The Miracle Worker

Gibson uses water as a way of introducing the untapped potential of Helen’s mind. Kate tells Annie of a time when Helen first learned language before she grew sick. She says, “She learns, she learns, do you know she began talking when she was six months old? She could say “water.” Not really—“Wahwah.” “Wahwah,” but she meant water, she knew what it meant, and only six months old, I never saw a child so—bright, or outgoing—[…] It’s still in her somewhere, isn’t it? You should have seen her before her illness, such a good-tempered child” (60). The Keller family is notorious for simultaneously doubting Helen’s abilities—and reinforcing that doubt by spoiling her—and recalling her potential.

Water is one of the first words Annie tries to teach Helen, and one of the first words Helen retains. Annie tells Kate, “Well, she learned two nouns this morning, key and water, brings her up to eighteen nouns and three verbs” (76). The words “key” and “water” reinforce the same theme: Helen is capable of so much if someone can only bring that knowledge to the surface. This is best expressed in the third act, when Annie speaks to Captain Keller before they return to the main house. She says, “I don’t know what else to do. Simply go on, keep doing what I’ve done, and have—faith that inside she’s—That inside it’s waiting. Like water, underground. All I can do is keep on” (84).

Water is the first word Helen comprehends when the miracle takes place. At the end of the play, when Annie makes Helen pump water back into the pitcher, that long-forgotten word is evoked. “Water” is the word that unlocks the world for Helen. Now, as water pours over her hands, she finally knows that everything has a name.

Like water, locks and keys are symbolic of the unreachable, “locked” mind of Helen Keller (16). Dr. Anagnos, when describing Helen’s case to Annie, says: “Deaf, blind, mute—who knows? She is like a little safe, locked, that no one can open. Perhaps there is a treasure inside” (16). Annie suggests that it might as easily be empty. However, upon meeting Helen, Annie changes her mind.

When Annie arrives at Ivy Green, Helen locks Annie in her room. Annie, trapped and alone, tells herself, “Don’t worry, they’ll find you. You aren’t lost, just out of place” (32). This quote is not just literal—Annie as the one who isn’t lost—but metaphorical—Helen also isn’t lost. Helen pulls the key to Annie’s room from her mouth and drops it down the well. She is burying the key in the water, the water that will eventually unlock her mind.

The Keller’s’ love and pity interferes with Annie’s teaching methods, and it seems as if Helen’s mind will remain forever closed to the outside world. James tells Annie, “You won’t open her. Why can’t you let her be? Have some—pity on her, for being what she is—” (66). Annie, refusing to pity Helen, continues to pick at the lock of her student’s mind.

At the end of the play, right before the miracle at the pump, Helen arrives back at Ivy Green. She takes the keys from all the doors that can lock and hands them to her mother. Kate pockets them, saying, “Yes, I’ll keep the keys. I think we’ve had enough of locked doors, too” (85). This quote foreshadows that Helen is close to discovering the key to the world around her: language.