Individuals use different coping mechanisms to deal with their problems. They can either be seen through emotions or their physical demeanor. This can be seen in Margaret Edson's play Wit, where the main character is faced with the fact that she has stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. Edson uses alienating techniques such as characterization, language, and irony to exhibit Vivian Bearing's actions, and reveal the thoughts she holds to show the effects her situation has on her. Edson uses characterization to show how Vivian uses her skills as a professor and researcher to reinterpret her hospital stay. For instance, Vivian acknowledges this is a play about herself and speaks of ideas of death found in her world of poetry. Vivian feels because she …show more content…
studies poetry about life and death she must know of it: "It appears to be a matter, as the saying goes, of life and death. I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a scholar of Donne's Holy Sonnets, which explore mortality...," (Edson, n.p). Vivian is characterized as a scholar, highly qualified in her field but yet doesn't know how to deal with her situation but be witty about it. She is forced with a difficult situation that is hard for any human being to be faced with a matter of life or death. As an academic, she attempts to treat the news with detachment much like she would her own research. This is when her very own work seems to bring her comfort. Throughout the play, Vivian has these flashbacks of teaching her students in a classroom and her father helping her read a book. As she is alone in her room, Vivian sees that her very own work has been molded by the deep education she had been introduced to but also the language created a particular bond with intellectuals that Vivian has come across. But, that all comes crashing down when Vivian begins to notice the language barriers between her and the medical doctors. Edson demonstrates the power of language and how different fields of study can use the same word to mean different things which causes confusion. For example, her conversation with Dr. Kelekian: 'Insidious' vs 'Insidious'. She can no longer see eye to eye because of the technicalities. Vivian's hospital stay took her out of her figurative setting and placed her into a very literal one.The shift of power taking place as her dominant position as a ruler in her classroom is transformed to just her passiveness in her hospital bed. The ironic part of this play is the fact that Vivian has spent most of career teaching about the great Donne's poetry but now has to cope with the fact that she is now dying.
We begin to see her gain new insight into her problems after her encounters with fellow Posner. Vivian asks Posner, "Do you miss people?," (Edson, n.p). We begin to see how much Vivian has given away basic human contact because she'd rather be dealing with something she felt had more importance to her and now she sees Posner going down the same path she has. "The young doctor, like the senior scholar prefers to humanity. At the same time...the senior scholar, in her pathetic state as simpering victim...wishes the young doctor would take more interest in personal contact. Now, I suppose we shall see how the senior scholar...ruthlessly denied her simpering students...the touch of human kindness she now seeks," (Edson, n.p). During the latter half of the play, Dr. Bearing begins to shift away from her cold, wily ways. Vivian has been placed in a situation where she reevaluates her life and how much she wished she could've been a completely different person due to her negligence to accept other human beings that weren't on her intellectual
level. In the end, her definition of 'wit' is not the same as it was in the beginning. In other words, she was taken out of her usual (comfortable) setting, and rested on humor, language, and “wit” to retain as much of her old life as possible. It was all "Publish and perish," (Edson, n.p). But, as she was in her final days, and sharing moments with Nurse Susie, Vivian's definition of "wit" starts to disappear. It now becomes, "Ingenuity, virtuosity, and a vigorous intellect that jousts with the most exalted concepts: these are the tools of wit," (Edson, n.p). Vivian has found the true meaning of "wit" when she has a good laugh in her hospital room, sharing a popsicle with Nurse Susie. It is a sense of humanity, not 'wit', that Vivian needs in her final days. In life people tend to think that they are immune to anything that comes by them and if they build a wall and knowledge that they'll never need anyone or want anything in the world because they have themselves. But, when faced with a hardship, they are lost because they have no control over their situation, and no one to help them. In the play Wit, Edson develops the plot line that always learn to deal with life in a positive manner.
The main conflict is Ellen’s inner conflict and the effect that her repressed feelings have on her life and her attitudes.
Each character, in some capacity, is learning something new about themselves. Whether it be new views, new feelings, newfound confidence, or a new realization of past events, each character involved in the play realizes something view-altering by the end of the play. Bonny is realizing that she is growing up and discovering how to deal with boys, and to lie to her parents; Elsie realizes that she doesn’t need her father for everything, and eventually overcomes her fear of driving on her own; Grace is discovering that she must let her children think for themselves at times, and that she must let Charlie choose what he wants to do; and Charlie, of course, is discovering that there are more ways to think than the status quo that society presents. Each character obviously goes through very different struggles throughout the play, but in the end, they all result in realizing something about themselves they didn’t at the beginning of the
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
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.
...family that she grew up in was such a negative environment. It is very possible that she will grow up to be an art teacher. One might think this because she looked up to her art teacher so much and admired her; Ellen’s mind is full of creativity and ideas. When Ellen’s school found out that her dad was abusive to her they put her up at her art teacher’s house. Ellen says “I came a long way to get here but when you think about it really hard you will see that old Starletta came even farther… And all this time I thought I had the hardest row to hoe” Like Ellen did, it is important for everyone to look back into their life and see what they have learned. Doing so cannot change ones past but only add to their future. Ellen will always carry the horrors of her childhood with her but by using all of her assets that she gained throughout the book her future can be enriched.
