The Wit Film: Dr. Vivian Bearing

She goes through rigorous treatments that most patients couldn’t possibly survive. However, Dr. Kelekian and Dr. Posner believe she will be the first to fully accept the treatments because she is so “strong.” She agrees with this in the beginning, feeling she is not like other patients and she will be able to handle it. Vivian refuses to quit. She is a tough, stubborn woman who upholds herself to a level of strength and perfection that others cannot possibly accomplish. As the story continues, it becomes evident that she cannot uphold this ideal. The treatments severely affect her, leaving her miserable. It is when she shows a more vulnerable side to Susie, choosing to not be resuscitated if her heart stops, and then asking her, “You’re still going to take care of me, aren’t you?” that she suddenly becomes a more relatable character; bringing the audience to feel sorry for her

Monahan’s inability to truly understand Bearing’s condition is in a different way. As a nurse, she cares for Bearing and provides the bedside manner of her treatment but her personality is off-putting to Bearing who dislikes her intonation and the way she tries to connect with Bearing. These parallel characters all work together to promote the theme of knowledge, death, and isolation in Edson’s Wit. Throughout the story, Bearing requires true human compassion and kindness but is given isolation from the staff instead as

She pretend to be well, a lifesaving lie that leads to her acceptance of her fate as a lifer

Throughout the entire play, Vivian dissects the medical banter between Dr. Kelekian and Jason. By doing so, Vivian is able to create meaning behind the language that Kelekian and Jason uses at her. This is first seen with Vivian’s aside that occurs simultaneously with Kelekian’s explanation of her cancer. Vivian decides that she “must read something about cancer. Must get some books, articles” (page 8). She continues on to dissecting medical terms with the definition of each component of the word. This can be seen with the word antineoplastic. “Anti: against. Neo: new. Plastic. To mold. Sharpening. Antineoplastic. Against new sharpening” (page 9). Words help fuel her life. By understanding the words used to describe her, Vivian could stand tall against her treatment. Whenever she didn’t know a word she would “look them up. It has always been my custom to treat words with respect. I can recall the time-the very hour to

Bearing, a hard teacher of poetry. Vivian could see herself in Kelekian. In their separate fields they both held doctorates. But in each profession there are words that one outside of the field would believe that their meaning of particular words mean something different. The passage, “Insidious means undetectable at an-….Insidious means treacherous” (Edson, 8) Dr. Bearing interrupts Dr. Kelekian because she is used to being around her students, and being known as the one who knows everything. Which is also what she believes to be to in everything. Here, she is still seen as the ‘teacher’ or the one who has more influence and power over the other in this particular moment in the play. The go back and forth on the idea about learning as much as you can, and in the end Vivian wins out. As the chapter progresses we can see Vivian explaining her position and why people should look up to her. “I am, after all, a scholar of Donne’s Holy Sonnets….And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn down a challenge…” (12). This quote sets up the idea that Vivian, as just coming into the hospital, still has the authority and influence over others. She still holds the knowledge above everything else, which is also all that she

“I have cancer. Insidious cancer, with pernicious side effects…[And] it appears to be a matter, as the saying goes…of life and death” (00:05:45-00:06:17). This was said by Dr. Vivian Bearing, the main character of Wit, a 2001 movie directed by Mike Nichols. In this movie, Vivian is a professor in seventeenth century poetry, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne and is slowly dying of advanced ovarian cancer. The film itself serves as an epic, in which the director uses the poetry of John Donne to elucidate the meaning behind her irrevocably inevitable death. Within the movie, Vivian recites several of Donne’s poems, which further lends explanation behind the occurrences within the film.

We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you

In the play “Wit,” by Margaret Edson, the reader is challenged with the complex ideas of character development following the imminent shadow of death. Edson focuses this concept amongst the character Vivian bearing; the disciplined, witty, and quite frankly cold hearted protagonist. The play starts with us seeing Vivian receiving her diagnosis; stage IV ovarian cancer, with her being in the final stage. The persistent and impending idea of death encourages Vivian to reconsider what is truly critical in obtaining happiness, while influencing her to reconsider her past unfavorable actions. As human beings we are attuned to resolve conflicts, so when an inevitable circumstances arise an individual will often consider their past actions and attempt to find what is of true importance in the quest to find happiness in their present life, allowing them to be content.

