6/01/01 

Wit: A Play by Margaret Edson

In what Nancy Franklin of The New Yorker has described as the "most celebrated new play of 1998," Margaret Edson introduces Dr. Vivian Bearing, scholar of the poetry of John Donne and his metaphysical "wit." Although the play was first performed in California, it did not reach Broadway until 1999. Once there, however, its success prompted the making of an HBO version of the play, starring Emma Thompson.

Dr. Bearing narrates the play through direct address, scenes from her present, as well as several flashbacks. As the play opens, she introduces herself in a professorial tone and dismisses the play about her life because it was not "cast in the mythic-heroic-pastoral mode; but the facts, most notably stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer, conspire against that." Adding, "The Faerie Queene this is not" (6). In the two hours that she has to tell her story, Dr. Bearing moves from her diagnosis with cancer to her final moments in a research hospital. The play is not, however, a suspense-filled narrative of her battle against disease, but rather a record of her decline. Near the end of her first monologue, she admits, "It is not my intention to give away the plot; but I think I die at the end" (6). Thus, the attitude of the audience should not be hopeful anticipation, but rather observation.

Do not make the mistake of assuming, however, that the play is, in any way, mournful. Vivian's mechanism of defense against the doctors and nurses who surround her is her acerbic tongue. When her primary physician, Harvey Kelekian, tells her his diagnosis, she corrects his choice of words and often talks over him to the audience asking questions such as "Is anyone doing research on cancer?" and resolving to "Assemble a bibliography" (8-9). Vivan's life has been structured by her scholarship. She is unable to imagine a world outside of her cerebral space and has had this view reinforced by her many years of education. In several flashback scenes, Vivan is shown cruelly demanding excellence from her students, but in a scene with her graduate school mentor, the audience witnesses the source of this style of education.

While studying under Donne scholar E.M. Ashford, Vivian was called in over an assignment that she wrote on Holy Sonnet Six, "Death be not proud." The version of the poem that she had used in her paper concluded with the line, "And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!" But, according to Ashford, the correct version of this line should read, "And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die." As she explains,

Nothing by a breath--a comma--separates life from life everlasting. It is very simple really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something to act out on a stage, with exclamation points. It's a comma, a pause. (14-15)

The irony, of course, is that, as Vivian discovers, death is indeed fodder for a stage drama. The pause that separates her from life everlasting is composed of torturous months of chemotherapy and pain. At this early juncture in her career, Vivian returns to the library to rewrite her paper and buries the connection between the truth of human existence and scholarly rigor.

As her disease progresses, Vivian discovers that her intellect cannot rationally overcome her illness. She gradually begins to reassess her life and career and discovers with warmth and humor that her earnest desire to teach may have been led astray by a lack of compassion for her students. The parallels between her classroom behavior and the bedside manner of the doctors who treat her are numerous. Thus, Edson is able to suggest a more universal change in human attitude that is not tied explicitly to either arena. Ultimately, the play serves as a lesson in living--living to promote peaceful dying.

See also a review of the film version of this play, on Women Writers...