The final bow
Introduction
Margaret Edson’s Wit and Danielle Ofri’s Merced explain about the theme of illness and wellness. Vivian Bearing was diagnosed of cancer in Wit while in Merced Mercedes diagnosis is not found amid different trials, this brings the theme off illness. The theme of wellness is displayed by the way Vivian was taken care by Susie the nurse and E.M Ashford her mentor also Mercedes in Merced was considered and her conditions looked into despite the failures. In both cases the doctors were research oriented and wanted to know more in the field of medicine.
The play takes place over the period of twelve months in a patient room of the university hospital, comprehensive cancer center and in various in places in memory of Vivian
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Bearing. Vivian Bearing is a professor in literature who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her strong character and believe in intellect is proved wrong when she finds herself lying helpless on a hospital bed. She then realizes that the intellect is one of the aspects of being human .Her strong character is portrayed at the point where she is ready to undergo through the chemotherapy while being administered a full dosage thought the sessions. She is however unable to express the emotional turmoil it causes. Harvey Kelekian, the chief of oncology uses Professor Vivian Bearing as a subject matter to find the cure for cancer. Though her cancer was in the last stage, she gets a little sympathy from the doctor who wants to get the most out of her in terms of research. She meets a former student in metaphysical poet who majored in bio-chemistry and is no doctor Harvey’s assistant. Vivian meets her match, Jason who shared common traits as Vivian of being cruel, arrogant, and unfeeling. As a patient she loses the control she had in class and she is no longer in authority in the presence of the doctors. “Once I did teach, now am taught” she says as she lies in the hospital. (Edson 4) On being informed that she had ovarian cancer and that the treatment will be difficult to take in she said that it was a matter of life and death. She regards herself as a scholar of Donne’s holly sonnets which explore mortality. In truth she knew nothing about life and death. Vivian has wit. She is smart and full of ideas. She is also ironic.Susie, her nurse and E.M Ashford her mentor, act as her only source of care as she becomes weak. The two support her in realizing comfort and human touch. Jason’s ignorance causes him to make a mistake when he tries to resuscitate Vivian despite her instructions not to resuscitate.In the last moments she realizes that it’s the moment of simplicity, kindness and compassion and she is redeemed and is able to die peacefully. (Edson 8) The setting is an academic medical center known as Bellevue. Mercedes, a 23 year old mother of two children aged 3 and 4 years was Hispanic and a classic aseptic meningitis patient. This illness was easy to treat. Mercedes visited Bellevue hospital complaining about the headache she had been experiencing. Due to ignorance the ER doctors gave her IV antibiotics even though there was no hint of any life threatening bacterial meningitis. Another ER doctor gave her a starting dose of acyclovir and the patient had no herpes encephahtis. Danielle Ofri decided to cancel the dosages given to Mercedes by the ER doctors. (Ofri 4) After proper check up for all possible cases Mercedes was found normal. The next morning, the nurse called Danielle only to find Mercedes on the floor with her clothes off and her hair shaggy. (Ofri 5) She was diagnosed of herpes encephahtis and therefore taken to neurology unit. After undergoing a medical test, the test of Lyme disease was positive. The head of residency program planned for a seminar on Lyme disease. They thought that they had obtained the diagnosis for Mercedes. On that Monday, Mercedes was brought to the ICU .That was two days after Danielle had seen her and to her surprise she was not the same. Her health had deteriorated significantly and there was nothing they could do to help her since her brain was dead. (Ofri 10)The priest visited her at the hospital together with Mercedes family who were all saddened by the turn of events. Danielle could not hold in so she began crying on the shoulders of the priest who was a stranger to her. Danielle did not agree with the ER doctors’ ability since they had hade wrong diagnosis to Mercedes condition leading her to a much worse condition. Through this incident Danielle had found her motivation to be a good doctor. In Margaret Edson’s Wit, Vivian Bearing is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the doctors use her chemotherapy to find any possible treatment for the disease.
