ASF Study Materials for

by William Gibson

Study Materials written by: Susan Willis ASF Dramaturg [email protected] Contact ASF: 1.800.841.4273, www.asf.net 1

by William Gibson Welcome to The Miracle Worker

The challenge of writing historical Characters drama is that we all know the ending and in Tuscumbia, Alabama: something of the major characters, so raw suspense does not drive the action Captain Keller, Helen's so much as a sense of watching how the father events happen. William Gibson dazzled the Kate Keller, his second wife, genre with his 1959 award-winning play, Helen's mother The Miracle Worker, dramatizing a superb James Keller, his son by his All-American story of a young woman and first marriage a child who face immense challenges and Helen Keller, blind and deaf triumph. The action is as physical as Rocky since a toddler and as intensely language-based as the Aunt Ev[eline], the Captain's recent filmArrival —and the climax comes sister down to the understanding of one word. A Doctor People usually consider The Miracle Viney, a black servant Worker to be "the play about Helen Keller." While Helen is indeed the play's focus of Martha servants' energy and the miracle happened within The well pump at Ivy Green, Helen Keller's Percy } children her, the actual worker of the miracle is Annie childhood home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, with cottage near the house in background Sullivan—the play is about Annie Sullivan at Perkins Institute, Boston: with Helen Keller. Gibson puts Annie's Mr. Anagnos, head of the presence, her practice, her values, and "I left the well-house eager to Institute her candor at the center of the action; she learn. Everything had a name, drives the play just as she drives the quest Annie Sullivan, a recent and each name gave birth to a graduate to give Helen language and the chance for a full life. new thought. As we returned to Blind girls, students at Institute Annie's quest for Helen is for what the house, every object I touched makes us human—not just the human seemed to quiver with life." and offstage voices shape, but understanding, language, ideas, —Helen Keller, in The heart and mind and soul. Helen's access to Story of My Life (1904) Time: The 1880s, mostly her "humanity" left her in a sudden jolt, and spring of 1887 the being who was left she herself wrote of as "Phantom," a thing living in a "no- About These Study Materials Setting: In and near the world" of "thwarted desire and temper." No These materials and activities can be adapt- Keller home, Ivy Green, wonder she called the day Sullivan arrived in Tuscumbia "the birthday of my soul." ed to suit any grade level and contain: in Tuscumbia, Alabama, • background information about the major and briefly at The Perkins The idea of teaching as a gift and figures Institute for the Blind in learning a miracle has never been so simply • analysis of the play's structure and charac- Boston nor so eloquently demonstrated as in the ter development story of Annie Sullivan's meeting with Helen • discussion questions about character Images: Several images Keller. The child's life gains knowledge and • analysis of issues and imagery herein are from American thus opportunity and a future in which to • historical context about the education Foundation for the Blind via explore it. And once we know the life stories of children in the 19th century and the its educational use provision; of both women, we realize the worker of education of the blind and deaf http://www.afb.org miracles is just as remarkable as the child • a post-production worksheet and from Perkins Institute Activities appear in green boxes. website, http://www.perkins. and woman she taught. org/history 2

by William Gibson William Gibson, Playwright

Like many writers, William Gibson, in the film version of the script three years a native New Yorker, waited for fame to later, which Gibson adapted. recognize his work, and in his case his The Miracle Worker won him a Tony faith more than paid off—or as he put it, for the script and won both Bancroft and "Good things come to those who wait … Duke Best Actress and Best Supporting far too long." Actress Awards. The actresses also In the mid-1950s his first novel was won the Academy Awards for their film bought by MGM and made into a film. At performances, and the screenplay was that point he could have had a career as nominated for an Oscar. a screenwriter, but he decided he was Gibson's subsequent plays included not a committee-style writer; he stuck to the book for a musical version of Clifford playwriting. Good move. Odets's Golden Boy (1964), a play about In 1958 he premiered his first play on the young William Shakespeare (1968), Broadway, Two for the Seesaw, starring a play about the Puritan Anne Hutchison Playwright William Gibson Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft in her (1980), and a sequel to The Miracle Worker debut role. He followed this the next year called Monday after the Miracle (1982), with an adaptation for the stage of a teleplay along with a one-woman play about Golda script he'd done, The Miracle Worker, again Meir that became the longest running one- starring Anne Bancroft and introducing woman Broadway show in history. Born Patty Duke as Helen Keller in a stunning in 1914, he died in 2008 after a long and performance. They both revived these roles successful career.

How True Is This "History" Play?

We tell stories of the past to learn about Keller's illness or Sullivan's own childhood. it, to learn from it, and to shine light on our Not so. Gibson has not only done a great own world and experience, to see it more deal of good research, but has also used clearly or from another angle. The tradition it faithfully, especially since the words he of the history play, from the ancient Greeks draws from are usually those of Helen Keller through Shakespeare to Hamilton today can and Annie Sullivan themselves. add a filter or a rhythm or a perspective to The two central participants in this raw facts, and the very act of presenting incredible tale both wrote about it, Sullivan facts in a biography of any sort means in letters to a friend in Boston during the "shaping" it. events, and Keller, once she mastered In her later life Helen Keller had strong language, in a number of books, primarily values and championed causes aplenty, The Story of My Life (1904) and later in from the needs of the disabled to the Teacher (1954). needs of workers, from women's suffrage So appreciate that many of the points to antimilitarism, but in this play as a made and all the physical contests in Tuscumbia, Alabama 6-year-old she battles only to have what this play are essentially true to how they she wants—and she does not yet realize occurred. Gibson did tighten the time line what that is. The person who does realize slightly, but since the entire timeline of her deeper needs and wants is the person the major action from Sullivan's arrival in she's fighting, Annie Sullivan. Alabama to the breakthrough is less than The contests in the play seem intensely five weeks, the tweaks are almost invisible. dramatic, so it is easy to assume Gibson With a play so faithful in its main plot, this hyped up the events, including details of time we can trust a great—and true—story 3

by William Gibson Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller: Picture Their Childhoods

