Essay Questions

To what does Annie Sullivan attribute the failure of Dr. Howe to break through to Helen?

Annie declares that her confidence at being able to do what Dr. Howe could not by suggesting she brings three things to the situation which he did not: “One is his work behind me, I’ve read every word he wrote about it and he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a man of few words. Another is to be young, why, I’ve got energy to do anything. The third is, I’ve been blind.” But the real difference proves to be something that she mentions just before his and does not include among her three “big advantages.” Annie clearly respects Dr. Howe almost to the point of worship, but she has one very big problem with his methodology which it will soon become clear is not a problem for her at all: “he never treated them like ordinary children. More like—eggs everyone was afraid would break.” As the events play out and Annie approaches the difficulties in teaching Helen with an increasing and intensifying sense of physicality, she proves herself right and becomes a proponent of what would eventually come to be called “tough love.”

Why do Helen’s parents allow her to engage in such outrageous behavior?

From the perspective of someone looking in from the outside, it would be easy to castigate Helen’s mom and dad as simply bad parents who don’t know how to control a child. In fact, Mr. Keller generally exhibits all the expected traits of a man trained in military discipline and this rigidity is one of the things causing tension with his son. Another explanation might simply be that they are overcompensating for the majestically unfair tragedy afflicted upon their daughter and while that is certainly partially true, the reality is that it goes deeper. Helen was not born with her sensory disabilities. They are, instead, the result of an illness early in her childhood. A heavy burden of guilty feelings—whether deserved or not—hangs over the household and indicates that Helen’s lack of any control or discipline is inextricably tied those feelings that perhaps there might have been something her parents could have done to prevent the tragedy.

What is the obvious obstacle that must be overcome in order to mount an effective production of The Miracle Worker?

The stage directions are lacking in any ambiguity:

“The third child is HELEN, six and a half years old, quite unkempt, in body a vivacious little person with a fine head, attractive, but noticeably blind, one eye larger and protruding; her gestures are abrupt, insistent, lacking in human restraint, and her face never smiles.”

Patty Duke won an Oscar for her portrayal of Helen in the film adaptation and it is the performance by which all subsequent portrayals will be judged. That Duke is capable of holding her own against Anne Bancroft cannot be denied, but it is important to note that when she filmed the movie, Patty Duke was sixteen years old, hardly a young girl. The Miracle Worker is a popular play for reading in school, but it has never been a particularly popular play for local theaters to produce. The ability to find a six year old capable of understanding the part is somewhat akin to the idea of casting King Lear: play the part when you’re too young and you can’t fully understand the impact of old age but wait until you are Lear’s age and you won’t have the physical capacity to do the role justice.