Margaret Edson’s Wit is a touching play that takes the reader through a woman’s critical journey from being diagnosed with stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer to gaining an understanding of life and its many intricacies. This woman is Dr. Vivian Bearing, and she tackles the incredible challenge of cancer with her unique relationship with words. Her wit and intimacy with words are what cause enormous upheaval in her life up until the very end. Words were the keystone of Bearing’s profession, but they turn on her during her experience with cancer. Then, this reversal gives her a true understanding of the poet John Donne, and finally the doctor can see the value of human beings and relationships. Through these events, Edson produces a resounding
Within Adam Marek’s short story ‘Testicular Cancer vs the Behemoth’, in the short story collection ‘Instruction Manual for Swallowing’, we see him manipulating the mood felt by the main protagonist by portraying an event that parallels their emotions. This is a clever strategy used by the author as it engages the reader by playing with the mood portrayed, paralleling/contrasting an event with a mood, and in turn tricking their interpretation of the story. This is a technique I could incorporate into my own writing in a couple of ways.
...usual life such as Emily who turned into a murderer, killing her own boyfriend and Louise Mallard dead after living her "real life" for one hour, feels her feeling free from repression during her husband death and finally died of heart disease when she knew that her husband is alive.
The characters inhabit their private realities in order to detach themselves from a world that confuses and alienates them. Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim prefer to immerse themselves in their narrow view of time rather than embrace the flow of time. Laura remains isolated as she has failed to find love. Amanda judges Laura as she imposes her own narrow expectations on her. Tom believes that he can escape reality and become inseparable from the imaginary worlds of movies. Jim's idealistic view of Laura suggests that he is out of touch with reality. The play demonstrates that the characters desire to escape reality due to their inability to live in the present and embrace the flow of
Our class has been reading a book called “Brown Girl Dreaming” for the past two weeks. The author, Jacqueline Woodson talks about her life growing up. For example she talks about how her mom and dad divorced when she was young. She talks about how she moves to Greenville and how her grandpa is like a dad figure, and how her mother came back with a pale skinned baby after she went to New York. Character traits make up a person, and while reading the book, you can see what Jacqueline is like during her childhood. Jacqueline has many character traits, such as being jealous of her older sister, being naive, and she is also respectful.
In her play “Wit”, Margaret Edson depicts Professor Vivian Bearing as an intense, brilliant scholar with a passion for the cryptic Holy Sonnets of John Donne. However, as she struggles with metastatic stage IV ovarian cancer and gets closer to death, her perspective seems to shift; when her mentor Professor E.M. Ashford comes to visit her, Bearing wants her to read not one of Donne’s sonnets, but instead the children’s book The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. Through her inclusion of The Runaway Bunny in contrast with Donne’s sonnets, Edson highlights the lack of need for the incessant interpretation that Bearing is used to as well as the straightforwardness regarding the idea of salvation, seeming to suggest that simplicity can be more meaningful than a constant analysis of complexity in connecting with people through kindness, and that God has a merciful nature in granting redemption.
Vivian knows that in society her own effort is the key to supporting herself and eventually securing a better future. She wants to set up a life in the city and tries very hard to look for a job. Due to lack of a skill, although she is willing to do heavy or dirty work, she is not able to find a job with enough pay to support herself. Her goal in life is simply to support herself by her own effort instead of letting somebody else arrange and control her life. This, in it self, represents a spirit of active effort for someone like Vivian. In addition to her efforts in trying to support herself and realize her own goals, Vivian also endeavors to help others. With a part of the $3000 windfall she earns from her week with Edward Lewis, she presses her friend Kit to pursue her long-dormant desire to become a beautician. And her most significant achievement is helping Edward Lewis, the corporate raider, rediscover his humanity, so he can build things instead of dismantling the work of others for profit, and find a more meaningful life other than locking himself in work. The two aspects discussed above display the changes of emphasis on self-...
In “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, Emily Geierson is a woman that faces many difficulties throughout her lifetime. Emily Geierson was once a cheerful and bright lady who turned mysterious and dark through a serious of tragic events. The lost of the two men, whom she loved, left Emily devastated and in denial. Faulkner used these difficulties to define Emily’s fascinating character that is revealed throughout the short story. William Faulkner uses characterization in “A Rose for Emily”, to illustrate Miss Emily as a stubborn, overly attached, and introverted woman.
Margaret Edson sets up Vivian’s soliloquies in a way that tracks the character’s decay. In the earlier soliloquies, Vivian establishes herself as a great literary scholar with an immense ego. However, throughout the play, viewers are exposed to increasingly morbid passages in which Vivian breaks the fourth wall in order to speak directly to the audience to convey her ever-increasing affliction. As the play progresses we witness Vivian’s destruction as her situation gets the best of her. Margaret Edson’s use of soliloquies greatly aids the audience in capturing the essence of Vivian Bearing’s suffering.
Evelyn remains a disconnected personality and expresses little emotion throughout her presentation of Adam to which she calls a “sculpture”, a “base material” , and “my creation” which were confronting terms which shocked the audience as they too were manipulated by Evelyn and were not expecting this conclusion, for their love to be an experiment for artistic purposes because “art must be created. Whatever the cost”. This scene is especially confronting to the audience and Adam because Labute structured the play to lull the audience to a sense of belief and security in the relationships only to cause them pain and discomfort when the truth is revealed. This truth makes moments which were previously humorous into sinister lines such as “What’d she do, give you a haircut and a blow job and now you’re her puppy?!” the audience develops a hatred towards Evelyn for her lack of remorse as she justifies her action as “following in a long tradition of artists who believe that there is no such concept as religion or government… only