The two famous women whose first Helen Keller's birthplace is on the meeting this play narrates share early National Registry of Historic Places. Annie childhood time on a farm and some Sullivan's birthplace is lost to history, but her experience in a small cabin. Beyond that, family lived in extreme poverty. Sullivan was Tewkesbury Almshouse they grew up in different social strata, which born in a village outside Springfield, MA, where Annie Sullivan lived in 19th-century America, perhaps as now, then moved to "a dilapidated little cabin" from age 10 to 14. meant in different worlds. on an uncle's farm for two years after her mother died. Once her father abandoned his remaining children, "home" became the Tewkesbury Almshouse, the poorhouse, an appallingly run institution where, after her younger brother Jimmie's death, Annie was alone amid diseased or socially outcast adults. It was not a green or nurturing world; she and her brother had played in the "deadroom," the morgue. * * * * * Helen Keller's early years were spent at Ivy Green in Tuscumbia AL, on what was the family's estate after the Civil War. A realtor today would list it as a bungalow, 4/0—4 bedrooms, no bathrooms, detached kitchen. Nearby was a one-room cottage in which the Captain and his second wife had lived when first married, and to this cottage Annie Sullivan took Helen for isolation in her early work with the child. The home was a green world full of gardens and flowers as Keller recalls in her autobiographies.

Ivy Green, where Helen Keller was born and lived for the first seven years of her life. After that, she was educated and lived in the Northeast. Left is the cottage to which Annie Sullivan took Helen to focus the child's attention on learning. 4

by William Gibson The First of Two Remarkable Women: Annie Sullivan

What Did Annie Sullivan Overcome? "Fellow graduates: duty We all know that Annie Sullivan bids us go forth into "miraculously" taught blind, deaf, mute active life. Let us go Helen Keller language. We tend not to know cheerfully, hopefully how Annie Sullivan's life brought her to that and earnestly, and moment and the many trials she overcame to get to there. In order to save Helen, she set ourselves to first had to save herself and find her own find our especial means of expression, thanks to some good part. When we have teachers, and her task was daunting. found it, willingly and Annie Sullivan's parents were faithfully perform desperately poor, illiterate Irish emigrants it…." from the Great Famine. Her father's only skills were drinking and fighting; her mother —Annie Sullivan's had tuberculosis. Two of their five children 1886 commencement died in infancy; another, Jimmie, had a address at Perkins Annie Sullivan at 15 while at the tubercular hip. Annie (b. 1866) suffered Perkins Institute for the Blind trachoma when she was five, which, left untreated, began to destroy her vision. No At Perkins Institute for the Blind Sullivan children went to school. She took two ill-fitting calico dresses along with her "shame, defiance, and ANNIE SULLIVAN Timeline At The Poorhouse impudence" to Perkins. She was 14 and • 1866: born to poor, After her mother died when Annie was could not read or write; her "ignorance" illiterate Irish parents in 8, her father soon abandoned home and Massachusetts was laughed at by younger students, children. When an uncle could no longer • c. 1871: contracts trachoma, though she knew life as they did not. Her a recurring infection that care for them, she and Jimmie were sent "spitfire" outbursts and attitudes more than irritates and scars the to the state poorhouse at Tewkesbury. once nearly got her expelled, but several cornea, causing vision loss Nearly starved and uncared for, as were teachers championed her. Two more eye • 1874: her mother dies all the nearly 940 inmates, the children operations at last helped Sullivan's sight • 1876: sent to poorhouse at were housed with the ailing elderly women, enough that she could read. Once able to Tewkesbury with younger contagious and non-contagious together. learn, her intelligence shone. brother Jimmie, who dies Another ward housed prostitutes; another, While there she befriended blind, deaf, • 1880: illiterate, she asks to go unwed mothers, though most of their infants to school; sent to Perkins mute Laura Bridgman, the breakthrough soon died. Institute for the Blind teaching of whom had made the school's • 1886: she graduates as Jimmie lived only 3 months there, fame. Bridgman taught Sullivan the manual valedictorian; prepares for leaving Annie in severe grief. During her alphabet for the deaf so they could converse her first teaching job four years at Tewkesbury, she had two failed by finger-spelling. • 1887: March 3, meets Helen eye operations as her sight deteriorated; a After Sullivan graduated as valedictorian Keller; April 5, Helen has third blurred her remaining vision enough to in 1886, the head of Perkins forwarded her language breakthrough nearly blind her, but she clung to one small • : takes Helen to Perkins a governess request from a Mr. Keller 1888 hope—someone told her about a school for and several other schools who had a blind, deaf, mute 6-year-old the blind. She was determined to get there. • 1904: Helen graduates from daughter. For six months Sullivan studied Radcliffe College with Annie As a committee investigating conditions the methods used to teach Bridgman, then finger-spelling lectures at Tewkesbury was leaving, she spoke the 20-year-old headed south. She proved • : "Teacher" dies after a 1936 up, her voice being her one hope and one to be a creative, responsive teacher who life helping Helen Keller's weapon, "Mr. Sanborn, I want to go to career writing, lecturing, freely adapted Howe's rigid methods to school!" The men asked some questions, Helen's interests, liberating her mind. traveling, and supporting and on October 7, 1880, she found herself the cause of the disabled, workers, and women at Perkins Institute for the Blind. 5

