The Awakening

            The Awakening             Some people are able to express and show that they care about others.  However, some people, even though they are capable of caring, have trouble making a connection with others and showing that they care.  In the movie, The Awakening, Robin Williams shows that he does care, but has trouble relating to people on a personal level.  He admits that he has always had difficulty showing that he cared.  As a result of not being able to make comfortable personal connections, he “Likes them, but doesn’t understand them” (Parks & Marshall, 1990).  As his character Dr. Sayer explains, he interacts better with the inanimate facts and figures of research than with human beings.   He was a lab researcher that had never worked with real patients before.  He expressed his inability to relate to others with short, curt and dismissive sentences and even overt displays of fear.  He expressed caring with small gestures of kindness.               An example of Sayer’s inability to socially interact with people is the scene with his peers, after he had relayed that Lucy was able to catch a ball that had been thrown to her.  When his fellow doctor sounded dismissive to Sayer’s enthusiastic relaying of his discovery as nothing more than a reflex action, his immediate response was, “I’m sorry.  If you were right, I would agree with you” (Parks & Marshall, 1990).  He did not relate to the doctor with any show of patience or caring.  He defeated any chance of convincing the doctor to agree with him by responding in kind; by being even more dismissive than the doctor.             Compare this show of caring with when he realized that Lucy had taken off her glasses.  He delicately cleaned them with his tie before gently placing them back on her face.  Since Lucy could not “see” anything, it was not a gesture of assistance, but an act

of kindness.  When he removed the glasses from Lucy’s hand, he pried her fingers open very slow and carefully.  Then he very gently placed her hand back on the arm of the wheelchair.  He spoke words of encouragement to Lucy, and watched for any signs of cognition.  He wanted some sign that she was “...still in there” (Parks & Marshall, 1990).  Even though Dr. Sayer showed these indications of caring for Lucy, he still treated the other patients as objects during the process of his testing’s.   He put them through the tests without explanation or appreciation.  To see if they would catch the ball, he threw the ball at them.  If they didn’t react by catching it, they were hit with it.  He was not making a social connection with them as people and was treating them like inanimate objects.  He watched the staff interact with the patients by using kind words, encouragement, and gentle touch.  The staff told him about the people.  Then he began asking Leonard’s mother about Leonard before the catatonia.  Not just symptoms, but Leonard himself.  As time went on he slowly began to show that he was also connecting.  First with Leonard, and then with all the patients, by emulating the staff.                      When Dr. Sayer first began working with the chronic patients he was exhibiting his inability to relate to his patients with signs of fear.  He was so frazzled that the sound of a doorbell would made him jump.  He had to sit in the window so he could look out onto a calm world.  When the female patient spontaneously screamed repeatedly he literally backed up so far as to leave the room.  There is no indication from him that he cares, only that he’s afraid.  By the end of the film he was showing his caring and compassion.   Perhaps his caring for these people was masked by his fear.  When he asked his boss about more contributions from the donors the reply was, “You may be

overestimating how much they care about Leonard.  We’re talking about money” (Parks & Marshall, 1990).  The expression on Sayer’s face showed how hurt he was.  He was able to make the connection to his patients and cared so much he wanted to save them.  His facial expressions showed how hard it was for him to accept the loss of the connection he had made.              However, he did not form caring bonds with his fellow doctors and continued to show no desire to relate to, or develop a bond with them.  He did not “care” for, or about, them.  The exception was his nurse.  She had shown him kindness and compassion.  After the rebuff from his fellow doctors, when he was sitting in his car, his nurse approached him and said she agreed with him and would support him.  Dr. Sayer looked shocked.  He sat there stunned and did not speak or acknowledge that he had even heard her.  He did not respond to her until after she had walked away.  This act of kindness was the beginning of a bond that they would form.  Toward the end of the movie, he returned her attempt at the bond by asking her out for a coffee.  This was an act of his recognition of her earlier show of caring.  By his acknowledgment of, and then reciprocation of this offer, he was showing that he cared.               In this film, Robin Williams showed that he was capable of relating to, and forming, caring relationships with his patients.  What started out as detached curiosity progressed to relating and caring about them as people.  He formed attachments with them, worried about their future, nurtured and comforted them.  The patients that Dr. Sayer found himself treating in the hospital were catatonic and unable to respond to him either verbally or physically.  Dr. Sayer appeared comfortable with the patients being as unable to make a connection with him as he was with them.  He had always felt

incapable of reaching out to people and forming a bond, so this actually relieved him from his feelings of disquiet.  In fact, taking the bonding relationship out of the scenario, made it easier for Dr. Sayer to make the objective observations of the patients that he did.  As the patients came to a level of interaction with him, Dr. Sayer had bonded with them and was able to show his caring.   Reference Parks, W. (Producer), & Marshall, P. (Director). (1990). The Awakening. [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: BBC Films.