Question

" The mystery of languages was revealed to me ." Elaborate.

Answer 1

Miss Sullivan’s first attempts to teach Helen were quite futile, as Helen didn’t know any language except her manual language. As soon as Miss Sullivan arrived and gifted Helen a doll, she tried to teach her how things were named. Miss Sullivan slowly spelt into her hand the word, ‘d-o-l-l’. Though Helen imitated the word correctly, she did not know its meaning or even that words actually existed and everything had a name.

However, Helen learnt many words but was unable to comprehend them. One day she had a tussle with her teacher over two words as Helen kept confusing them. Later on Miss Sullivan gave her another doll and tried to teach her that the word ‘doll’ applied to both. In her anxiousness. Helen broke the doll. To change the situation, Miss Sullivan took Helen outdoors to the well house, where she tried to teach her the meaning of water.

Suddenly, Helen felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten –a thrill of returning thought and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to her. Helen knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over her hand. She realize that everything had a name.