Vivian’s physical suffering is caused by her illness, which slowly deteriorates her identity. In W;t, Vivian’s physical character is enhanced by her power through Language and it’s discourse. As time progresses, cancer slowly cause’s her to suffer physically, and therefore inverts her powerful identity. On page 25, Vivian’s body is clinically deconstructed, the

Vivian recalls undergoing tests by various medical technicians and being the subject of grand rounds. She remembers sharing a love of language and books with her father. She flashes back to her experiences as a student of Dr E. M. Ashford, an expert on John Donne. Bearing later finds herself under the care of Dr Jason Posner, an oncology research fellow who has taken her class on John Donne. At the hospital, she recognizes that doctors are interested in her for her research value and, like her, tend to ignore humanity in favor of knowledge. Gradually, she realizes that she would prefer kindness to

Vivian’s condescending nature is a characteristic that becomes amplified in her own flashbacks. This is shown through the quote, “So far so good, but they can only think for themselves only so long before the being to self-destruct… Lost it” this shows how Vivian hides behind her wit which is a parallel drawn from herself and Donne. It shows the audience how they both try to hide from death by using wit.

     At the age of 48, she is diagnosed with stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer. Dr. Kelekian wants her to take eight high-dose experimental chemotherapy treatments for eight months. He warns her that she will need to be "tough" to rely upon large reserves of inner courage and willpower.

This is portrayed in the scene in which Vivian goes back to her old college Professor, E.M. Ashford. Vivian’s fear is shown through the use of ellipsis’ as Vivian feels uncomfortable due to the fact that she can no longer hide behind words. Furthermore Vivian’s view on death is also conveyed in this scene as Vivian believes there is far more separating life and death than that of a comma, a breath, as said by E.M Ashford. Death, towards the end of the play, becomes an acceptance for Vivian as she finally embraces the true faith in which Donne had towards an afterlife and overcomes her salvation anxiety. Vivian begins to crave kindness and comfort when she never has before, this conveys Vivian’s change of heart. Through the quote ““It”: such a small word. In this case I think “it” signifies being alive” one can see that Vivian no longer feels the pull towards life as she did in the beginning of the play. The audience knows when Vivian is truly ready to die upon Vivian’s stage direction as she “attempts a grand summation” as if trying to conjure up her own ending. She then recites her original interpretation of John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” where only a breath separates life from death. Thus one can observe that through contextual connections that a greater understanding can be obtained in relation to the play Wit by Margaret Edson and the theme of death. Furthermore it is through these

Alas, she opts not to die because of the physical tie (her baby) that still bonds her to her family. However, once she relieves herself of that bond, she essentially decides to kill her housewife status by leaving her family in order to discover sanity and fulfillment. Through this symbolic death, she is reborn and ironically outlives her entire nuclear family. Virginia and Richard kill themselves to experience this same rebirth of conscience.

Although most of the medical staff in the movie seems to perceive Dr. Bearing as either an experiment or just another patient, there is one person who sees her as a human being. This person is Susie Monahan, Dr. Bearing’s nurse. Susie is there for Dr. Bearing during almost everything and represents the “caring professional”. Susie is a shoulder for Dr. Bearing to cry on, she is a teacher and explains information that Dr. Kalekian and his fellows cannot seem to put into terms that a patient can actually understand, and Susie is Dr. Bearing’s advocate and truly shows compassion and caring. At the end of the film, Dr. Bearing dies and Jason calls a code blue unknowing that her wishes were do not resuscitate. Susie is there, advocating for Dr. Bearing and making sure she dies with dignity the way she wanted it. Jason needed Dr. Bearing to live to help his research and completely lost sight of the humanity involved when caring for a dying patient.