Often time cultures will alienate people from society. The plays, The Miracle Worker by William Gibson and Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee depict characters that are alienated from society. Being different from others is difficult. Sometimes people don’t accept you for who you are. In these plays, the characters are alienated from society for two very different reasons.
In the play, The Miracle Worker, a girl named Helen Keller is alienated from society because she is blind. She got really sick with a high fever, which caused her to go blind. “She can’t see. Look at her eyes." (7) She struggles through life not being able to see as the family is seeking someone to come and help her. It is hard for Helen Keller to communicate with others or for them to communicate with her. Everything is dark to her because she can’t see. In the play, she was playing with a doll which had no eyes and Helen, just by feeling it, realized that it doesn’t have eyes, so she went around asking everybody in the house for the eyes, but nobody understood. “Helen meanwhile sits on the floor to explore the doll with her fingers, and her hand pauses over the face: there is no face, a blank area of towel, and it troubles her. Her hand searches for features, and taps questioningly for eyes, but no one notices. She then yanks at her aunt’s dress, and taps again vigorously for eyes. Helen commences to go around from person to person, but no one attends or understands.” (12) To Helen life must be like a labyrinth and very hard to go through.
Another way Helen Keller is alienated from society is that she is deaf. So not only can she not see, she also cannot hear. Being deaf was also caused by the high fever that she got when she was born. This trouble her even more because if she could hear then at least she can tell others what she is thinking, even if she can’t see, but being deaf and blind, nobody can understand her. “Or hear. When I screamed she didn’t blink, not an eyelash-Helen, Helen! She can’t hear you! (7) Helen’s family first found out that she is deaf and blind right after the doctor had treated her sickness. “She snaps her fingers at the baby’s eyes twice, and her hand falters; after a moment she calls out, loudly. But she stares at the baby, and her next call is directly at her ears.” (6-7) That is when her mother finds out that she can’t hear or see. From being blind and deaf, Helen is fastidious and often acts very disdainful and insolent towards others to try and get their attention. Her family tries to get help, someone that can come and teach her, but they can’t find the right one because Helen hurts anyone that tries to help her. One day, they do find someone that can deal with Helen. A very munificent and caring woman named Annie Sullivan, who is also half-blind herself.
The play Inherit the Wind is set in the south in the small town of Hillsboro, “The buckle on the Bible Belt,” (15), in the summer time. The main focus is the courthouse, which, like the rest of the town, is being prepared for one of the biggest cases the town has ever seen. The case is one of morals: the state verses a high school teacher who taught evolution in science class. Bertram Cates, the defendant, has a disputatious lawyer named Henry Drummond. Drummond, like Cates is alienated from this society. Tom Davenport, one of the prosecutors, describes Drummond to the people of Hillsboro: “I can still see him. A slouching hulk of a man, whose head juts out like an animal’s...You look into his face, and you wonder why God made such a man. And then you know God didn’t make him, that he is a creature of the devil, perhaps even the Devil himself.”(28) Drummond has a bad reputation, especially in the southern states, for all of the cases that he has been on. When it is first discovered that Drummond was to be the defense attorney, the people of the town begin to share their opinions of him like, “A vicious, godless man!”(27) and “Henry Drummond is an agent of darkness...We won’t let him in the town!”(27). The small town of Hillsboro had already written off Drummond as a pariah before he even arrived in town. When he does arrive in town, it is clearly evident as to the extent to which he is alienated
While Drummond speaks with eloquence, almost no one wants to listen to what he has to say in the courtroom. The main prosecutor, Matthew Harrison Brady (a very big religious figure to this community), is the main adversary towards Drummond. Brady seems to be the most alienating towards Drummond. However, other characters, like the judge, as just as alienating. Drummond is upset that there is a sign above the courthouse door that says “Read Your Bible”(48). When Drummond tries to get the sign taken down or have one put up that says “Read Your Darwin”(48) the judge replies with: “That’s preposterous!”(48) This is when it is evident that the entire town of Hillsboro is so hidebound, that even the judge is biased against Drummond and the case he is trying to make. This fact is the recurring problem for Drummond throughout the rest of the case. When questioning a student of Mr. Cates’, Drummond asks whether or not the student believes that everything not mentioned in the bible is sinful. The student is seeming to be about to make Drummond’s point when Brady interrupts with: “...Your Honor, the defense makes the same old error of all Godless men! They confuse material things with the great spiritual realities of the Revealed Word...Why do you bewilder this child? Does Right have no meaning to you?” (74) Brady, just as the rest of Hillsboro, doesn’t want a “godless” man like Drummond to even come close to gaining ground in the case because it goes against their morals.
Both of these plays show how people are alienated from society in many different ways. Helen Keller was alienated because of being deaf and blind. Henry Drummond was alienated because of Hillsboro’s moral value system. Both characters were affected by their surrounding society’s culture. For these two people, it was hard for other people to accept them for who they are.