by William Gibson The Second of Two Remarkable Women: Helen Keller

HELEN KELLER Timeline Because of Annie Sullivan's own • 1880: Helen born June 27 experience, when she arrived in Tuscumbia • 1882: 19-month-old Helen she saw a child few others perceived—a deafened and blinded by an very bright, curious girl instead of the semi- undiagnosed intense fever wild Helen many family members thought • 1886: the family seeks advice might be better off in a mental institution. of a Baltimore oculist, who Helen was trapped without language; recommends Alexander Sullivan herself knew something of that Graham Bell, whose wife entrapment. Helen's family wanted a private was deaf; he recommends they contact Mr. Anagnos teacher, and in what looked like a raw, at the Perkins Institute. He inexperienced, very young woman instead Helen contacts Annie Sullivan. they got the woman best suited to the task, with • 1887: March 3: Annie Sullivan with the ideal experience and insight to Annie arrives in Tuscumbia, AL address Helen's education creatively. Sullivan, March 7: battle at the To help Helen, Sullivan had to get 1888 breakfast table Helen's attention, which meant teaching March 9: move to cottage March 16: Helen docile discipline even before language. From It was a free, unregimented exploration of March 27: return home Helen's perspective, later recounted in April 5: breakthrough at well her tribute to Sullivan, Teacher, her life to what there is to be learned (the kind we, in pump, "w-a-t-e-r" that point had been "all want, undirected our need to label, might call Montessori). • 1888: Sullivan takes Helen to want—the seed of all the wants of mankind Sullivan fed Keller's voracious curiosity, Perkins Institute that find their fulfilment in such a multitude then she took her away from the family • 1890: to Horace Mann School of concrete ways." Then she learned. confines to school, first at Perkins for the for the Deaf in Boston for First she learned names to express blind, where she learned Braille and made voice lessons friends, and then to schools for the deaf • 1894: at Wright-Humason her wants but without reflection or context. School for the Deaf in NYC But Sullivan finger-spelled to her all day to learn speech amid other new friends. for two years about everything, and soon she learned Because Sullivan had seen the "success" of • 1896: in MA studying for verbs and questions, concepts such as Laura Bridgman who had no support outside Radcliffe entrance exam where, how, why, as the world transformed of the Perkins Institute, she enabled Keller to • 1900: admission to Radcliffe and gained meaning. The people and function more broadly. When Keller sought • 1903: Helen's autobiography, surroundings she had experienced now more education, Sullivan facilitated her prep The Story of My Life, grows took dimension, and "that flood of delight work for the admission test to Radcliffe out of a class assignment in restored companionship was the real and then facilitated her course work there, • : Helen graduates and 1904 attending every class with her and finger- begins writing, lecturing, wonder of those early days and not advocating, and traveling Helen's miscalled 'phenomenal' progress spelling the lectures and demonstrations, • 1968: Helen Keller dies in capturing language as a fully formed arranging special touch sessions of exhibits instrument." so Helen's sensitive hands could perceive details. It often goes unnoted that Sullivan After the Moment at the Pump also thereby got a Radcliffe education, even Almost immediately Sullivan gave her though she got no diploma. back laughter and play, since as Keller With Sullivan's and later Polly reports, "Helen had not laughed since she Thomson's support, Keller dedicated her Radcliffe became deaf." Sullivan tickled her, then they life to writing, speaking, and travel, a life graduation, romped—"jumping, hopping, skipping, and of advocacy—advocating meaningful lives 1904, the first …in a few days Helen was another child, and employment for the disabled, equality deaf-blind 'splashing radiant joy.'" Sullivan had the for women, better lives and conditions for person to wisdom to give her life, childhood—not just the workers of America and the world, all get a college individual words but the reason for words. those whom society had in one way or degree Keller later realized Sullivan offered her another "disabled" from a full life. the childhood she herself had never had. 6

