoying sledding. It's clear that Mrs. Hutton introduced Keller to many elements of cosmopolitan New York and was also a source of support when Keller was studying at Radcliffe.

• Mr. and Mrs. Hutton During her stay at New York, Helen met Mr. Lawrence Hutton and Mrs. Hutton at their home where she had a chance to peruse their library and read the beautiful sentiments and bright thoughts written by their friends. Helen admired Mr. Hutton for his power of bringing the best thoughts in everyone. Mrs. Hutton gradually became one of Helens truest friends who encouraged her during her moments of depression. It was at their house that Helen met many literary figures, such as Mr. William D. Howells, Mark Twain, Mr. Richard W. Gilder, Mr. Edmund C. Stedman, Mr. Charles Dudley Warner and Mr. John Burroughs. His generosity and sweet-nature was self-evident being a good friend in all sorts of weather. Mrs Hutton was a true and tried friend because much that Helen held to be sweet and precious was owed to her. She had often advised and helped Helen in her progress through college. Especially when Helen found her work particularly difficult and discouraging, she would write letters to Helen to mak her feel glad and brave. Mrs Hutton was one of those from whom one learned that one painful duty fulfilled made the next plainer and easier.

• Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor and a teacher of the deaf. Helen met him for the first time in Washington in the year 1886. This meeting was not only the beginning of a long friendship between Dr. Bell and Helen but it also proved to be the foundation of Helens education and life. In fact, Helen has dedicated her autobiography The Story of My Life to him. Helen mentions his sympathetic and tender nature that made her love him from her first visit itself. It was on his suggestion that Helens father wrote to Mr. Anagnos and subsequently found Miss Sullivan as a teacher.Helen and Miss Sullivan were accompanied by Dr. Bell on their visit to the Worlds Fair in 1893. Helen also visited him at his home and laboratory. He appears to be a wonderful and patient teacher who could instil enthusiasm and interest in his students through his delightful explanations. Helen notes that Dr. Bell was a humourous person and a poet as well. Another endearing quality of Dr. Bell was his love for children, particularly the deaf.

• Dr. Edward Everett Hale was a Unitarian minister and man of letters who wrote the well-known story "The Man without a Country," written in support of the Union during the Civil War. Hale was related to Helen Keller on her mother's side of the family, which went back to the Adams family in Massachusetts. Helen Keller's grandmother was Lucy Helen Everett, who was related to Edward Everett Hale. Helen knew Dr. Hale from the time she was eight, and she considered him a close and supportive friend. She writes of him that "He has filled the old skins of dogma with the new wine of love, and shown men what it is to believe, live and be free." As a minister, Dr. Hale broke with Calvinist tradition and taught about the promise and potential freedom of humans. Helen Keller wrote Hale many letters, and he returned his letters with his name written in Braille. He also sent her books and sea shells, and it was his idea, which Helen Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan adopted, that Helen study courses similar to those given at Radcliffe to prepare Keller for college. 

• Arthur H. Keller was the father of Helen Keller.  He had served as "a captain in the Confederate Army" during the Civil War.  He married his first wife and had two sons.  He later married his second wife, Kate Adams, who was twenty years his junior.  He was a newspaper editor, and he also managed the Keller Homestead.   He and Kate had their first child, Helen.  She was bright and energetic until contracting the illness called "acute congestion of the stomach and brain," which left her deaf and blind.  He and Kate had two more children, a daughter and a son.Helen Keller later described her father as a loving man who spent as much time with his family as possible, except when he was hunting. He was a hospitable man and an accomplished gardener. It was his appreciation of nature that inspired Helen to love flowers and trees. He was also an excellent story-teller.   Arthur Keller died in the summer of 1896.

• John Greenleaf Whittier was a favourite poet of Helen's because of his rapturous writing and moral rectitude. She was personally acquainted with him and it was the gentle remembrance of their friendship that suffused her with pleasure while reading his works. Whittier lived a quiet life in Merrimac, his gentle courtesy and quaint speech could win over anyone's heart. He had a book of his poems in raised print from which Helen had read the poem 'In School Days'. It had delighted the poet upon hearing how well she could pronounce the words so well and he observed that he had had no difficulty in understanding him. Whittier was a poet greatly admired by Helen as well as her teacher for whom he had given his autograph. The poet died before Helen could fulfil her promise of meeting him again but he continued to live on in his works for Helen.

• Mr Irons was a neighbour of the family of Mr William Wade whom Helen was visiting in  Hulton, Pennsylvania. As Mr Irons was a good Latin scholar, it was arranged that Helen would study under him. Helen remembered him as a man of rare, sweet nature and of wide experience. He taught her Latin grammar principally but he would often help her in arithmetic which she found troublesome and uninteresting. Mr Irons also read Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' apart from many other books from a critical perspective. She learned for the first time to know an author, to recognize his style in a way she could recognize the clasp of a friend's hand.