In the play, The Miracle Worker, a girl named Helen Keller is alienated from society because she is blind. She got really sick with a high fever, which caused her to go blind. “She can’t see. Look at her eyes." (7) She struggles through life not being able to see as the family is seeking someone to come and help her. It is hard for Helen Keller to communicate with others or for them to communicate with her. Everything is dark to her because she can’t see. In the play, she was playing with a doll which had no eyes and Helen, just by feeling it, realized that it doesn’t have eyes, so she went around asking everybody in the house for the eyes, but nobody understood. “Helen meanwhile sits on the floor to explore the doll with her fingers, and her hand pauses over the face: there is no face, a blank area of towel, and it troubles her. Her hand searches for features, and taps questioningly for eyes, but no one notices. She then yanks at her aunt’s dress, and taps again vigorously for eyes. Helen commences to go around from person to person, but no one attends or understands.” (12) To Helen life must be like a labyrinth and very hard to go through.
Another way Helen Keller is alienated from society is that she is deaf. So not only can she not see, she also cannot hear. Being deaf was also caused by the high fever that she got when she was born. This trouble her even more because if she could hear then at least she can tell others what she is thinking, even if she can’t see, but being deaf and blind, nobody can understand her. “Or hear. When I screamed she didn’t blink, not an eyelash-Helen, Helen! She can’t hear you! (7) Helen’s family first found out that she is deaf and blind right after the doctor had treated her sickness. “She snaps her fingers at the baby’s eyes twice, and her hand falters; after a moment she calls out, loudly. But she stares at the baby, and her next call is directly at her ears.” (6-7) That is when her mother finds out that she can’t hear or see. From being blind and deaf, Helen is fastidious and often acts very disdainful and insolent towards others to try and get their attention. Her family tries to get help, someone that can come and teach her, but they can’t find the right one because Helen hurts anyone that tries to help her. One day, they do find someone that can deal with Helen. A very munificent and caring woman named Annie Sullivan, who is also half-blind herself.
The play Inherit the Wind is set in the south in the small town of Hillsboro, “The buckle on the Bible Belt,” (15), in the summer time. The main focus is the courthouse, which, like the rest of the town, is being prepared for one of the biggest cases the town has ever seen. The case is one of morals: the state verses a high school teacher who taught evolution in science class. Bertram Cates, the defendant, has a disputatious lawyer named Henry Drummond. Drummond, like Cates is alienated from this society. Tom Davenport, one of the prosecutors, describes Drummond to the people of Hillsboro: “I can still see him. A slouching hulk of a man, whose head juts out like an animal’s...You look into his face, and you wonder why God made such a man. And then you know God didn’t make him, that he is a creature of the devil, perhaps even the Devil himself.”(28) Drummond has a bad reputation, especially in the southern states, for all of the cases that he has been on. When it is first discovered that Drummond was to be the defense attorney, the people of the town begin to share their opinions of him like, “A vicious, godless man!”(27) and “Henry Drummond is an agent of darkness...We won’t let him in the town!”(27). The small town of Hillsboro had already written off Drummond as a pariah before he even arrived in town. When he does arrive in town, it is clearly evident as to the extent to which he is alienated
While Drummond speaks with eloquence, almost no one wants to listen to what he has to say in the courtroom. The main prosecutor, Matthew Harrison Brady (a very big religious figure to this community), is the main adversary towards Drummond. Brady seems to be the most alienating towards Drummond. However, other characters, like the judge, as just as alienating. Drummond is upset that there is a sign above the courthouse door that says “Read Your Bible”(48). When Drummond tries to get the sign taken down or have one put up that says “Read Your Darwin”(48) the judge replies with: “That’s preposterous!”(48) This is when it is evident that the entire town of Hillsboro is so hidebound, that even the judge is biased against Drummond and the case he is trying to make. This fact is the recurring problem for Drummond throughout the rest of the case. When questioning a student of Mr. Cates’, Drummond asks whether or not the student believes that everything not mentioned in the bible is sinful. The student is seeming to be about to make Drummond’s point when Brady interrupts with: “...Your Honor, the defense makes the same old error of all Godless men! They confuse material things with the great spiritual realities of the Revealed Word...Why do you bewilder this child? Does Right have no meaning to you?” (74) Brady, just as the rest of Hillsboro, doesn’t want a “godless” man like Drummond to even come close to gaining ground in the case because it goes against their morals.
Both of these plays show how people are alienated from society in many different ways. Helen Keller was alienated because of being deaf and blind. Henry Drummond was alienated because of Hillsboro’s moral value system. Both characters were affected by their surrounding society’s culture. For these two people, it was hard for other people to accept them for who they are.