Structure and Character in The Miracle Worker—Act 1 by William Gibson William Gibson's artistic choices for her need for a job, and her farewell to "Language is to the shaping the script are partly driven by the school that has been her life for mind more than light is history because the play's climax is a given: the past several years, her step into it must be the scene at the pump. Now the unknown, her gambling on herself. to the eye." how to get there, how to mine the conflicts This farewell to the known/step into —Annie, Act 1 that drama needs and tell the full story of unknown will be paralleled by Helen at quoting Dr. Howe the family, the child, and the teacher who the end as a result of Annie's skill, for changes their lives. Helen will leave the known wilderness Again, history is a help with the of solitude and enter a future of relationship between the young Helen language. We also get the flashback and the new teacher Annie Sullivan. This scene of Annie with Jimmie at the isn't a musical. She is a young, visually- poorhouse, so she has a nightmare challenged, purpose-driven Irish woman past as do the Kellers and Helen. Explore These Seeds Planted • Then the arrival/meeting: first at the : who knows what needs to be done and in Act 1 Dialogue train with all the expectations, then • Doctor, saying the sick baby means to do it, if possible. So—the first will live:"You're a pair of meeting, then the process of learning the at Ivy Green, where Annie first lucky parents." problems and beginning to address them, sees Helen and begins to study her • "She's tryin' talk," as Helen i.e. the discipline aspect, and finally getting reactions, learning the hard way about puts her fingers on lips and to the language moment of enlightenment. Helen's sharp responses when she in mouths of other children It's a three-act play; it practically shapes locks Annie in—a major image that conversing itself. parallels her own state. • "I've stopped believing in Except there's more to it, and the family So the family has to get Annie out of wonders," says the Captain. her room before Annie can get Helen • "She wants the doll to have relationships are where the fleshing out out of her wordless solitude. To the eyes," Aunt Ev, as Helen shows structural artistry. Gibson tweaks plays with new towel doll. history a bit, making Captain Keller more family, for the moment, Annie seems • "How can I get it into your curmudgeonly, playing up the older man/ like another problem rather than a head, my darling, my wry younger wife dynamic, and especially solution. The act ends with Annie poor— [then Kate Keller to mining the step-situation of Captain solving the "where's the key" mystery Captain]… How can you Keller's second marriage with a son from by watching Helen and also stating discipline an afflicted child? his first marriage in the house.The sparks her own determination. Is it her fault?" setting up the fly between father and son, thus creating contrast to Annie Character Issues Established • "Dr. Howe did wonders, but … a useful and artful subplot cognate to the • Helen is curious, aware and acts out he never treated them like Helen/Annie relationship. ordinary children." violently; no socialization; has made up signs/minimal communication • [to Helen, who puts key in Structural Choices in Act 1 • Assertion of paternalism, but authority well] "You think I'm so easily Let's consider some choices Gibson gotten rid of? You have a will bend to wife and sister, which sets makes for the action: thing or two to learn first." up … Contrast to end of play with • Rather than simply report the past, the • Male/female authority issues that will pump and nature of future. "givens," he goes back in time to open extend to parents vs. Annie the play by showing the other most • Father/son strife, authority issues What's Historical in Act 1 dramatic moment in the story—the The paper dolls, playing • Family's long-term dysfunction due to discovery that the baby has been Helen's condition with the black children, fingers blinded and deafened by the fever. in their mouths, towel doll/ • Annie's past with brother haunts her buttons for eyes, cradle moment, • Having quickly established the problem, • Annie's forthrightness and strong will writing doctor, garnet ring, doll he jumps 5 years to a dysfunctional vs. need for job for Helen, meeting train for two family—the wild child who needs help So internal issues, interpersonal issues, days, feeding Helen sweets, and the family that does not know how family issues are all set out in Act 1. about Howe's practices, Helen to give it. This establishes the NEED. with bonnet, spelling doll first, • He then balances the need at Ivy Green Spanish monks, cake, imitate with the ANSWER: Annie in Boston, first, Annie locked in 7

Structure and Character in The Miracle Worker—Act 2 by William Gibson Notice that the three-act structure • Aftermath of breakfast battle: Kate tells the age of the play; today the action cries at news of change; desperate would be written in two acts. Through time repressed hope, links to later mention play structure has evolved from five acts of Helen's early speech, wahwah; then "Now all I have to to three to two and more recently even to Annie gets out her suitcase without a one 90- or 100-minute unbroken act. (Of word—suspense: is she giving up? do is teach you one course, in its first teleplay form, the act • Annie's packing sets up the word. Everything." breaks would have been for commercials.) confrontation in the garden house later —Annie, end of Act 2 In breaking the action into acts, a playwright that night. The Captain is dissatisfied needs to give each act a strong finish, with her undignified methods, then Explore These Seeds Planted called a "curtain" moment, even though challenged by Annie's dissatisfaction in Act 2 Dialogue many theatres no longer use curtains. Act with family. This longer scene links the • Annie of Helen: "There's 1 ended with Helen feeling triumphant Kellers' hope vs. asylum possibility nothing impaired in that over the newcomer Annie, hiding the key to Annie's past in asylum and her head." in her mouth and disposing of it down the clear assessment of what needs to • "Obedience is the gateway well—a mouth focus and pump/well focus happen—then, both Captain and though which knowledge that piques the viewer for the anticipated Annie try to set conditions for the deal enters the mind of the child." • "…we lost Vicksburg because end of Act 3, and the image of a key here that is a challenge: OK to separation, Grant was one thing no is potent: Helen herself is locked in, and but only for two weeks. Yankee general was before the entire idea of the play is to unlock her, • In garden house Annie sets out her him…obstinate." to let her out. strategy: use appetite, here not taste • "It's less trouble to feel sorry A middle act deepens and complicates but intellectual, Helen's curiosity. for her than to teach her conflicts, making some strides, enduring • Before we see that play out, we get anything better, isn't it?" setbacks, and facing new issues, leaving a father/son confrontation and a • "This girl, this—cub of a the larger issue still unresolved. One of the physical arm wrench, after which Kate girl—presumes! …She's a tosses the Captain's question to Annie hireling!" problems Annie identifies is the effect of • "Say what you like, Kate, but the family's love and pity for Helen; this is back at him: "Do you like the child?"— that child is a Keller." Annie's "tough love" act. a fine subplot echo/parallel. • Annie remembering Perkins • Now for the Helen/Annie confrontation report: "Can nothing be Structural Choices in Act 2 that has been set up. Annie cleverly done to disinter this human • Ambiguous time lapse, uses jealousy as a wedge to gain soul? … Is the life of the but not long after Act 1. Helen's renewed responsiveness. soul of less import than the Annie's power and perception—and life of the body?" Use of letter for Annie's private thoughts, where patience—seem formidable, and the • "I only today saw what has to song at the end restates in lyric and be done, to begin!" she establishes GOAL • Annie: "I want control of it." for the act: obedience. more loving terms the "I'm not so • Annie: "It's my idea of the Discussion of how Annie easily gotten rid of" that ended Act 1. original sin … giving up." will teach. • song: "Hush, little baby. • Breakfast is round 2 between Helen Character Issues Developed Don't—say a word—" and Annie (the instant test of • Annie's intelligence, determination, obedience). Annie insists on the stability, and dedication begin to seem "Sherman"-like (image set up/used) What's Historical in Act 2 manners the Kellers want and must • Parents/family love for child vs. Annie's Annie's letters, Perkins struggle with both them and Helen: report quotes, teach like talking "leave her alone with me"—the job—which trumps and how to a baby, Captain Keller at demand Annie will make twice in this • Echoes of brother Jimmie, "It hurts to Vicksburg, breakfast table battle act. be dead. Forever" haunt Annie and and results, talk of deadhouse • Father/son breakfast debate about refer to Helen as well and school at Tewkesbury, Civil War/Battle of Vicksburg is set up • Annie's past in asylum revealed; one Annie's sense of need to live for coming battle between Annie and option for family discarded by Annie separately, Helen's response, • Father/son tension escalates Percy's role Helen at the table, a messy battle that Yankee Annie wins. 8

