“The Affect Helen has on her Family”

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Before Annie’s arrival, the Keller family gets affected by Helen’s disabilities in many ways. Helen’s disabilities and her stubborn behavior made her parents pity her. With this pity that was provided by her parents, made Helen a spoiled child. Helen’s inexorable behavior resulted in a lot of fights at her house. Captain Keller pities Helen. We can see that he pities Helen in his line: “Keller: Whatever it was. Deprived child, the least she can have are the little things she wants.” However, Captain does not realize that by offering these ‘little things’, it is making Helen spoilt. At the same time he gets very annoyed and irritated by her behavior. We can see that Captain gets irritated by her in the first scene. This is when Helen gropes the things that are on Captains table, she then pushes his papers to the floor. In the stage directions, it says, “Keller is exasperated” This shows how annoyed he is with Helen, and Kate. Since Captain is already frustrated, we can see that he removes most of his anger at the people at the house by getting annoyed by them. Kate’s first appearance at the very beginning illustrates how much she loves, pampers her disabled daughter. At the beginning of the play, when Helen is sick, Kate has a conversation with Helen: “Kate: Hush. Don’t you cry now, you’ve been trouble enough. Call it acute congestion, indeed, I don’t see what’s so cute about a congestion, just because it’s yours.” This concern shown by Kate towards Helen shows how much she cares for her. However, Kate is not aware that the way she is raising Helen is spoiling her. A great example to show that Kate lets Helen have her way would be in the scene where Helen is trying to hurt Martha. In this scene, Kat... ... middle of paper ... ...o. She’s right. (KELLER glares at the chair and him. JAMES takes a deep breath, then headlong.) She’s right, Kate’s right, I’m right, and you’re wrong. If you drive her away from here it will be over my dead—chair, has it never occurred to you that on one occasion you might be consummately wrong? ” He would not have done this if he ‘really hated’ In short, Helen’s condition left her frustrated within herself. By seeing this her parents, Captain and Kate pity her. Even though both the parents pity Helen, the show it in different ways. Captain shows it by letting her have her ‘little things’ but he often gets irritated by her. As for her mother, Kate shows her pity for Helen by coddling her. This makes Helen a spoilt child. As for James, he is not very pleased to see Helen not able to talk. However, he does not show in the beginning, that he cares for Helen.

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