The Miracle Worker Questions and Answers
The Miracle Worker
What does Annie mean when she says, "I'll tell you what I pity, that the sun won't rise and set for all her life and...
This passage happens in act two, soon after Annie's arrival in the house. While at a meal, Helen continues to reach onto each person's plate and take whatever food she wishes. Normally, she gets...
The Miracle Worker
How do Annie's flashbacks about her brother relate to her work with Helen in the play The Miracle Worker?
Annie compares her own experience in an asylum for the poor with Helen’s home life. When Captain Keller contemplates sending Helen to an asylum for the blind, fearing that she will never be able to...
The Miracle Worker
In act 2 of The Miracle Worker, what is Captain Keller's reaction to Annie's work with Helen?
Captain Keller strongly disapproves of Annie's work with Helen. In short, he feels that Annie is too strict with her charge. He believes that Annie lacks pity or compassion for Helen. To Captain...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, why does Annie feel that it is important to take Helen away from the house?
After witnessing Helen's behavior of running around the dinner table, sticking her hand into things, and locking her in her room upstairs, Anne Sullivan realizes that Helen is completely out of...
The Miracle Worker
Who are Viney, Martha, Percy, and James in The Miracle Worker?
"The Miracle Worker" is a play about Helen Keller and how her life changes when Annie Sullivan arrives. Viney is a servant in the Keller household. She has two children, Martha and Percy. Viney...
The Miracle Worker
What is the relationship between James and Captain Keller in The Miracle Worker?
James Keller, a son of the family's patriarch from a previous marriage is a young man who clearly represents the younger generation that questions authority for authority's sake. He has a very...
The Miracle Worker
Summarize Annie's past as it's revealed in Act II and explain how it affects her work with Helen. William Gibson's...
In Act Two of The Miracle Worker, Anne Sullivan tries to gain control of Helen, but is met with resistance by the Kellers. When the Captain threatens to fire her, Anne returns to her room, goes...
The Miracle Worker
1) In The Miracle Worker, how does Helen's reaction to Annie, when she realizes her parents have left her with Annie,...
The Miracle Worker reveals the difficulties and the progress of Helen Keller after Annie Sullivan comes to the Keller's home to try and improve Helen's quality of life. Helen is a spoiled child,...
The Miracle Worker
How is the breakfast discussion that Captain Keller and James have about the Battle of Vicksburg related to the...
Captain Keller and his son, James, are arguing over how and why the South lost the war. They focus their debate on the Battle of Vicksburg, which was won by Ulysses S. Grant. Keller's argument is...
The Miracle Worker
How are Annie and Helen similar? How are they different?
Both Annie and Helen are vision impaired, though Helen is completely blind, while Annie is still partially able to see. Their limitations have been overcome by their own stubbornness, and Annie is...
The Miracle Worker
At the end of Act One, Helen drops Annie's room key into a well, How does this ending foreshadow the end of Act Three?
The poignant history of Helen Keller's los of hearing and sight, and her miraculous rescue by Annie Sullivan from dark isolation, the key is a symbol of what Annie will do for Helen: She will open...
The Miracle Worker
What gifts did Annie receive when she left the institute?
In the second part of act 1, we meet Annie Sullivan as she prepares to leave for Alabama from the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Massachusetts. She is a student at the institute, but Annie also...
The Miracle Worker
From The Miracle Worker, how does Annie sharing her experience in an asylum persuade the Kellers to take her side?...
The Miracle Worker is a play, adapted for television, revealing the influence that Annie Sullivan has on Helen Keller after she has been left blind and deaf after an illness as a baby. Annie works...
The Miracle Worker
What attitude does James take toward Annie in The Miracle Worker?
James is Helen’s half-brother, and with his negative attitude, he emphasizes the ‘half,’ desiring to distance his association with her. He wants Helen sent away to an asylum, out of sight and out...
The Miracle Worker
what food does helen keller love to eat?
Helen enjoys eating candies, which everyone in her family gives her (probably because they feel bad for her and want a way to communicate their love for her). Since she is blind and deaf, she...
The Miracle Worker
What is the moral lesson of The Miracle Worker?
The moral lesson in The Miracle Worker by William Gibson revolves around the need for discipline and self-control in the search for growth and success. The play presents scenes from the early life...