Structure and Character in The Miracle Worker—Act 3 by William Gibson The two-week separation deal began Act 2's table manners conflict as tests at the end of Act 2; it is ending at the top of both Helen and Annie and for the of Act 3 with better obedience but no demands Annie makes. Kate, as she language understanding yet. Was it for did in Act 2, releases Helen to Annie; "Water. W, a, t, e, r. naught? The answer is the conflict of Act the Captain insists on his own way, Water. It has a— 3 because it depends on whom you ask, letting Helen do as she likes. name the family or Annie. The family is satisfied; • With Helen's next set of acting out, —" Annie is not—she is just beginning the real Annie grabs her and they leave the —Annie, Act 3 objective. For her and Gibson, the GOAL room. James confronts and tells of the act is language, understanding. Is his father he's wrong—the crisis for Explore These Seeds Planted that possible when the return to the house this relationship, the reverse of the in Act 3 Dialogue puts all the relationships into crisis mode, Captain's use of force in Act 2. Here • "I need a teacher as much as reviving earlier tensions and destabilizing the Captain hears and sits, a genuine Helen." what Annie's accomplished? Of course it change, and a hopeful one for the • Annie: "I'm learning to spell." is; that's why the play is built this way—to larger action of the play, which is… • "We're born to use words." make us fear and hope, to long for rather • Annie and Helen at the pump, the • "We miss the child. I miss than see the ending we know must come. moment we've been waiting for. her. I'm glad to say, that's a different debt I owe you—" Gibson is wise enough just to do it • Annie (note verb tense shift): Structural Choices in Act 3 now—the water, the finger-spelling, "I wanted to teach you.… I • The two weeks have passed, and today the insight—the miracle occurs right won't take less!" is the return to the house. Gibson before our eyes. • Annie: "To let her have her teases us—the first word Annie is • In a showy theatrical comment on the way in everything is a lie, to moment, Gibson has Helen grab the her.… You've got to stand spelling to Helen is water, then egg. • The Kellers are eager for the return, but bell rope as she eagerly returns to the between that lie and her.… house, so the sound effect is wildly Because I will." all realize life has been normal without celebratory (and the stage direction • "And Jacob said, I will not let Helen there. thee go, except thou bless • James opens up to Kate Keller, seeks asks for offstange chimes to ring, too). me." her help in his fractured relationship • Three more quick but significant with his father. moments seal the ending the play— • Annie tells Kate obedience isn't enough 1) Helen asks who Annie is: teacher (which her entire life was Helen's term Letter "W" and by finger-spelling asks for more in the manual time; Kate's fingers respond no. There for Annie). 2) Helen gets the keys alphabet for the is finger-spelling communication from Kate and gives them to Annie, a deaf, the first though not agreement here; we symbolic gesture of who can unlock, letter of water see that the finger-spelling works open. 3) Annie spells "I love Helen" to communicate ideas, decisions, and adds "forever" without haunting thought. voices arising. We are good to move What's Historical in Act 3 into the remarkable future these two Time in garden house • The Captain is satisfied—Helen is now teaching obedience, Annie's a human child; Annie disagrees. women will have (as we reach for letters (all letter quotes are • Again Gibson teases us as Helen tries more Kleenex, which is also intended). accurate, though sometimes to finger-spell the word water to the shifted sequentially), how does a dog. Captain compares teaching Character Issues Resolved bird learn, request for more time Helen to teaching a dog and revives • Annie's approach to teaching Helen is and denial, dog visiting cottage Annie's earlier comment about house- vindicated and succeeds and Helen smelling him, Helen breaking. Captain, with pay, implies • Father/son tension shifts, may resolve spelling into dog's paw, Helen • Kate and family realize Helen can be throwing napkin on floor, Annie Annie's job is largely accomplished. fully human, can learn and "speak" trying to remove her and their • Helen leaves with Kate, and Annie protests, Helen spilling pitcher, washes her eyes, the only private • Annie moves past the haunting voices out to pump and "the moment," moment we see her tend them. to love another child asking name for Annie • Back home at the table Gibson reprises 9

