Status
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Description
"In this play, Margaret Edson has created a work that is as intellectually challenging as it is emotionally immediate. At the start of Wit, Vivian Bearing, Ph. D., a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of the metaphysical poet John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to the study of Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness - and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital - Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and for the audience"--Jacket.… (more)
User reviews
Her ex student, Jason, the research fellow sums up her study of Donne. He says Donne was suffering from "Salvation Anxiety... You know you're a sinner. And there's this promise of salvation, the whole religious thing...It just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. But you can't face life without it... So you write these screwed up sonnets. Everything is brilliantly convoluted. Really tricky stuff...The puzzle takes over. You're not even trying to solve it anymore." Of course Vivian can't solve her life, or death, any more than anyone less brilliant than she can. She just has to get on with doing it.
Edson’s integration of Donne’s metaphysical poetics is interesting as it transforms the audience from simple spectators to students in Bearing’s classroom. We get a lesson in literature as she receives a lesson in life. Bearing’s life has been in the pursuit of learning, truth, and wisdom, but not companionship, so the only people left to guide her through the treatment are the staff of the hospital. At the risk of engaging in too much wordplay, Bearing’s life has too much bearing and not enough distraction. The vignettes we get of her past show that she was offered the choice to expand her horizons beyond literature but stuck with her studies. In the end, the good professor lets a bit of the outside world in as the cancer takes over.
Edson’s writing is interesting in that it breaks a lot of supposed rules about play-writing. Bearing is constantly breaking the fourth wall, there is overlapping dialogue, and there are no real scene or act breaks. That being said, it is a engaging piece of modern literature and a heck of a debut play. Wit still remains Edson’s only written work and she seems content in keeping it that way. I don’t have a lot of other plays sitting around the house to compare it to, but I liked it. It probably works a bit better on stage, but it wasn’t heavy-handed or hokey. All in all, a decent read.
Wit is one of those texts that stops you in your tracks with its raw exploration of Vivian's coming to terms with her cancer and the fact that she is terminal. The focus of the play, however, isn't on Vivian's impending death but rather the focus is on an inspirational exploration of the human spirit as she reflects on her life and the choices she made with both acerbity and a dry humor.
Wit is one of those texts that stops you in your tracks with its raw exploration of Vivian's coming to terms with her cancer and the fact that she is terminal. The focus of the play, however, isn't on Vivian's impending death but rather the focus is on an inspirational exploration of the human spirit as she reflects on her life and the choices she made with both acerbity and a dry humor.
This play is almost a one woman show as Vivian Bearing, Ph. D., professor of literature specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, is on stage for the whole play. She is surrounded (I hesitate to say supported) by her oncologist and his chief clinician; but she is supported by the primary nurse who develops a bond with her that is unique in the play, for Vivian is alone in this world and must depend on her mind as she experiences "aggressive" cancer treatment. She eventually receives support from her nurse and a touching visit from her former professor and mentor.
Among the questions raised by the play is one that contrasts the medical doctors with Vivian herself as they treat the cancer in a way that mirrors the methods used by Vivian to analyze and dissect the poetry of John Donne. Is it appropriate to treat the patient as a science project, a body that will provide evidence for some future paper? Is she no different than a work of literature? "What a piece of work is a man!" as Hamlet says, but in Wit we see the wonder, but not the humanity. The clinician, who has a vast knowledge of medicine, must refer to his notes to remind himself that his patient is a human being who deserves at least a minimal amount of polite concern. Vivian bears his lack of feeling with her own brittle stoicism. She consoles herself with the thought that "they always . . . want to know more things." But at the same time she buries her true emotions until she is too ill to respond in a way that is able to demonstrate any strength or depth.
She has an epiphany when, upon completion of chemotherapy, she reflects: "I have broken the record. I have become something of a celebrity. Kelekian and Jason are simply delighted. I think they foresee celebrity status for themselves upon the appearance of the journal article they will no doubt write about me." But she immediately realizes that, "The article will not be about me, it will be about my ovaries." She goes on to relish the relief that returning to her hospital room will be, even as the play proceeds and her room slowly begins to resemble the inside of a coffin.
This is a play filled with literary wit. It plays on the difference and the similarity of words and life. At one point Vivian thinks, "my only defense is the acquisition of vocabulary". She is learning and reflecting even as she is slowly losing the battle with cancer. Should we live our lives like Vivian, continually learning and thinking and growing, even as humans we all move closer to our own personal appointments with mortality? This reader says yes! Even so, this play reminds us that the road will be difficult, but that there are ways to face one's destiny that may not be known today. It is the ability to deal with this unknown and the possibilities of tomorrow that make the battle worth engaging and our lives worth living.