The Miracle Worker
Who is Percy in The Miracle Worker?
Percy in The Miracle Worker is a young Black servant who, like Martha, works on the Keller estate. He has a small but significant supporting role. In act 1, he and Martha play with paper dolls as...
The Miracle Worker
What three things does Annie say are advantages to to her working with Helen? The Miracle Worker by Willaim Gibson
In Act One of William Gibson's play, The Miracle Worker, twenty-year-old Anne Sullivan completes her arduous train rides from the Perkins Institute for the Blind and arrives in Tuscumbia, Alabama,...
The Miracle Worker
Reflect on how Helen Keller was treated at a young age in the miracle worker.
At a young age, Helen is allowed to do as she pleases most of the time. Her family views her as incapable of learning. It is to Helen's disadvantage that her family basically ignores her. They...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, what actions at the breakfast table reveal the way the Kellers treat Helen?
Annie Sullivan is Helen Keller's teacher and her determination and patience, as revealed in The Miracle Worker, reveal her great strength and one of the reasons why Helen Keller is able to become...
The Miracle Worker
In act I, scene 3 in The Miracle Worker, which phrases helped to indicate that a flashback was taking place?
The stage directions indicate the changes of scenes, which are marked by lights fading in and out and characters from the closing scene remaining motionless. After the directions for lights fading...
The Miracle Worker
What happened to Annie's brother in "The Miracle Worker"?
Annie and her little brother Jimmie grew up in the state asylum at Tewksberry, Massachusetts, where conditions were notoriously harsh. The two children were sent there together when their mother...
The Miracle Worker
What are the differences and similarities between Annie Sullivan and Kate Keller in the play The Miracle Worker?
I can't even tell you what fun I had answering your question! I love this play and know most of it by heart, but never really explored these two characters as a pair. What an interesting set of...
The Miracle Worker
Upon her arrival, Annie takes little time before she antagonizes Captain Keller in "The Miracle Worker"....
When Kate arrives back at the house with Annie Sullivan, her husband attempts to act chivalrous and carry Annie's suitcase. However, Annie argues with him about this, insisting on handling her...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, when Anne was telling the Keller's about her time in the asylum, how did they react?
In The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller is portrayed as an unruly, out of control, child who suffers more from her parents' pity than from her affliction, having been left deaf and blind after...
The Miracle Worker
In the book "The Miracle Worker", what is the connection between the references to the Civil War and generals and the...
The Civil War was not only the "War Between the States," it was in some states a war within the state as families were divided in their support of the North or the South. Such a war within the...
The Miracle Worker
Explain Annie's statement: "Obedience is the gateway through which knowledge enters the mind of a child" in The...
The story of Helen Keller is one that is so well known, and still very useful today. When Helen's mother wanted to get her daughter real help, instead of having her institutionalized, Annie...
The Miracle Worker
Why does Jimmie finally stand up to his father in "The Miracle Worker"?
James finally stands up to his father at the end of Act II. After being alone with Annie, Helen's behavior has improved considerably, but with the return of her indulgent parents Helen reverts to...
The Miracle Worker
What is the conclusion of The Miracle Worker?
The miracle that occurs at the end of The Miracle Worker is that Helen Keller learns to communicate with words. The audience, therefore, has the sense that this is a turning point in her life and...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, how is the breach between James and Keller further developed? What is the basis for their...
Even from the beginning of The Miracle Worker, it is evident that there is animosity between James and his father, Captain Keller. James tries to resist his father's authority but as he says...
The Miracle Worker
What does Annie accomplish in the breakfast room with Helen? What type of things does she accomplish?
Because of her disability, Helen has not been held to the same standards as other children. In their dysfunctional family dynamic, the Kellers do not wish to deal realistically with the fact that...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, how does Kate respond when Annie questions rewarding Helen for stabbing her with the needle?
Kate responds with both weariness and defeat. Kate, of course, has just given Helen a sweet so that (even though Helen has just stabbed Annie) Helen will drop the sewing card (which was Annie's...
The Miracle Worker
What is the main conflict in The Miracle Worker?
The Miracle Worker's central conflict is between Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. Annie wants to bring Helen into contact with a world that has been closed to her due to her blindness...
The Miracle Worker
What is the setting of the play The Miracle Worker by William Gibson?