by William Gibson Character Analysis in The Miracle Worker: Annie & Helen

ACTIVITIES with CHARACTER In Alabama: These questions can be answered • At various times, Annie is perceived as individually or in pairs or groups for too young, too pushy, too "Yankee," discussion or writing/journaling and can too unaware of being a "hireling." work as viewing prompts for attending/ She is seen as a rival for affection, a viewing the play. challenge to authority, as insensitive, incompetent, and also as Jacob Annie Sullivan: fighting the angel. What do each Background: ot these perceptions respond to in • In the past the historical Annie has Annie, what do they tell us about the endured dire poverty, neglect, perceiver, and how true is each? How institutionalization in the poorhouse, many of these traits are assets for deaths of family, near blindness, her? illiteracy, and social scorn from peers and teachers. Assess how each of • What does Annie want and how does these might affect or help to shape her she go about getting it? What are her character. methods? What are her principles? How many of these influences are in What are her motives? Annie Sullivan at the Perkins the play? How? To what effect? Institute for the Blind • Does Annie's character change in the • Annie's parents were illiterate Irish course of the play? If so, what is its immigrants who fled the Great arc? If not, why not? Famine. Her mother and brother died of TB; her father abandoned the Helen Keller: surviving children. How might that • Does Helen have "character" or has her affect her character? condition left her undeveloped? Why or why not? How would members of • Jimmie and memories—Her younger her family answer that question? brother Jimmie was sent to the poorhouse with her, and his death • Helen's entire spoken dialogue is only there scarred her. What effect do one syllable (repeated three times), the memory sections of the play, the but her physical presence and its haunting voices of the past, have expressivity are eloquent. What on our understanding of Annie's does her physicality tell us? Pick an character? How does this private example or two and discuss what it dynamic affect our view of her and her reveals. Do we see what Annie sees inner conflicts? in Helen? Her parents' hoped-for vision of Helen—as a sweet, • While at Perkins, the historical Annie • What does Helen want and how does obedient child Sullivan was known as "Spitfire." Does she go about getting it? What are her Gibson include that aspect of her methods? What are her principles? Note: Because Helen's character in the play? If so, what effect What are her motives? Why? left eye protruded, she was does it have? Is it useful? usually photographed in right • How does Helen's character change profile. Later, as she became a • In the Perkins Institute scene, Annie in the course of the action? Why? public figure, doctors removed seems highly regarded and loved by Implications? both eyes and gave her glass prostheses (for medical and her fellow students. How does that "cosmetic" reasons). compare/contrast with how she is viewed in Alabama when she arrives? 10

by William Gibson Character Analysis in The Miracle Worker:The Kellers

Captain Keller: James Keller: • What does Captain Keller assume • How does the son/stepson role define about his position in society and James's character? How does he the family? Is that challenged in the react to the "new" family? What is his course of the play? How does he role in the action? respond? • What are the issues between James • What does Captain Keller want and and his father? How does each what are his methods of pursuing it? respond to the other?

• How does Captain Keller respond to the • James often seems to understand women in the play? How does he get Annie and to back her efforts. What do what he wants? How do they get what they share? Loss of a mother? Need they want from him? to be recognized? Why might James Captain Arthur Keller understand Annie? • Does Captain Keller change in the course of the play? If so, what is his • James can be opinionated and seem arc? If not, why not? snarky but is also very perceptive about situations. When is he right and • To what extent does Captain Keller how does he express it? Is he ever seem a stereotypical authoritative wrong? Why does he see what he man who blusters his orders but then sees in situations? Consider his calling eventually listens to the womenfolk? Annie "general" and Helen "angel." Is he well-rounded as a character or more of a type? • Does James change in the course of the play? If so, how? If not, why not? Kate Keller: • What tensions does Kate Keller feel as Aunt Ev: wife and mother/stepmother in this • Aunt Ev exhibits concern for the child James Keller, play? What does she want? What and family pride. How does she the older of Helen's two half-brothers (the other is challenges her as she tries to get it? maintain each and to what effect? not in the play) • Does Kate change in the course of the Viney, Martha, and Percy: play? Is so, what is her arc? If not, • Are the black servant characters two- or why not? three-dimensional in their portrayal? What role does Gibson give them? • How does Kate try to negotiate conflicts In history, Helen Keller remembered between other characters? What the children as always being kind and are her "weapons"? What are her playing with her. Is their attitude in the methods? play more like the Kellers', more like Annie's, or more parentally instructed • Is Kate a "steel magnolia"? Is she the behavior? Or are they just kids? genteel Southern lady and loving mother who gets exactly what she wants with sweetness and tact? Can she control this situation?

