The Miracle Worker

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The Miracle Worker is a play by William Gibson based upon Helen Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life. It tells the story of the relationship between the deaf and blind Keller and Annie Sullivan, the teacher who brought the almost-feral girl into the world of education. Famed American humorist and author Mark Twain who was an admirer of both, had many years earlier dubbed Sullivan a "Miracle Worker," providing the inspiration for naming Gibson's work.

Originally produced as a television play, it moved to Broadway, and was later adapted by Gibson into a feature film in 1962. Reprising their work from the Broadway production earned Academy Awards for Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, as Sullivan and Keller respectively, as well as several other nominations for the film. The Miracle Worker was remade for television again twice, in 1979 and 2000.

Contents 1 Play: Playhouse 90, Broadway 2 1962 feature film, Academy Awards 3 1979, 2000 television versions 4 Source of the name 5 The "Wah-wah" controversy 6 Popular culture references 7 Characters 8 External links

[edit] Play: Playhouse 90, Broadway

The play was originally produced for television on February 7, 1957, as an episode of Playhouse 90, starring Teresa Wright as Annie and Patricia McCormack as Helen. It then ran on Broadway for almost 2 years (October 19, 1959 to July 1, 1961) and starred Anne Bancroft as Annie and Patty Duke as Helen.

[edit] 1962 feature film, Academy Awards

The play was made into a film in 1962, once again with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft, Victor Jory, Inga Swenson, Andrew Prine, and Kathleen Comegys. The movie was adapted by Gibson, and directed by Arthur Penn.

The film won Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Anne Bancroft) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Patty Duke, age 16). The film was also nominated for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

[edit] 1979, 2000 television versions

The Miracle Worker was again produced for television in 1979. It starred Patty Duke (this time as Annie Sullivan), Diana Muldaur, Charles Siebert and Melissa Gilbert (as Helen). It was directed by Paul Aaron.

It was remade for television in 2000, starring Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Alison Elliott, David Strathairn, Lucas Black and Kate Greenhouse. It was adapted by Monte Merrick and directed by Nadia Tass.

[edit] Source of the name

Anne Sullivan was dubbed a "Miracle Worker" by famed American humorist and author Mark Twain who was an admirer of both women. Twain, whose own personal finances were problematic, helped arrange the funding of Keller's Radcliffe College education by his friend, financier and industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers.

[edit] The "Wah-wah" controversy

The "miracle" in The Miracle Worker occurs in this when Sullivan and Keller are at the water pump refilling a pitcher of water. It is in this moment that Helen Keller makes the intellectual connection between the word Sullivan spells into her hand and the concrete substance splashing from the pump. Keller demonstrates her epiphany by miraculously whispering the word "Wah-wah," the baby talk equivalent of "water."

Many have questioned the reality of this depiction, as Keller had not uttered a single syllable in the course of the film, and, as an apparently pre-lingually deaf and blind child, would not have been aware of the existence of speech. Although the moment of comprehension is the most satisfying scene in the film, it was designed for hearing audiences. A hearing audience would not be expected to fully relate to the importance of the moment by seeing Keller merely spell the word, which would require an understanding of the manual alphabet. Keller mimics the words Sullivan spells into her hand throughout the film by spelling them back in Sullivan's hand, so at this moment it would only seem that Keller was continuing to mimic without understanding the concept. To bridge that problem the film's writer and director had actress Patty Duke (and others in subsequent remakes of the film), who portrayed Keller, speak the word "wa-wa" while she finger-spelled "water". The moment of revelation thus becomes clear for hearing audiences, but has been criticized for setting unrealistic expectations for deaf children to "be like Helen Keller" and speak, when even the most gifted deaf child realistically takes years to utter a comprehensible syllable and a lifetime of speech therapy to maintain the ability.

Nevertheless, according to Keller's own account in The Story Of My Life, she was not quite pre lingual when she experienced the illness that destroyed her sight and hearing. She was a year and a half old, at a developmental stage where she understood what was said to her, and she had a small spoken vocabulary, including "Howdy", "Tea, tea, tea" and "water", which she in fact pronounced "wahwah". She continued to say "wahwah" long after she was deafened; she describes it as the one word she kept, while substituting a large vocabulary of signs for everything else she wanted to say. She not only remembered that speech existed, but she constantly put her hands over others' mouths as they were talking and attempted to talk as well. This is depicted accurately in the play. Like Laura Bridgman, she did have that year and a half of developmental normalcy, and it is not unreasonable to assume that this is one reason "water" was the first spelled word that gave her the understanding that the symbol and the water itself were meant to be one and the same.

William Gibson did not use "The Story of My Life" as his exclusive source for the play. In interviews, he has said he also relied on a printed volume of Sullivan's letters written during the time of her early stay with the Kellers. This is alluded to during the film, which depicts her writing letters in her room.

Finally, Helen's utterance of "wah-wah" is consistent within the dramatic unity of the play and film. In the middle of the play, Helen's mother tells Sullivan that Helen, before her illness, had been precocious in her learning of language and that her first word had been "wa-wa" for water. This sets up the emotional power of the scene at the well. By echoing the first word Helen spoke as an infant, the viewer immediately knows that Helen has made an intellectual breakthrough and now grasps the existence and purpose of language.

[edit] Popular culture references

1. In an episode of South Park, the fourth graders put on a production of the The Miracle Worker for their Thanksgiving play. It was turned into a musical, with lyrics and music written by Cartman and Jeffrey Maynard.
2. In an episode of Family Guy, a scene from The Miracle Worker is shown where Sullivan and Keller are speaking in binary.
3. An Indian Film Black starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has been made from the film The Miracle Worker.
4. In the manga Glass Mask by Suzue Miuchi, both the fictional actress Ayumi Himekawa and Maya Kitajima act the role of Helen Keller.

[edit] Characters

Aunt Ev
Blind Girls
Doctor
Captain Arthur Keller
Helen Keller
Kate Keller
Annie Sullivan
Martha
Percy
James Keller
Jimmie Sullivan (Annie's deceased brother, seen in flashback)
Anagnos
Viney

[edit] External links

• David Strathairn Online: The Miracle Worker
• "Playhouse 90" The Miracle Worker (1957) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (1962) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (1979) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miracle Worker (2000) at the Internet Movie Database