The Miracle Worker

Two weeks have passed, and Annie’s time alone with Helen is up. It’s the final day of the agreed period, and Annie is tirelessly spelling word after word into Helen’s hand. In the main house, Captain Keller and Kate sit at the table, but Kate is too nervous to eat her breakfast. James makes a joke that the weeks went by too quickly, and the house finally felt “normal” for once. Captain Keller begins to scold James, but Kate stops him and says, “It’s true. The two weeks have been normal, quiet, all you say. But not short. Interminable” (74). Kate leaves the room, and James follows her to the porch.

For the first time, James shares an intimate and sincere moment with his stepmother. He apologizes for what he said, and laments that he and his father can’t get along. Kate encourages him to stand up to his father. James softens, and the two reach a level of friendship and understanding that never seemed possible at the beginning of the play.

At the garden house, Annie is writing another letter back to Boston. She is looking for a word in the dictionary, but her eyes are tired, and Kate walks in on her rubbing them for relief. Kate warns her, “You’re not to overwork your eyes, Miss Annie” (76), but Annie insists that “whatever [she] spells to Helen [she’d] better spell right” (76). Kate then looks at her daughter, who has transformed into a proper young lady during her two weeks with Annie. She is polite and no longer throws tantrums; she is practically unrecognizable. Kate compliments Annie for her work, but Annie insists it isn’t enough. Helen has learned obedience, but she still hasn’t grasped language, the meaning of the words that Annie spells.

Annie is desperate for more time alone with Helen and asks Kate, using sign language, if she can have it. Kate begins to reply verbally, but Annie makes her sign instead. She tells Kate, “Spell it! If she ever learns, you’ll have a lot to tell each other. Start now” (77). Kate’s answer is “no” (79). Captain Keller interrupts their conversation by entering the garden house with their dog, Belle. Annie again asks for more time, and again she is denied. Annie ushers Helen’s parents out, saying that if they won’t give her more time, she at least has “till six o’clock” (78). Captain Keller and Kate miss Helen and are content with Annie’s progress: Helen has learned “to behave like—even look like—a human child, so manageable, contented, cleaner” (79). Annie, enraged, tells them Helen is capable of so much more, if Annie can only teach her that one word has meaning. Annie needs more time, but the Kellers are immovable. They will return at six o’clock to retrieve Helen, whether Annie has worked a miracle by then or not.

Annie sits again with Helen, who is spelling words into Belle’s paw. She tells Helen:

I wanted to teach you—oh everything the earth is full of, Helen, everything on it that’s ours for a wink and it’s gone, and what we are on it, the—light we bring to it and leave behind in—words, why you can see five thousand years back in a light of words, everything we feel, think, know and share, in words, so not a soul is in darkness, or done with, even in the grave (81).

The clock strikes six, and Annie must release Helen back to her parents. They are joyfully reunited, and Captain Keller gives Annie her first paycheck. He tells her, “It doesn’t express what we feel, it doesn’t pay for what you’ve done […] Taken a wild thing, and given us back a child” (83). Annie takes the money, and replies, “I wanted to teach her what language is. I wanted to teach her yes” (83). Captain Keller assures her there will be time to learn, and Annie warns him not to undo what Helen has already learned. The two reach a respect, understanding, and even care for each other that foreshadows a stronger relationship between Annie and the Kellers moving forward.

Helen is delighted to be home again. Viney sets the table as Kate, Captain Keller, James, Annie, and Helen all sit down to eat. The dinner begins normally, but then “Helen removes her napkin and drops it to the floor […Annie] bends, retrieves it, and tucks it around Helen’s neck again” (86). The adults continue their conversation. Helen, testing the waters now that she’s back at home, drops her napkin twice more. After the third time, Helen deliberately yanks the napkin away and throws it on the ground, so Annie removes Helen’s plate. When Helen realizes her food is gone, she kicks her legs under the table. Kate coddles Helen, but Captain Keller speaks up for Annie, saying they should not give in to Helen’s tantrums. Aunt Ev and Kate make it known that they want today to be special, and Annie reminds them, “She’s testing you. […] And wants to see what will happen. At your hands” (89). Kate resigns and tells Annie to take Helen.

As soon as Annie does, Helen begins kicking and screaming more than ever before. It’s as if all the progress made the last two weeks has vanished. In the chaos of Helen’s fit, she spills the pitcher of water. Annie grabs Helen and the pitcher and starts to leave the room. When Captain Keller stands, she says, “Don’t get up! […] I treat her like a seeing child because I ask her to see, I expect her to see, don’t undo what I do!” (90). With that, Annie half-carries and half-drags Helen outside to the pump to make her refill the pitcher. Captain Keller is about to follow her when James stands up to stop him. He tells his father that “she’s right” and to let her go (91). James, in defending Annie, has finally found the courage to confront his father.

At the pump, Annie makes Helen pump the water into the pitcher. When the water finally begins to come from the spout, Annie, in a last attempt, spells the word “water” into Helen’s hand. Something happens inside of Helen, and she drops the pitcher, shattering it. Helen’s face changes, there is

[…] some light coming into it we have never seen there, some struggle in the depths behind it; and her lips tremble, trying to remember something the muscles around them once knew, till at last it finds its way out, painfully, a baby sound buried under the debris of years of dumbness (92).

Helen mutters a word, the first word she ever spoke as an infant before her illness: “Wah. Wah” (92). Excitement grows in Helen, and she reaches her hand back into the water. She spells the word into her own palm, then spells it into Annie’s. At last, a miracle has happened: Helen understands that the words Annie has been spelling into her hand have meaning. Helen begins to touch everything around her: the ground, the step, the pump, and having Annie spell them into her hand. Annie calls into the house for Captain Keller and Kate to come and see that Helen understands at last.

Helen’s parents are overwhelmed with joy and shower her in hugs and kisses. Helen breaks away from her mother and spells the word “teacher” into Kate’s hand. Kate reluctantly points her daughter in Annie’s direction. Helen feels her way to Annie, who wraps her in an embrace. Annie spells into Helen’s hand, “I, love, Helen” and holds her tighter (94). Whispering this time, she adds, “Forever, and […] ever” (94). The play ends as Helen and Annie follow the others into the house, hand in hand.