Kate Keller, c. 1900 11

by William Gibson Considering Issues and Images in The Miracle Worker

ISSUES IMAGES • Power figures • paper dolls/ dolls (with and without Compare the areas of authority and eyes)/ baby Mildred/ Helen power for Captain Keller and Annie How does the presence and treatment of Sullivan. How does each assert a doll work as an image for treatment authority? To what effect? of humans or human relations in the play? How and in how many ways • Parental view of children does Gibson use the image? Captain Keller seems dissatisfied or disappointed with two of his children, • Helen putting on Annie's shawl, hat, Helen and James, for different glasses reasons. How does he treat each? Here "becoming" Annie is superficial, What does he want? Does he donning or expropriating clothes, but Helen with a dog that may be perceive their needs or does he insist in how many ways is it important that Belle (Helen Keller loved dogs on behavior? How does each child Helen "become" like or reflect Annie? and had one all her life). behave toward him? But why is there a dog in the play? How is she used? Compare James's role to Helen's role; • the key/unlocking or locking in how like Helen is James? Is James How does this frequently used image like anyone else? Compare the way express major concerns in the play? Values and Society Annie treats Helen to the way the Consider the following Captain treats James. • feeding Helen sweets dicotomies and the How does this image reflect the family's values associated with • Expectations general attitude to Helen? each side by various Compare the effect of being labeled, characters in the play pitied, or left unchallenged and its • the discussion of the Battle of and what/who they refer effect on one's development and Vicksburg and Civil War references to—and also how Gibson image versus how one can be How does the view of each side of uses them in the play: challenged to be more, to be "human" the battle of Vicksburg describe the • Yankee/Confederate in the play. Who gets labeled or "battle" over Helen going on? How (rebel) pited for "what s/he is"? Who gets apt is each side's assessment of the • male/female challenged? How? Why? To what battle? • seeing/blind effect? Who "sees"? Who doesn't? • competent/incompetent What larger issues about society is • having a chick hatch in Helen's hand Gibson engaging with this portrayal? How indicative is that image for the What is Captain Keller's larger action? view of the world? his • Love vs. Protection vs. Freedom assumptions about the Compare/contrast Kate Keller's struggle • Jacob wrestling with the angel blessing world? Compare those with loving and protecting Helen and How apt is James's blessing to the larger with Annie's view of and wanting more for her and/or wanting to situation? to how many situations? assumptions about the solve the dysfunction she contributes world. Why might they to with Annie's goals and demands of • the five senses have different views? Helen—and Kate. What does each If Helen is blind and deaf, how evident What do we learn from woman see in Helen and what does are her other three senses? How does the differences? each want? How does she try to get Annie use them? How do others? How it? much of the cottage action/dialogue depends on Helen's not hearing or seeing? • What other images did you notice? 12

by William Gibson The Battle of Vicksburg and the Home Battle in Tuscumbia

In the play, disagreeing is the major form Grant had the Confederates of communication between the Keller men, outnumbered, but needed to get his and the first major subject we hear them troops across the river south of the disagreeing about is the Civil War's Battle city, and after scrapping four plans he of Vicksburg. Moreover, that disagreement managed it. Pemberton had thought Grant occurs at the top of the breakfast scene was withdrawing, and when he learned in Act 2 that will introduce the first major otherwise he ignored his commander, Gen. battle of wills between Annie and Helen and Johnston's, orders to join forces and instead the first battle for command of approach marched east, lost a battle, then tried to cut between Annie and the Keller parents. Civil Grant's supply lines to no avail. War history sets up Helen's uncivil behavior In three weeks, Grant’s men marched Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan and Annie's "Yankee" context. (Captain 180 miles, won five battles, and besieged studying to enter Radcliffe, Keller already called her a Yankee in his 8th the city with 77,000 men. Johnston 1898 line upon seeing her at the end of Act 1.) proposed a feint to allow Pemberton to Analyzing History & Imagery escape, but the message got lost since • Research the Battle of About Vicksburg Grant had cut the communication and Vicksburg (1862-3) to see In the Civil War, the port of Vicksburg, rail lines. On July 3, 1863, Pemberton how it works as an image in Mississippi on the Mississippi River was surrendered the city and Grant captured the play. • How does the Battle of a vital link between the halves of the 6,000 prisoners—at the same time that Vicksburg illuminate the Confederacy for both goods and troop Lee was losing at Gettysburg, two losses issues between the Keller transport. which became the turning point in the war. father and son? By spring, 1862, it was the Confederacy's • How does a Civil War only remaining railhead on the east bank About the Tuscumbia "Uncivil" War battle illuminate issues of the river after Memphis and New The topic at breakfast is Grant, whom after the war between a Orleans were lost to the Union. The city James claims "outthought us behind young northern woman of impoverished Irish was garrisoned with soldiers and the bluffs Vicksburg" and "beat us." His father background and a formerly overlooking the river fortified with artillery. disagrees, calling Grant a butcher and a upper middle class Southern The Union wanted to cut those drunk, and asserts that "we lost Vicksburg family (the second Mrs. Confederate water and rail links, and by stupidity verging on treason." James Keller of even higher status; General Grant spearheaded the effort adds that Grant was obstinate in taking she had been a Memphis from the west—the Vicksburg victory Vicksburg; he tried four times to move his belle). How many tensions began his climb to commander of Union men, and the fifth attempt worked. Keller just operate here? Why? forces by the next summer. Having beaten longs for "Old Stonewall" instead of a "half- • Research what Helen Keller breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—." and Annie Sullivan did after the Confederates 1887-88—how did they use under Van Dorn Comparing this discussion to the events their abilities? Compare at Corinth in immediately following, we realize Annie Laura Bridgman's use of the summer of Sullivan, the only "Yankee" in the house, skills with Helen Keller's— 1862, Grant is most obstinate and commanding, telling what made the difference? now faced Gen. the family their pity has caused the problem • Research educational and Pemberton, who of the "badly spoiled child," not helped it. job opportunities for the had never before Keller is enraged and wants her fired, but physically challenged in commanded a she then achieves the larger objective—it your community. What could Helen Keller do in force in battle. takes all morning, but Helen eats with a your community if she lived Grant's victory was spoon from her own plate and folds her there? only a matter of napkin. Annie wins this battle for Helen's time. soul and immediately re-groups for the next. James calls her "general." 13

