As we continue to grow old, we strive to live without regret, and to die without regret. As humans, we crave a fulfilled life. As we do so, we may lose what the concept of what that actually is. As mortals it is terrifying to think of dying with a mind clouded by the anguish of not being able to achieve a goal, not being able to drink from the Holy Grail so to speak. In our desperation to avoid such a fate, we delude ourselves into believing that we in fact are living a perfect life and when we die, we will die fulfilled when in reality, the mundanity of the truth is simply unbearable. We ignore any hesitancies that we may have concerning different aspects of our lives, to convince ourselves to move forward with our lives and, we as humans, …show more content…
Vivian Bearing is a literary professor specializing in the sonnets of John Donne who is dealing with cancer. She is the personification of wit, a major theme in the play as the title suggests. Her formal behavior exhibits this characteristic in her refined way speech and dignified actions. This aspect of her personality becomes to define her as even the difficulty of her classes hold a reputation among students, and even strips her of humanity. When being given a pelvic exam by a former student, Jason Posner, she describes it as “thoroughly… degrading,” putting into perspective her refinity when we compare her to another person who would have most-likely described the experience as ‘embarrassing.’ Vivian is even shown declining a student's request to extend the deadline for an assignment because of the death of a family member. Her actions …show more content…
Ashford, talks to Vivian about one her assignments. While Vivian is told to redo the assignment, her professor tells that it is not the point and she should “enjoy herself” much like “ the other students.” Vivian walks out and briefly contemplates taking her advice of her professor, but ultimately heads back to library to further her understanding of “metaphysical conceit.” In this scene is opts for the isolation of the library and the metaphors in words, instead of the physical company of other people to satisfy her obsessive sagacity. Once again, she ignores the hesitation and proceeds to metaphorically bury herself in her work as there was no definitive force to make her do otherwise. Contrastingly, Vivian is forced to deal with cancer and the impending death that hides behind it. This metaphysical force drives her to deal with the human nature of mortality. In a conversation with the head nurse, Susie, she voices her uncertainties saying, “I don’t feel sure of myself anymore” and “I can’t figure things out, I’m in a… quandary having these… doubts.” She then breaks down and admits her feelings toward acknowledgement of her confliction with “I’m scared.” Similarly she is once again forced this time physically with a choice in which she has to give an answer to being a DNR, do not resuscitate. To this Vivian responds to Susie’s confirmation of “So, if your heart stops beating-” with “Let it stop.” She
Is it possible to misunderstand something, yet still be guided toward its claims? Is it possible for something that ultimately has the greatest impact on your life to be unnoticed until the last possible moment? In most cases, a true revelation does not present itself until later in a person’s life. In the play Wit, by Margaret Edson, the character of Professor Vivian Bearing reaches a profound realization concerning one of the great impacts in her own life. Vivian, self-proclaimed intellectual and widely-feared professor, essentially devotes her life to the works of John Donne, a renowned metaphysical poet. She tirelessly prides herself on her exceptional skills and experience with analyzing Donne’s works, even in the midst of being diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer. During her stay in the hospital, Vivian unwillingly sees that her lifetime analysis in Donne’s writings has only scratched the surface in comparison to the truth that she discovers in the last hours of her life. For the first time, she is able to personally relate to the speaker in the sonnets that she was supposedly so familiar with.
Fast forward my future to what psychologist Erik Erikson identifies as the Late Adulthood (55- 65 to Death) stage of life in his Stages of Psychosocial Development. There are two options as one reflects on their lives and they include: Integrity vs. Despair. I hope through the choices I make that I am in the Integrity department of happiness and content, feeling a sense of fulfillment and meaning and that I have made a contribution to life. Of course, there may be disappointments in life and we don’t know what the future holds and although I am nervous and anxious of where I will be in the next three months and in the next thirty years, I am also optimistic and excited to see what the future has in store for me.
Dr. Bearing, the protagonist of the play undergoes substantial changes in character before the end of the play. As discussed, the flashbacks show how unemotional Vivian was as a teacher. She, however, starts to notice the weaknesses in her character and makes changes to her character very friendly and sociable. This is facilitated by Jason, a doctor at the hospital who behaves the way she used to behave towards her students, and Susie, a nurse who is totally opposite to Jason in character. This change of character has been extensively used by the playwright to build her theme of redemption as Vivian is redeemed from arrogance and rudeness brought about by the excess value she attaches to intellect.
Primarily, while Vivian does not truly come out and state if she is religious or not, she makes supply hints though out the play that she may not be religious and she truly fears the unknown journey of death. Numerous critics may argue that Vivian’s real struggle is against the cancer, nevertheless instead her real struggle is against what her past student Jason, calls the theme of “salvation anxiety” in the poetry of John Donne. Vivian’s anxiety resides precisely with the relationship, or God, that might finally carry her past death and into eternal life.
