41 pages • 1 hour read
William GibsonThe Miracle Worker
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Love and Pity
The primary conflict of The Miracle Worker revolves around how the Kellers treat Helen with love and pity. From the beginning, the Kellers are quick to give Helen everything she desires. Captain Keller defends their parenting style: “Deprived child, the least she can have are the little things she wants” (12). Annie, however, is directly opposed to pity, be it for Helen or herself. When she discusses her new role as Helen’s teacher with Dr. Anagnos, she says, “I hope I won’t need their pity” (16). Dr. Anagnos kindly reminds her that “we can all use some pity” (16). Annie is also weary of love, and begins the play saying, “I thought I died when Jimmie died, that I’d never again—come alive. Well, you say with love so easy, and I haven’t loved a soul since and I never will, I suppose” (17). Gibson begins with these polarizing ideals. Over the course of the play he weaves an arc: the Kellers grow to understand the importance of discipline, and Annie learns to love again.
The relationship between Helen and pity is a commentary on the way that people with disabilities are treated. Annie recalls the studies of Dr. Howe, the expert who Annie studied to prepare for meeting Helen. These studies claim that children with hearing or visual impairments have little chance of learning even a fraction of what ordinary children learn. However, she noticed “he never treated them like ordinary children. More like—eggs everyone was afraid would break” (25). Children and adults with disabilities are often overlooked and underestimated. Annie argues that by expecting more of Helen, instead of spoiling her, the child will have fewer limitations in life.
The battle for Helen’s respect is constant. Helen is violent with Annie, even going so far as to intentionally stab her with a sewing needle in front of Kate. Kate, wanting to ward off a tantrum, scoops Helen up and feeds her a candy. Annie is aghast, but Kate replies, “We catch our flies with honey, I’m afraid. We haven’t the heart for much else, and so many times she simply cannot be compelled” (42). Annie learns from the beginning that there will be a great deal of un-learning to be done before any progress will be made. She writes in one of her letters home to Boston: “The, more, I, think, the, more, certain, I, am, that, obedience, is, the, gateway, through, which, knowledge, enters, the, mind, of, the, child” (42).
Annie is often reminded that her cold nature is, to some extent, part of the reason she can’t make a stronger connection with Helen. Captain Keller tells her, “You would have more understanding of your pupil if you had some pity in you” (45), but Annie will hear none of it. She says:
Pity? […] For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims, is there anything she wants that she doesn’t get? I’ll tell you what I pity, that the sun won’t rise and set for her all her life, and every day you’re telling her it will, what good will your pity do her when you’re under the strawberries, Captain Keller? (45).
Directly following this speech, Annie proves just how unrelenting she is with her discipline. Annie and Helen, a match for each other in their stubbornness, wrestle each other as Annie tries to teach Helen table manners. It’s a long and exhaustive fight, but Annie succeeds. The Kellers realize that this is more progress than they’ve ever made. It is the first step the family makes in relinquishing some pity.
However, Helen’s parents are still too quick to comply with Helen’s demands. Annie insists she must live alone with and care for Helen. Annie tells Kate and the Captain, “you have so many feelings they fall over each other like feet” (61). She convinces the Captain and Kate to allow her two weeks alone in the garden house with Helen. Kate suspects that there is more to Annie’s determination than pure stubbornness. She tells Annie, “You can’t think as little of love as you said […] Or you wouldn’t stay” (64). Annie curtly replies, “I didn’t come here for love. I came for money!” (64). Annie, still haunted by the death of her brother, is hesitant to let herself love again. Regardless, Kate’s instinct about how much Annie truly cares for Helen soon proves to be right.
When the two weeks are up, Annie asks for more time. Kate, however, denies the request: “Doesn’t she need affection too, Miss Annie?” (79). Annie replies: “She-never shows me she needs it, she won’t have any—caressing or—” (79). This suggests that Annie has made attempts to show Helen affection during their time together. Annie’s emotions betray her when she speaks to Captain Keller as they leave the garden house. She discusses how they are to move forward now that Helen has returned to the main house. Annie expresses her fears to him:
The world isn’t an easy place for anyone, I don’t want her just to obey but to let her have her way in everything is a lie, to her, I can’t—(Her eyes fill, it takes her by surprise, and she laughs through it.) And I don’t even love her, she’s not my child! Well. You’ve got to stand between that lie and her (84).
At the very end of the play, the Kellers and Annie reach a balance between love, pity, and discipline. Helen at last understands the world of language that awaits her, and better understands those who love her enough to teach her about it.
Language as the Key to Unlocking the Mind
The importance of language is at the root of Annie and Helen’s journey in The Miracle Worker. If Helen’s mind is a locked door or chest, then language is the key that will unlock it. At the time Annie and Helen lived, American Sign Language was relatively new, and the methods of communication for people who were deaf and/or blind was limited. Sign language brought a whole world of possibilities for Helen and others with disabilities. Annie quotes one of Dr. Howe’s writings to Kate when she explains the importance of teaching Helen language. She says, “Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye” (25). Annie, having experienced a life-changing education at Perkins, is determined to help Helen have a similar experience.
When Annie first begins teaching Helen, she tells Kate, “No, it’s only a finger game to her, Mrs. Keller. What she has to learn first is that things have names” (41). Kate tells Annie she would like to learn these letters as well, so that she will eventually be able to communicate with Helen herself. Helen is quick to learn, and though she does not understand what the words mean until the play’s end, her desire to know is there from the beginning.
