The Miracle Worker Page #3

- Kate, for the love of heaven... | - I don't think it serves...

Serves you good. It's less trouble | to feel sorry than to teach her anything...

You haven't taught her anything yet.

- I'll begin now if you leave the room. | - Leave?

- Everyone, please! | - You are a paid teacher, nothing more.

I can't unteach her six years of pity | if you can't stand up to one tantrum.

Old Stonewall indeed!

Mrs Keller, you promised me help. | Leave me alone with her now.

Katie, come outside with me at once!

- Heaven's sakes! | - Out, please.

If it takes all summer, General!

I've a mind to ship her back to Boston, | and you can inform her so for me.

- I, Cap'n? | - She's a hireling.

Unless there's a complete | change of manner,

she goes back on the next train. | Will you make that clear?

Where will you be, Cap'n, | while I am making it clear?

At the office.

Will you? I thought what she said | was exceptionally intelligent.

- I've been sayin' it for years. | - To his face?

Or will you take it, Jimmy, as a flag?

Good girl, Helen.

Agh!

I don't see how you can wait here | a minute longer, Kate.

This could go on all afternoon too.

I'll tell the Cap'n you called.

Give me her, Miss Kate. | I'll sneak her in back to her crib.

- She never gives me a minute's worry. | - Oh, yes.

This one's the angel of the family. | No question about that.

- What happened? | - She ate from her own plate.

She ate with a spoon... herself.

And she folded her napkin.

Folded her napkin?

The room's a wreck, | but her napkin is folded.

I'll be in my room, Mrs Keller.

Don't be long, Miss Annie. | Dinner'll be ready right away.

Folded her napkin...

My Helen folded her napkin?

There's school.

- There is school. | - There is not.

What lies are you telling | the ignorant girl, you old loon?

They teach blind ones worse than her.

- To do what? See with their nose? | - To read and write.

How can they read and write | if they can't see?

You crazy old Mick.

You ain't going to school, Annie?

When I grow up.

You ain't either, Annie. You're going | to stay here, take care of me.

I'm going to school when I grow up.

You said we'd be together | for ever and ever and ever.

I'm going to school when I grow up! | Now leave me be.

"Can nothing be done | to disinter this human soul?"

"The whole neighbourhood | would rush to save this woman

if she were buried alive | by the caving in of a pit,

and labour with zeal | until she were dug out. "

"Now, if there were one | who had as much patience as zeal,

he might awaken her... "

- They're all here. | - Talk to them.

- You can get out. | - Talk to them.

All the investigators is here.

- That's Mr Sanborn. | - He's the commissioner. Talk to him.

You might get out.

Mr Sanborn?

Mr Sanborn, I want to go to school.

"... might awaken her to a consciousness | of her immortal nature. "

"The chance is small indeed,

but with a smaller chance they would | have dug desperately for her in the pit. "

"And is the life of the soul | of less import than that of the body?"

Let alone the question of | who's to pay for the broken dishware.

From the moment she came, | she's been nothing but a burden.

Incompetent, impertinent, | ineffectual, immodest and...

She folded her napkin, Cap'n.

- She what? | - Not ineffectual.

Helen did fold her napkin.

What is so extraordinary | about foldin' a napkin?

Well, it's more than you did, Cap'n.

Katie...

Today she scuttled any chance | of gettin' along with the child.

If you can see any point in her staying, | it's more than I can.

- What do you wish me to do? | - I want you to give her notice.

- I can't. | - Then if you won't, I must.

Miss Sullivan?

Captain Keller, | I thought we should have a talk.

Yes, I... Well, come in.

Miss Sullivan, I have decided... | I have decided I'm not satisfied.

- In fact, I'm deeply dissatisfied. | - Excuse me.

- Is that little house near the bridge used? | - In the huntin' season.

- Mrs Keller... | - If you'll give me your attention.

I've made allowances because you come | from a part of the country where people...

...women, I should say, come from, | for whom allowances must be made.

I have decided nevertheless

to...

Miss Sullivan, I find it difficult | to talk through those glasses.

Why do you wear them? | The sun's been down for an hour.

Any kind of light hurts my eyes.

Put them on, Miss Sullivan.

I've decided...

to give you another chance.

- To do what? | - To remain in our employ.

But on two conditions. | I'm not used to rudeness.

There must be a radical | change of manner.

- Whose? | - Yours, young lady! Isn't it obvious?

And persuade me there's | a hope of your teaching a child

who flees from you like the plague | to anyone in this house.

- There isn't. | - What, Miss Annie?

It's hopeless here.

- Do I understand... | - If we agree it's hopeless...

Miss Annie, I'm not agreed.

She did fold her napkin.

She learns.

She learns.

Do you know she began talking | when she was six months old?

She could say water.

Well, not really.

Wah-wah.

Wah-wah.

But she meant water. She knew | what it meant, and only six months old.

I never saw a child so bright or outgoing.

It's still in there somewhere, isn't it?

Miss Annie, put up with her and with us.

Us?

Please.

Like the lost lamb in the parable, | I love her all the more.

Mrs Keller, I don't think Helen's | worst handicap is deafness or blindness.

I think it's your love... and pity.

All of you are so sorry for her, | you've kept her like a pet.

Why, even a dog you housebreak.

It's useless for me to try to teach her | language or anything else here.

Miss Annie, before you came | we spoke of putting her in an asylum.

What kind of asylum?

For mental defectives.

I visited there. I can't tell you what I saw.

People like animals, | with rats in the halls and...

What else are we to do if you give up?

Give up?

- You said it was hopeless. | - Here.

Give up? Why, I only today saw | what has to be done to begin.

- I want complete charge of her. | - You have that.

No. I mean day and night. | She has to be dependent on me.

- For what? | - Everything.

The food she eats, | the clothes she wears, fresh... air.

Yes, the air she breathes.

Whatever her body needs | is a primer to teach her out of.

The one who lets her have it should be | her teacher, not anyone who loves her.

- But if she runs from you to us... | - Yes. That's the point.

I'll have to live with her somewhere else.

For how long?

Until she learns to listen to | and depend on me.

- I've packed half my things. | - Miss Sullivan...

It meets your conditions. It's the one way | I can get back in touch with Helen.

And I can't be rude to you | if you're not around.

What is your intention if I say no? | Pack the other half for home

and abandon your charge to... to...

The asylum? I grew up in such an asylum. | The state almshouse.

Rats?

My brother Jimmy and I used to play | with the rats because we didn't have toys.

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