The Miracle Worker: Comparing Play And Movie

Have you ever interacted with a blind, deaf and mute person? Annie Sullivan, who went to Perkins Institution which was a school for the blind was recruited to go and teach a blind, deaf and mute child. Annie was to act as a teacher toward Helen Keller who was a child who became deaf, blind and mute at a very young age, and teach her to understand words. Helen was diagnosed with a severe, “brain” fever when she was an infant and then was later to be recognised as being blind, deaf and mute. Annie needed to help Helen understand words and the meaning of words and was getting paid by Helen’s family to do so. Annie and Helen are starred in a play and movie called, “The Miracle Worker”. The play was written by William Gibson in 1956. The movie was

First to contrast the movie and the play, In the play the cottage that Annie and Helen would be staying in for Annie to help Helen learn without distractions was all cleaned up and ready to move Helen and Annie into and in the movie the cottage was old and rustic with cobwebs and barely anything inside of it. In the play, Annie and Helen move into the cottage without it being cleaned out, so the cottage was already clean for them. In the movie, the cottage was dirty and yet had to be furnished and cleaned up. In the movie, the director wanted to show what the real cottage looked like and that it needed to be cleaned and in the play the author did not explain what the cottage was like in real life and that it needed to be cleaned out and furnished for Helen and Annie to move into. Next to contrast the play and the movie, in the play, William Gibson uses chimes and lighting to signify time and moving from scene to scene and in the movie Arthur Penn uses music and lighting to signify time. For example, in the play when Annie is on the train with Mr. Anagnos she has flashbacks of Jimmie in scene three and after that scene it states in the play, “The room dims out” and, “The remaining lights have come up on the Keller homestead” in scene four. This means that in the play Gibson uses lighting to move from one scene to another. In the movie, Annie has flashbacks in the kitchen after her struggle with Helen at the dinner table, and when she has these flashbacks the music is playing loudly and the lighting is flickering slowly until the next scene is rolling. This means that Penn uses music and lighting to show how time has passed. Lastly, different from the play, in the movie you can hear Helen and actually experience how Helen sounds and looks. This makes it easier to understand Helen and what she was going through. In the movie, Helen says, “Wha. Wha.” when she finally understands what words