• Martha Washington was a young African American child who lived on the Keller homestead.  She was the daughter of the family cook.  Helen Keller described Martha Washington as being "black as ebony, with little bunches of fuzzy hair tied with shoestrings sticking out all over her head like corkscrews."  Helen would have known what her friend's hair was like by touching it.  Martha Washington was several years older than Helen.Young Helen Keller was very bossy with Martha Washington.  The little girl "understood [Helen's] signs," which were a makeshift method of communication.  Helen often got her own way when she was with Martha Washington.  Helen's friend was much more timid than she was.  Despite this, they were good friends.  The two girls "spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, kneading dough balls, helping make ice-cream, grinding coffee, quarreling over the cake-bowl, and feeding the hens and turkeys that swarmed about the kitchen steps."  One day they snatched a freshly baked cake from the kitchen and consumed it all, which made them sick.Like Helen, Martha Washington "had [a] great... love of mischief."  They often got into trouble.  They enjoyed cutting out paper dolls with scissors.  One day Helen decided to cut off some of Martha Washington's hair with the scissors.

• Helen Keller: She was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia. She was not born deaf and blind, but lost power of hearing and sight at tender age. AS a child she love mischief and had irritable temperament due to lack of full faculties. The joy in her life was bough by Ms. Anne Sullivan, who taught her braille, sign language, speaking and enjoying life. Under her mentoring Helen became patient and ardor follower of her dreams. She fulfilled her wish to go college and became a very loved author. She was later honoured by president and her social activism has been acknowledged as a great input for the betterment of the society.

• Helen Keller is the main character in The Story of My Life  which is a personal account of Helen's young life after she has a debilitating illness as a baby and is rendered blind and deaf. Annie Sullivan, Alexander Graham Bell and Mr Anagnos all change Helen's life dramatically and it is her first meeting with Dr. Bell which starts the process of her education and her fulfillment. In chapter III, Helen reflects how "that interview would be the door through which I should pass from darkness into light." Helen is a very expressive person and once she learns how to communicate, she is tireless in her efforts to learn as much as she can. She is intuitive and very demanding of others but she finds joy in the simplest things and shows appreciation through her acceptance and remarkable development. She is trusting and loving. Her high expectations do result in disappointments and one of her greatest regrets is after she unwittingly plagiarizes The Frost Fairies by Miss Margaret T. Canby which affects her confidence and belief in herself and after which her relationship with the beloved Mr Anagnos is irreparably damaged.  Annie comes from The Perkins' Institute for the Blind where she learnt to manage and overcome her own difficulties and is the person whom Helen recognizes as most significant in her education. Annie makes Helen "think" and the day she arrives is "the most important day I remember in all my life," such is the impact which Annie has on Helen's success. Annie is patient, determined and even stubborn, and it is her resolve which ensures that Helen is given time to adapt and to learn "language." Annie is visually impaired herself and, despite her young age and her complete lack of experience, she is dedicated and wise. She takes every opportunity to teach Helen, whether it be during lessons or out in the environment where she ensures that Helen has every opportunity to explore, discover and overcome her fears. She will become Helen's constant companion to the point that Helen feels that "the footsteps of my life are in hers."

• Mr. Merton S Keith was an instructor in Cambridge who carries on helen’s preparation for the final examination required for entering Radcliffe College. He instructed Helen in algebra, geometry, greek and latin for almost one and a half years, initially twice a week but later on five times a week.He is knowledgeable in literature, as Helen mentions in the book that his broad views of History and literature and his clever explanations made her work easier and pleasanter.He made even mathematics interesting for his pupil by breaking the problems into small parts to enable her to follow them. He kept her mind alert and eager, and trained it to reason clearly, and to seek conclusions calmly and logically instead of jumping wildly to wrong conclusions. He was always gentle, patient and forbearing. The day before the exam, he was as worried as Helen about whether she would get through. This demonstrates his intense interest in the success of his pupil.However, we find a chink in his knowledge when Helen mentions that he had relied too much on Helen’s capabilities and never taught her to write in the examination. This could have proved to be a grave mistake on his part.He is introduced as the Principal of the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, which prepares ladies for entering Radcliffe College. Gilman comes across a person who was sincerely interested in ensuring that all his students succeeded. This is shown by his learning the manual alphabet to enable him to instruct Helen personally in English Literature.

