Helen Lawrence was born in 1802 at Wildfell Hall. Rachel, later her maid and friend, takes care of infant Helen. Her mother dies when Helen is still too young to remember her. Immediately after that, her father, unwilling to take any care of a girl, sends Helen to her aunt, Mrs. Peggy Maxwell, at Staningley Hall. At the age of eighteen Helen enters her first season, where she meets witty and handsome Arthur Huntingdon. She falls in love with him and eventually marries him, in spite of all his faults and strong disapproval of her aunt. Helen is firmly convinced that she can reform Arthur with gentle persuasion and good example. One year after their marriage Helen gives birth to their son, also named Arthur, often referred to in the novel as Little Arthur. Huntingdon, who doesn't like his baby, becomes increasingly jealous of him and his claims on Helen's attentions and affections. He spends even more time with his dissolute friends and eventually begins an affair with Lady Lowborough. Walter Hargrave, Helen's unwanted admirer, tells her about it. Nevertheless, Helen plans to run away from Huntingdon and, therefore, violate the law, only when he begins to encourage their son to drink and swear at his early age. Unfortunately, Huntingdon learns of Helen's plans from her journal and burns her artist's tools. Unable to run away to America as she planned before, Helen, with help from her brother, Frederick, finds a secret refuge at Wildfell Hall. She lives there under an assumed name: Helen Graham. There she meets Gilbert Markham, a young farmer who falls in love with her. When he begins to believe the filthy gossip that is spread about her, she gives him her diary. From it Gilbert learns than Helen is a runaway wife. Soon after this, Helen goes back to Grassdale Manor where she discovers that Huntingdon has fallen from his horse and is badly injured. As he is unwilling to stopdrinking alcohol, Arthur's health deteriorates and he eventually dies. Now unburdened by her marriage to Arthur, Helen and Gilbert marry and have at least two children together. By the end of the novel, Little Arthur is grown up and is residing at Grassdale Manor with his wife, Helen Hattersley.
Appearance
Helen is described by Gilbert in the first chapter of the novel when he sees her at church: Later he revealed that her eyes were very dark grey, almost black and a 'large, clear and full of soul'.