"The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson is based on Helen Keller's first discovery that words, and that most famous word of all for Helen Keller, "W-A-T-E-R," have the potential to release Helen...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, what memories come back to Annie as she works with Helen?
Annie Sullivan comes to the Keller household from The Perkins' Institute for the Blind and is only partially sighted herself. In The Miracle Worker, the audience learns of the difference the...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, where does Annie Sullivan want to take Helen so that the child can learn without her parents...
In The Miracle Worker, Annie saw that Helen's parents often caved into her demands. Annie knew that this was keeping Helen from properly learning and from reaching her fullest potential. She knew...
The Miracle Worker
Describe Annie Sullivan. What kind of a young woman was she? Cite three examples from the play to support your views.
Anne Sullivan is a survivor to the core. She had a sad childhood, being forced to grow up in an almshouse surrounded by illness, filth, and death, and then losing her younger brother. She is still...
The Miracle Worker
How did Helen Keller’s disabilities affect her before her teacher, Anne Sullivan, arrived?
Helen's disabilities cut her off from the rest of the world. Her parents, though they love her, have no idea how to reach her since she cannot see nor hear. They resign themselves to the idea that...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, why does Keller agree to write Dr. Chisolm?
Captain Keller has pretty much given up hope of his daughter Helen's blindness ever being cured. As he tells the family, Helen's been to specialists all over Alabama and Tennessee, but all to no...
The Miracle Worker
In Act 2 of The Miracle Worker, how do Annie and Captain Keller's interactions add drama to the play?
Act II is a very dramatic section of this play, because we see Annie beginning to impose her regime upon Helen and upon the Keller family. One of the most important sections of this act to my mind...
The Miracle Worker
What does Helen do with Belle in The Miracle Worker?
Belle is an Irish Setter, a beloved member of the Keller family. Although she is not a character usually focused upon in The Miracle Worker, I applaud you for asking this question in order to...
The Miracle Worker
In The Miracle Worker, what are the three things Annie tells Kate she (Annie) has going for her?
Kate is surprised by Annie's youth. She is also understandably concerned because Annie has never taught before. James suggests that Annie may end up being a burden on the family, and Captain Keller...
The Miracle Worker
Who are the dynamic and static characters in The Miracle Worker and why?
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson is a play about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, particularly the influence Annie has on Helen and her family. Helen Keller was left blind and deaf after an...
The Miracle Worker
What is Helen's teacher's salary in The Miracle Worker?
Helen Keller's life has been chronicled in various ways; Helen herself wrote several books, the most revealing being The Story of My Life. After an illness as a baby, Helen was left blind and deaf....
The Miracle Worker
How does James feel about Helen and her ability to learn in The Miracle Worker?
James' perception of Helen's ability to learn is clouded by his own sense of resentment and hurt for being neglected. With the focus on Helen, James feels slighted and does not feel that he is the...
The Miracle Worker
In the play The Miracle Worker, what are a few ways James is affected by Helen's disabilities?
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson is a play which outlines some of the highlights and difficulties for Helen Keller's family, and in particular, Annie Sullivan, as they struggle to help Helen...
The Miracle Worker
What new problems does Annie face in Act 2 of The Miracle Worker?
Oh, you're right that Annie faces new problems in Act 2! Annie gives us a glimpse into those problems with the letter she is writing at the beginning of the act (each word interrupted by commas to...
The Miracle Worker
At the end of Act II of The Miracle Maker, what does Annie request from the Kellers if she is to stay with them?
Annie requests that she be allowed to treat Helen as she thinks is best, which of course brings her into conflict with the Captain and the way that he perceives Annie is treating Helen. Annie...
The Miracle Worker
What is revealed about James's feelings during his confrontation with his father in Act 2 of The Miracle Worker?
The Miracle Worker tracks the progress made by Annie Sullivan in her quest to improve the life of Helen Keller. Annie understands some of Helen's frustrations and wants to pass on her skills to an...
The Miracle Worker
Identify at least one conflict in William Gibson's play, The Miracle Worker.
The Miracle Worker, a play by William Gibson, is based on the lives of Helen Keller and her lifetime companion, Annie Sullivan. In terms of conflicts, there are two major kinds: internal and...
Showing 1-50 of 308