Jean-Dominique Bauby
This French memoirist was a journalist traveling with his son when, one day, he had a terrible stroke. Now he writes this book as a testament of his life, his point of view, and perhaps most notably, the comatose state he endures as a result of the stroke. In his "pseudocoma," he looks perfectly braindead. He is unable to move any part of his body. Over the course of the book, he explains how he was able to make his story known; he managed a way to communicate by blinking to select letters from a queue.
The speech therapist
The speech therapist ends up being a kind of hero in this memoir. Without scientific knowledge to promise Bauby his voice back, she takes on a new role. She educates him with her knowledge on the subject matter and then takes a hopeful stance, coming alongside him as he hopes beyond hope for a recovery that would be a medical miracle. The speech therapist is there to celebrate with him when he regains enough control to grunt along to his favorite songs.
Josephine
This is the love of Bauby's life. During the lengthy religious reflections on his reality, the state of his mind, and the cruelty of human fate, his thoughts often turn back to the past, to his previous life before the stroke and the pseudocoma. He remembers Josephine, an important woman from his past. They were lovers once, and during their fling, he remembers falling in love with her, buying for her a Madonna while traveling. She loved him but still, they walked away, and now Bauby wonders why such things happen.
Sylvie
Bauby was also married to this woman, Sylvie, but that marriage did not last. They had two children together before their divorce, Celeste and Theophile. She visits him after his stroke, which is emotionally complicated, but in a way, he sees the whole marriage through a new lens now. Now her company is staving off serious feelings of deep agony and isolation. She comes to see him several times.