Wit is a potent and emotional play that chronicles the last few months of Vivian’s life. With Vivian’s cancer as the main theme, Wit effectively shows the gradual change of Vivian’s attitude towards cancer and the inhuman treatments from doctors. Wit narrates a story of Vivian Bearing, an accomplished English literature professor who is diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer. However, in order to complete a research, her doctor, Harvey Kalekian gives Vivian eight months of experimental chemotherapy without clearly explaining the treatments and serious side effects. In addition, Kelekian’s fellow, Jason, as a former student of Dr. Bearing, shows no respect to Vivian. Jason does not consider Vivian as a patient or as his former professor, but a research object of cancer treatment. The play Wit introduces binaries between patients and doctors, students and professors, life and death. Among these different polarities, the comparison between life and death shows the greatest tension and implies the real meaning of death to readers. Death is kind of a rebirth of life. Edson efficiently describes the tension between death and life by making use of antithesis mostly.
...tive occurrences in life, and even manage to derive some positives from such experiences. Those who argue against this concept do it on a basic level, without truly understanding the impact of eternal recurrence on a free spirit. Such arguments are made on a surface interpretation, without taking into account; the fact that such an approach involves a person’s every move throughout their life, as they seek to achieve the most fulfilling life experience, regardless of wealth or social status. In the end, the adoption of such an approach depends on personal perception, because some people might view the opportunity to relive every moment of their lives as an opportunity not to be missed, while others might view it as an unnecessary burden.
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometimes cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death, but the unknown that comes from death, that is the
Vivian is characterized as a smart, sly, but not necessarily noble woman. In the end, it appears that Marlowe respects, but does not care for her. She is a...
The last stage of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, which I have no personal experience with, is the crisis between integrity and despair. Swartwood (2014, p. 86) states that at this stage individuals “struggle [with] the acceptance of impending death and the fact that our lives are primarily historical, rather than in the future.” When the elderly look back on their lives and realize that they lived their life with purpose, they are filled with a sense of integrity. On the other hand, individuals who fail to view their life in this positive light tend to fall into despair.
...r past with little or no regrets and will be satisfied overall. If a person is unsuccessful in this phase they will feel that they wasted their life and they will only think of regrets. They will feel despair (Cherry, 2011).
When elderly people move into the last of life’s eight stages of psychosocial development, they enter the ego-integrity-versus-despair stage. This process is defined by looking back over someone’s life, evaluating it, then accepting it. People who become successful in this stage feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Erikson refers to this acceptance as integrity. This differs from generativity because one is accepting the end of their life, instead of accepting where their life will start in a sense of career and self. However, if one is to look back on their life with dissatisfaction, they may feel they have been cheated or missed opportunities. Such individuals will mostly be depressed or angry about the way life turned out and
In a world of change, death is the only constant; the prospect of death inspires fear in the majority of humanity. It is therefore a choice that one must take in order to adhere to the pressure of fear and truly be terrified of death as well having a miserable life. Or one could choose to live to the fullest and not care about death. The notion of death is merely an end point on the timeline of life and it is time that is so critical, that we must take advantage of the little time we have on this earth to motivate and make not only one’s self happy but help everyone around him. Whether a person is truly religious or is not religious at all we will all die eventually no one is immortal and therefore everyone should be happy and live life to its maximum
... of ego integrity versus despair. As time goes by, they lose their jobs, physical strengths, spouses, and friends (Crain 171). The mission for this stage is to bind together all the experiences they have and accept the death (Gross 63). They will be more enjoy their life if they did it, rather than fear death every day.
As a young girl at 14, I used to reminisce about the future, how badly I wanted to grow up, to drive, to be popular in high school, go to college and land an amazing job, have a huge home, nice cars, and an extremely handsome husband. The older I got, the more I began to realize all of the things I once desired for were not what I truly wanted. I began to realize the value of happiness, adventure, and creating memories rather than the value of temporary popularity, material items, and physical appearances. What I realized was that when one is lying on their deathbed, because the only thing guaranteed in life is death, they will not think, “oh what a lovely car I drove” but rather, “I remember when I went on my first road trip with my friends.” As mentioned in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom, Morrie emphasizes the idea, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live,” meaning, remembering that one day we will all depart from this world, one will realize what it truly means to live. Another pointer that can essentially alter one’s vision of living life: to live simply, as discussed in “Where I Lived and What I Live For” by David Henry Thoreau. Although thinking about death is a harsh reality on a young teenager, it is rather helpful to wrap our heads around it at a young age. Why? because as one grows older, they will see more death. Living a simple life may seem boring to a young teenager, but as one grows older and their schedules become bustled with work, and responsibilities, they will wish that they could step back, and choose a simple lifestyle.
In The Slumber of Christianity, Ted Dekker speaks to our slumber as Christians, going through life always waiting for the next occurrence, the “payday that never seems to arrive (Dekker 3).” Living comfortably and thoughtlessly, by going through the motions and having lost the desire and happiness that was once present in our childhood. Dekker states, we must remember the truth that “This life is powerless to satisfy our dreams of great happiness and pleasure. These dreams can be satisfied only in a mind-bending reality that awaits us in the next life (10).” We are made for another life and this one just doesn't do it for us. Dekker states that we should not minimize the pleasures that we have on this earth, but be knowledgable of the