• MR. GILMAM was very helpful and assisted Helen in preliminary examination, which was not possible to be carried out by Miss Sullivan. Helen mentions that the help he gave was very much responsible for her higher credits. Further, he also appears to be a bit too overpowering and serious about his students. During the second year he feels that Helen is overburdened and may not succeed in the entrance examination for Radcliffe College, and so he reduces her study duration and extends her stay at Cambridge. Unfortunately, this led to Helen leaving Cambridge. This may also seem as a possessive side to his nature, but we cannot deny the humanitarian that resided in his heart. 

• Anne Sullivan is best known as Helen Keller’s teacher and companion who connected her with the outside world. Miss Sullivan was not only successful in bringing Helen out of darkness and uncertainty, but also was instrumental in making her think and thereby helping her make a connection between the abstract and the physical world.Miss Sullivan and Helen Keller were together for forty-nine years. During this period, Miss Sullivan strived hard to mentor Helen in all possible ways.  Whether it was reading books indoors or exploring the world outside, Miss Sullivan was Helen’s constant companion.Although Miss Sullivan followed a strict schedule while teaching Helen, she carefully employed ideas that Helen would willingly accept while learning new things. She spelled each word on Helen’s palm and made her feel everything that Helen wanted to explore and know about. Miss. Sullivan even helped Helen in getting her degree from Radcliffe College despite great difficulties.Miss. Sullivan’s lifelong companionship with Helen Keller is indeed awe-inspiring and helps people understand how a teacher through her perseverance and devotion can miraculously change a student’s life. 

• Mildred was the younger and only sister of Helen Keller. Their relationship did not start on a good note owing to jealousy on the part of Helen. Helen was jealous that her mother paid more attention to Mildred. However, with time, the two sisters developed a loving bond. Even without a proper language for communication, the two sisters hearts felt for each other. They had long walks together and often Mildred would explain the sceneries to Helen. Later, Mildred joined theCambridge Schoolwith Helen and the two sisters spent some memorable years there inNew York.Mildred was Helen Keller's only sister. Not much is mentioned about her apart for a few instances. Helen was initially jealous of her due to the attention she received from their mother. On one such occasion Helen dropped little Mildred out of the pram she was placed in since it belonged to her doll. Over the years the two sisters grew fond of each other and spent more time together. They would go on walks where Mildred would describe the things she saw using Helens unique sign language. They also went to Cambridge School together. When Helen finally learned to speak, the thought which cheered her the most was that he sister would at last be able to understand her. 

• Kate Adams was the second wife of Helen's father Arthur H. Keller and many years younger than him. Helen's mother Kate Keller had named her daughter after her mother called Helen Everett. Helen had contracted an illness which closed her eyes and ears and plunged her into the unconsciousness of a new-born child. It was called an acute congestion of the stomach and brain. It was from this period that Helen remembered the tenderness with which her mother tried to soothe her in her wailing hours of fret and pain. She tried to placate her child as Helen woke from sleep and turned her eyes to find her vision getting dimmer. Her mother succeeded in making Helen understand a good deal about different kinds of everyday things and Helen always knew when she wished her to bring something. Helen owed to her all the loving wisdom that was bright and good. Helen was extremely attached to her mother, she was also jealous of her sister because she thought of her as an intruder between mother and daughter. Kate was someone whom Helen admired and loved deeply, Helen revered her mother.

• Michael Anagnos worked at the Perkins Institution for the Blind as the director. He was born in Greece, but later immigrated to the United States.  He spoke both Greek and English.  He was tall in stature.  Mr. Anagnos helped Helen Keller's father find a suitable teacher for her.  He found Anne Sullivan, a teacher who also had suffered from vision loss.  He arranged for her to go to Alabama to help young Helen.  Later, Helen attended the Perkins Insitution for a period of four years.  While there, she became a dear friend of Mr. Anagnos.  It was also during that time that her close friendship with Mr. Anagnos  began to deteriorate.  Helen wrote a short story which she later found out closely resembled another published work.  Accused of purposefully plagiarizing, Helen found out that Mr. Anagnos was deeply disappointed in her.  He was a man whose trust could not be regained if lost.  

• Dr. Chisholm was the oculist (eye doctor) who regretfully told the Kellers he could do nothing for their daughter. He did, however, refer them to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.
• Mr. Jefferson was a talented actor who later became a friend of Helen Keller. She first saw Mr. Jefferson as a stage actor when she was living in New York City. Helen saw him in the pl y Rip Van Winkle, where he played the role of the title character. According to Helen, his performance was charming and she thought that he played his character marvellously. After the performance, when Anne Sullivan took Helen backstage, she met Mr. Jefferson. He was patient when Helen touched his face. They soon became friends. He once visited Helen while in Boston with his son. He re-enacted parts of a play for Helen so she could "follow his movements with her hand." Mr. Jefferson was clearly a compassionate and patient man with a great deal of sympathy and interest which helped Helen with her love of the theatre.