by William Gibson Views on Children and Education in the 19th Century

At the same time children were Despite being seen as innocent and suffering from the impact of the Industrial pure, children were also considered to be Revolution, forced into long hours of savages, which justified the use of harsh factory work running machines or sent discipline at home and throughout society. into mines for 12- to 14-hour days (boys Strictures were necessary to shape their and girls underground with adult men), the malleable natures. Schooling regularly combination of Romantic idealization of involved corporal punishment, and there childhood innocence, a concern for religious was no discussion, no argument; they and social indoctrination, and Victorian were taught the one way to think and protectiveness and social propriety in the behave. Victorian concerns for children separate world of the nursery sometimes were health, cleanliness, godliness, and gave children a stern and rigid existence, self-improvement. depending on the nature of the caregiver. Girls played with dolls and were Sermons, poems, and art “portray the encouraged to make them new clothes child as a bastion of simplicity, innocence, and accessories to improve their sewing and playfulness. Women were also praised skills (sewing being one of the major for embodying these qualities [the Angel of requirements in a girl’s training, both a Part of a letter Helen wrote by the House image], and together with children “necessity” and an “accomplishment”). herself in the style called they were urged to inhabit a separate In The Miracle Worker, notice how squarehand using a grooved sphere: to withdraw from the workforce, high the expectations for Helen's behavior board, c. 1887-8, the year embrace their status as dependents, she first learned language. are and how happy many family members and provide the male breadwinner with a are with her achieving obedience and Being both blind and deaf, refuge from the dog-eat-dog capitalist world propriety—folding her napkin—with less Helen learned English and outside the family.” concern for inner life or intelligence. Notice, then communicated too, how often Helen already sews or knits; with it in three different these are skills she is immediately moved alphabets—the English toward to be a "normal" girl, skills that were letters (as above), the taught all young women, along with music manual alphabet for the and other "graces" that could improve the deaf, and the Braille alphabet for the blind. aesthetic ambiance of a man's home. During her education Note, too, in The Miracle Worker, she also studied Latin, how few of these traits were part of Annie Sullivan's upbringing until she was 14 and went to Perkins. If Annie rarely subscribes to Angel of the House values herself, she does know what society expects, including the Kellers, but her subsequent early education of Helen involved a free- The upstairs room at Ivy Green that style curriculum quite unlike anything then Annie Sullivan shared with Helen (Helen's practiced in a school. She was originally single bed is out of shot to the right). hired as a governess (note the implications It was common in the 19th century for of govern in that title), but more like Mary governesses to live-in to oversee children 24 hours a day. A tutor did not always live Poppins, she fit explorations and fancy in but taught during certain hours. into her lessons, and her charge grew into an Angel of a very different sort, a strong woman of generous spirit, firm mind, and eloquent expression who gave of herself to others in need her entire life. 14

by William Gibson Educating the Blind and Deaf in the 19th Century It was long thought the blind and deaf …and in Alabama could not be educated, until the 19th century proved the efficacy of education for these In October of 1858 Joseph H. Johnson, groups and others seen as "disabled." Where inspired by trying to help a hearing-impaired previously brother, opened the Alabama School for the there were few Deaf in Talledega, and in 1867, in response methods of to a brother-in-law visually impaired in the education and Civil War, added the Alabama School for the little specific Blind. In 1870 the state funded the schools care, the and changed the named to the Alabama 19th century Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. In developed 1887 the school split into two institutes, several systems and in 1892 the Alabama School for the of addressing Negro Deaf and Blind joined in a nearby the needs of facility. The curriculum was traditional and challenged also vocational, and included a lively sports individuals both program (baseball, football, basketball). In in Europe and 1955 the Helen Keller School was added the U.S. to address the needs of those both deaf Helen's and blind. A technical facility expanded own education opportunities, and in 1968 the schools demonstrates integrated. The Institute now also has 9 what had regional centers across the state. developed— Helen Keller later observed, "I cannot Boston had a believe parents would keep their deaf or school for the blind child at home to grow up in silence blind (Perkins, and darkness if they knew there was a good since 1832) and school in Talladega where they would be also one for the kindly and wisely treated." deaf; New York City also had Laura Bridgman, a a school for New Hampshire farm the deaf. Many child who at 2 had scarlet fever and lost The manual chart for the deaf, states offered her sense of sight, using Helen Keller's hand. such individuals a chance to learn. hearing, smell, and Learn to spell "water"! Annie Sullivan was an advocate for the most of her sense of challenged; she and Mr. Anagnos of Perkins taste. By the age of Institute split ways on the subject when he 7, like young Helen, wanted Keller and Sullivan to spend their she reacted to stimuli lives at the Institute as Laura Bridgman violently. No one in had. But, as Helen Keller says, "Teacher the mid-1830s thought the deaf-blind could be reached, but Samuel Gridley Howe of the new believes in the blind not as a class apart Perkins Institute developed a way to teach her but as human beings endowed with rights language, first by raised words on labels and to education, recreation, and employment then raised single letters until she realized how suited as nearly as possible to their tastes words express meaning. Because her farming and abilities." Sullivan and Keller fought for family could or would not then offer the life those rights all their lives, spearheading support she needed, an endowment allowed national foundations for the blind and deaf her to live the rest of her life at Perkins Institute . and advocating for education and jobs. 15

by William Gibson Worksheet for The Miracle Worker in Performance

1. • What are the family's goals for Helen when the action starts?

• What are Annie Sullivan's goals for Helen when she arrives in Tuscumbia?

• How do they negotiate any differences?

2. • What does Helen know? What does Helen want? How does she get it?

• How do Helen's objectives change in the course of the action? Why?

3. Are there any tensions in the family not related to Helen? If so, what do they reveal? Helen Keller as a young woman

4. • Annie Sullivan has two objectives—teaching obedience and teaching knowledge. Why is each important? Why and how are they different?

• What order does she teach them in? Why?

5. What does the production's setting (the set and lighting and sound) give the play and how is it used to enhance the story?

6. What was the best story moment in the play for you and why? What was the best theatrical moment and why? by William Gibson 2017-2018 SchoolFest Sponsors

Supported generously by the Roberts and Mildred Blount Foundation.

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