When Annie begs for more time with Helen, she tells the Kellers that “In her bones those five fingers know, that hand aches to—speak out, and something in her mind is asleep” (77). Now that Helen has been exposed to words, she “need[s] only time to push one of them into her mind” (79). Captain Keller and Kate are grateful for a well-behaved, obedient child. For the first time, Helen is disciplined and knows the meaning of “no.” Annie is not satisfied with mere obedience, however: “I wanted to teach her what language is. I wanted to teach her yes” (83). Though Annie makes significant progress with Helen, there is a great deal more Annie wants her student to know.
Annie gets her wish when she takes Helen to the pump. When Helen has her revelation about language, she is unstoppable in her pursuit of learning every word. Helen goes to Kate and spells a word into her hand; this is the first time the two have truly communicated as mother and daughter. The word Helen spells into Kate’s hand is “teacher,” and Kate is suddenly aware of how much Annie now means to Helen. Annie and Kate have taken on different roles as adult figures in Helen’s life throughout the play. While Kate will always be Helen’s mother, Annie will always be the one who gave Helen the most remarkable gift: the gift of language.
A New War Emerges: Post-Civil War Relations Between the Northerners and Southerners
The Miracle Worker takes place just over two decades after the end of the Civil War. The residual cultural buffer between the North and South is a dominant theme in the play. Their regional differences in attitude, especially regarding women, is one of the driving conflicts between Captain Keller and Annie Sullivan. Additionally, the language of battle is woven throughout. Gibson cleverly uses the historical context of the play to emphasis a new kind of war that emerges at Ivy Green: a war for Helen’s life.
At the top of the play, just after the Doctor has proclaimed that Helen will live, there is a distinct level of fear in Kate not present in Captain Keller. The Captain stands, relieved and proud, saying, “I’ve brought up two of them, but this is my wife’s first, she isn’t battle-scarred yet” (5). From the onset, parenting a child is explained in terms of war. Likewise, Dr. Anagnos speaks of the way Annie was difficult; raising her was “always an Irish battle. For independence” (15). Annie and Helen are similar in this way; this is why they are positioned first as enemies. It is also why, by the end of the play, they grow to love each other.
The significance of Northerners and Southerners interacting in this play, so soon after the Civil War, cannot be underestimated. Annie’s arrival at the train station marks the arrival of new ideas to a state steeped in tradition. This is seen in the stage directions describing Annie’s first encounter with Kate. Gibson writes, “Kate is studying her face, and Annie returns the gaze; this is a mutual appraisal, southern gentlewoman and working-class Irish girl, and Annie is not quite comfortable under it” (24). There is a noticeable tension between them, though both parties attempt to act politely.
There are two phrases in The Miracle Worker that mirror each other. When Captain Keller learns that Annie is young and recently blind, he exclaims, “Here’s a houseful of grownups can’t cope with the child, how can an inexperienced half-blind Yankee schoolgirl manage her?” (28). Less than 20 pages later, he and James are arguing about how the South lost the battle of Vicksburg. James argues that Grant was “obstinate” (43), which helped the North to win the battle, and eventually the war. Captain Keller argues, “He wouldn’t have got around if we’d had a Southerner in command, instead of a half-breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—” (43). The lines about Annie and General Grant are almost identical rhythmically. This repetition draws a parallel between Annie and Grant. Later, when Annie refuses to let Helen stick her hands into Annie’s plate, James echoes the comparison between Helen and the General: “Ha! You see why they took Vicksburg?” (44). There is a cultural war between the Southerner’s more passive way of handling conflict and the Northerner’s way, which is more direct and ruthlessly persistent.
Another aspect of battle explored frequently throughout the play is the idea of surrender. The characters slowly learn that to co-exist and move forward; each must relinquish something. Every character must give up some part of their belief system, relationship, or past as they work together to make a brighter future for Helen.
Captain Keller surrenders part of his pride as he battles with Annie over how to teach Helen. When Annie demands to be given complete charge of her pupil, Captain Keller says, “I have tried to make allowances for you because you come from a part of the country where people are—women, I should say—come from who—well for whom (it begins to elude him)—allowances must—be made” (59). However, he then adds that he is “not accustomed to rudeness in servants or women […]” and demands “a radical change of manner” (59). The two continue to argue, but eventually Captain Keller “erupts in an irate surrender” and agrees to Annie’s conditions (63).
Annie must surrender her past, and in doing so, her heart, to finally reach Helen. Dr. Anagnos asks her before she leaves Boston, “Annie, I know how dreadful it was there, but that battle is dead and done with, why not let it stay buried?” (15). The memories of Jimmie stay with her, and her unwillingness to open herself to love creates a barrier between Annie and Helen. Annie’s love for Helen ends up being the key to making peace with her past.
For Kate, surrender means allowing herself to process emotions that come with raising a child with disabilities. Gibson writes these stage directions for Kate: “And still erect, with only her head in surrender, Kate for the first time that we see loses her protracted war with grief” (55). Kate has a quiet strength and determination, but this is a turning point for her character as hope for Helen is restored for the first time in five years.
Kate must also surrender raising Helen. For Helen to have the most fulfilling life possible, Kate must relinquish some control and put it in Annie’s hands. When the miracle at the pump occurs, Helen signs the word “teacher” into Kate’s hand. This “is a moment in which she simultaneously finds and loses a child” (94). Though Kate is hesitant to let go of Helen, she eventually releases her to walk back to Annie. There, Annie wraps Helen in a tearful embrace. Helen understands language, and the battle ends.
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By William Gibson
