# Heidi — Character guide

> Key figures in Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

- [Heidi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/heidi.md): Heidi arrives at the Alm-Uncle's hut as a hot, shapeless little person whom the villagers predict will be turned away at the door. Her unshakeable cheer and hunger for the mountain's flowers, goats, and fir-trees slowly 
- [Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/peter.md): Peter arrives with the whole herd, Thistlefinch at the front, and treats Heidi as his natural companion on the pasture until she leaves for Frankfurt. When she returns, he sulks that she won't come with him, and his jeal
- [Clara Sesemann](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/clara_sesemann.md): Clara lives in a grand house of streets, tutors, and cod-liver oil, and her mornings stretch endlessly until Heidi arrives to share them. She is kind but sheltered, and her attachment to Heidi grows even as her friend pi
- [Mr. Sesemann](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/mr_sesemann.md): Mr. Sesemann travels constantly, returns to a household in uproar over kittens and turtle, and settles the matter with a laugh and a glass of fresh water. He is fond of Clara, decisive when it counts, and quick to see th
- [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/the_doctor.md): He arrives at the hut expecting to be unwelcome, having feared Heidi would not remember him, and is met with gratitude and a thousand thanks. Lonely and worn, he finds the mountain restores him, and he lingers until busi
- [Deta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/deta.md): Deta has cared for Heidi since her sister died and now sees a splendid position in Frankfurt that the child would only hinder. She brushes aside Barbara's warnings, leaves Heidi at the hut, and later returns to whisk her
- [Miss Rottenmeier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/miss_rottenmeier.md): Miss Rottenmeier governs the Frankfurt mansion's routines and takes personal responsibility for importing Heidi as Clara's companion, a decision she immediately regrets. Her dread of disorder—and her comic horror at Heid
- [Sebastian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/sebastian.md): The loyal servant in the Sesemann house who helps Heidi.
- [Brigida](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/brigida.md): Peter's mother who lives in the village below the Alm.
- [Grandmama](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/grandmama.md): Grandmama visits her granddaughter Clara and, almost incidentally, rescues Heidi from loneliness by giving her a picture book, sewing lessons, and unhurried attention. Where Miss Rottenmeier scolds, she listens; when Hei
- [Schwänli](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/schwanli.md): One of the two goats Heidi cares for on the Alm.
- [Grandmother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/grandmother.md): Old, blind, and poor, she lives with Peter and his mother and survives on hard black bread, yet her gratitude when Heidi returns with soft white rolls is overwhelming. She clings to Heidi's voice and hair as her greatest
- [Mr. Candidate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/mr_candidate.md): A young tutor who teaches Clara and Heidi in Frankfurt.
- [Grandfather](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/grandfather.md): Villagers fear the old man on the mountain, who has withdrawn from church, company, and any explanation of his past, and he initially resents being handed a child to raise. Heidi's trust and cheerfulness work on him unti
- [Bärli](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/barli.md): One of the two goats Heidi cares for on the Alm.
- [Snowhopper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters/snowhopper.md): A small goat that Heidi befriends on the Alm.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heidi_se/characters