Her body passes from life to death due to the side effect which are caused by the cancer. The environment in the hospital is hostile to Vivian in such a way that she loses control she once had in the lecture halls, In that setting the doctors were in control and she felt sorry about it. Remembering that the doctors were in control of her situation, Vivian cannot help, she says "Once I did the teaching, now I am taught. “Internally Vivian is affected by the chemotherapy but she doesn’t talk about it but instead she perseveres showing that she is has a strong personality. Vivian is witty, smart, ironic, quick and full of ideas as displayed by her choice of words in the conversations she makes. Symbolism is shown where Vivian says life and death are a metaphysical conceit, it is wit. The doctor replied and said it is not wit it’s the truth meaning that far from what is in the gardners edition, it was what Vivian was going to pass through. In Danielle Ofris Merced, Mercedes who is an aseptic meningitis carrier faces the ER doctors in search for treatment for her headache. Due to ignorance of the ER doctors, she is given different diagnosis for diseases which she doesn’t have. Danielle ofris conversation with Mercedes makes him criticize what the other doctors had done to her and therefore he gave her different diagnosis. Later on Danielle ofri ran some tests to her which were Lyme, Rickettsia, Sarcoid, Cosackievirus, Toxoplasmosis and Lupus tests. This showed that Mercedes had a strong personality but deep within she had some conflicting feeling with the doctors of Bellevue hospital since they never believed in her and she thought they had got tired of her visits. “Doctor, you have to believe me,” she said…... “I guess they got tired of me complaining, so they decided to let me stay.” (Ofri 3) The environment in
which she was put into makes her weak and forces her to be humble inoder to get the services she requires. Susie the nurse attending Vivian bearing showed her care, empathy and humanity even in a time when she was suffering and feeling a lot of fear. E.M Ashford, Vivian’s mentor reads Vivian a childhood story that brings Vivian a soothing effect while by her side. After the compassion and care she was given by her mentor and her nurse, Vivian realizes that it’s a time for simplicity, kindness, this redeems her and is able to die peacefully. The story told by Ashford is symbolical in that it showed the mothers care for her child, it made Vivian have the confidence of being loved and cared just like the mother cares for her children. On the other hand Mercedes was taken care of when the doctors found out her condition was untreatable. Before that she used to come to the hospital daily with no success of getting any proper medical care, Danielle Ofri made all the efforts to discover if there was any treatment to grand her patient but every test he made gave negative results. She tested positive for Lyme a test which proved to be false positive after two days. Danielle and Mercedes were all optimistic which made Danielle conduct many tests on Mercedes while Mercedes kept on coming for treatment because she had faith that her condition will get treated with time. Mercedes had some internal conflicts which made her feel like the doctors don’t trust her .She felt broken and bored because of the several times she came to the hospital with no success of proper medical care until she met with Danielle. When she was taken to the ICU, She received a lot of care starting from her family members and Danielle who even cried on the shoulders of a priest. After Mercedes was diagnosed brain dead, Danielle on his way home felt the streets being quiet and the gloomy bricks of the old Bellevue casted spooky shadows in the moonlight. This was symbolic of Mercedes death or a sign a bad omen approaching. Vivian is not treated as normal patient but is taken as a subject of research for the doctors to know the treatment of cancer in order to treat other patients, this brings a conflict of interest with the doctors treating her, Vivian is urged not to jeopardize their work but instead she was to endure the full dose of chemotherapy. The doctors never cared about the health of Vivian, they targeted on acquiring knowledge that was to be of benefit to the other cancer patients in future. The doctors go on with their tests until Vivian could not tolerate the full dose. She is termed as research when Jason tries to resuscitate her. Susie once told Vivian that doctors "like to save lives," but they are not always attentive to issues of quality of life as they are to life-preserving measures. (Edson 7) As a researcher, Vivian is sympathetic to the doctors since she knows the value of information to the future cancer patients even though she is used as the lab rat. At the final stage of the chemotherapy, Vivian sees herself as a specimen jar used in the support of medical research. On the other hand Danielle ofri in his research uses whatever he has read in books to treat Mercedes but all the tests do not bare any fruits. He critics the ER doctors for their reliance on the old methods of treatment and acknowledges himself for the research he does on each medical situation. Mercedes was lucky to come to an academic research hospital due to their adequate knowledge on the current strains in the different sicknesses. This gives a hope for a better access to medical care while eradicating illness and bringing wellness in the society. Conclusion In general there are the theme of ignorance and illness in both settings among the character. In the long run Vivian dies peacefully after realizing the moment of simplicity, kindness and compassion and she is redeemed. On the other hand, Mercedes dies and leads to Danielle motivation of becoming a good doctor. The theme of wellness is also present as in the case of Vivian who received care from her nurse and mentor and Mercedes who was taken care of by Danielle. Work cited Edson, Margaret. "Wit Script - Dialogue Transcript." 21 august 2000. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/wit-script-transcript-emma-thompson.html. web page. 10 may 2015. Ofri, danielle. "Merced." Singular intimacies;becoming a doctor (2009): 17. document.
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