The Miracle Worker (2000 TV Movie)

Patricia Gage: Aunt Ev

Quotes 

• [At Helen's 'Welcome Home' dinner, Helen throws her napkin on the floor. Annie replaces it] 

  Kate Keller : Pickles, Aunt Ev?

  Aunt Ev : I should say so. You know my opinion of your pickles.

  Kate Keller : [smiling]  Well, this is the last of them, I'm afraid. I didn't put up nearly enough last summer, but this year I intend to.

  [Kate doles some food out onto Helen's plate; Helen drops her napkin again. While the others talk, Helen repeatedly drops and Annie repeatedly replaces Helen's napkin. Annie takes Helen's plate away] 

  Kate Keller : Miss Sullivan, no. No. Please? I have hardly had an hour with her.

  [Helen reverts to her bad habits: spanking the table, eating with her hands, moaning and groaning] 

  Anne Sullivan : Captain?

  Captain Keller : Katie, we, uh, we had a little talk. Miss Sullivan feels that if we indulge Helen in...

  Aunt Ev : But what has the child done?

  Anne Sullivan : She's learned not to throw things on the floor, and...

  Aunt Ev : It's only a napkin. It's not as if it was something breakable.

  Anne Sullivan : Either give Helen to me, or you keep her from kicking.

• [It is Helen's 'Welcome Home' dinner, and she is misbehaving] 

  Kate Keller : What do you want me to do?

  Anne Sullivan : Let me take her from the table.

  Aunt Ev : But this is her first evening back.

  Kate Keller : I have made all of Helen's favorite foods.

  Anne Sullivan : She's testing you.

  James Keller : She's testing *you*.

  Anne Sullivan : I know!

  Captain Keller : Well, she's not kicking now.

  Anne Sullivan : This is what I was worried about. Is this what you promised me, less than an hour ago?

  [Helen nestles against her mother, who holds her protectively] 

  Anne Sullivan : Give into her, then. She's the one who will pay for it.

  [She sits again] 

  Anne Sullivan : Please, pass me more of Helen's favorite foods.

• [Annie has pulled Helen out of the dining room] 

  Aunt Ev : You let her speak to you like that, Arthur?

  Captain Keller : [His pride is challenged]  No. I don't!

  [He rises from his chair and strides to the door] 

  James Keller : Let her go!

  Captain Keller : What?

  James Keller : Let her go. She's right. She's right, and Kate's right. If we drive Miss Sullivan away from here, then we're lost. No: Helen is lost.

  Kate Keller : Captain, please.

  [the Captain returns to his seat at the table. He is putting on a show for Aunt Ev, but he looks secretly relieved not to have to confront Annie Sullivan] 

  Captain Keller : Jimmy?

  [Jimmy looks at him resentfully] 

  Captain Keller : Thank you.

  [Jimmy stares, then smiles. Clearly, this is the first kind word from his father in ages]