Jenn Angeline

A.P. Language and Composition

Mrs. Kirk
Paper 2 Critical Overview of Wit
1/14/10
Wit, a Pulitzer Prize Winning play, is praised for its irony, humor, and connections
to the poetry of John Donne. A critically acclaimed play, it is said to be gorgeously
intellectual (Wren 348). Joyce Hart, Kathy Smith, and Nancy Franklin are in agreement
that the play is creatively constructed with different contributing elements. Franklin finds
that Wit has riches of acting, writing, and stagecraft that you revel in, even in the
atmosphere of death (348). Suffering from metastatic ovarian cancer, Vivian Bearing
was previously a professor who taught the poetry of John Donne. She is a very intelligent
woman but lacks emotional connections with everyone around her. The play highlights
the element of humor and how it is creatively incorporated into a story about life and
death. Wit shows a woman who is not only suffering from a fatal cancer, but also facing it
alone. She is in search of herself and dealing with a type of meanness that she has
projected and is now experiencing from almost everyone around her.
Vivian Bearing has stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. She is trying an
experimental treatment, without the reassurance of a positive outcome. Margaret Edson
cleverly includes the element of humor in a play about a fatal disease. Humor is not an
aspect that would be typically expected in a play about such a sensitive topic, but the
unexpected and wit are two of the main ingredients in Edsons play, and both can produce
humor, no matter how serious the topic (Hart 337). Bearing is a woman who initially
appears solemn and academically intellectual, but she is also someone who can laugh
about her illness and the way she is treated in the hospital. Even though the topic of

cancer is upsetting, she makes light of the situations she is in by commenting on some of
her observations. Critic Kathy Smith analyzes this when Vivian is asked How are you
feeling today? Vivian is going through countless procedures and throwing up all the
time, she couldnt be less well. And yet clinical practice demands the question,
regardless of its logic (340). Bearing never let her condition get to her but finds some of
the things she has to go through as pointless. She laughs at this because of her current
state and how silly it sounds to be asked such a question.
Along with the element of humor, a frequently mentioned topic is the lack of
people in Vivians life. When interviewed by one of her doctors, she says she has no
family, friends, or loved ones. She again tells Susie, her nurse, that she does not have
anyone to visit her. This is a surprising aspect in the play because Wit is full of suffering,
but, to its credit, nearly devoid of sentimentality (Wren 348). In a story of someone with
a fatal disease, one would expect there to be a mourning family, friend, or lover. She
never mentions her family, except her father, when she was a child. Bearing doesnt speak
of any friends and is only visited by her old professor. Critic Nancy Franklin feels as
though Vivian isolates herself. She has always been excited by words and knowledge but
no friends visit her in the hospital, and theres no indication that she has ever had, or
cared to have, a love life (350). It seems as though it was never a priority of hers to
make a life for herself except academically.
Vivians loneliness is a direct result of her ruthless and insensitive personality.
Not only in Vivian but in the characters around her, Wit has a reoccurring theme of
meanness. Initially, she was callous towards everyone around her. As a professor,
Bearing would show her students no compassion. Jason, one of her doctors, used to be

one of her students. He is someone who regards Bearing more or less as packaging its
her cells he cares about makes her realize for the first time how blithely she humiliated
her students (Franklin 350). She was of course an incredible professor, but she did not
care for people, almost like she didnt want to deal with them at all if she didnt have to.
She is now in the care of the hospital. They seem to not give attention to her suffering and
it slowly begins to aggravate her. Towards the end of her life, she begins to feel lonely.
Vivian then understands what she now needs in her current condition. This is of no
surprise because it is not until she is well into her fight for life that she realizes her own
lack of concern, her own lack of sympathy and compassion (Hart 339). Although she at
times seems insensitive, one cannot help but to empathize with her. It is easy to see how
she became the way she did in just the short flashback of her and her father. He never
showed much of an interest in her so why should she show an interest in anyone? She
grew up focused on gaining a greater knowledge and becoming intellectually superior. It
is hard to find fault in her personality when she had no one; and the only way she can
help herself is to face her own emotions, facing them, possibly, for the first time in her
life(Hart 339).
All critics seem to agree that Wit is a beautifully constructed play, but they all
have a different focus. Joyce Hart and Celia Wren concentrated on the reoccurring theme
and how it was displayed throughout the play. Kathy Smith and Nancy Franklin explore
the characters. They all revel in the life of Vivian Bearing in how she views and treats the
world around her. The play has the reader see a different perspective as Edson does the
unimaginable in successfully adding humor to a play about sadness.

Works Cited
Edson, Margaret. Wit. United States of America: Penguin Books of Canada
Limited, 1993, 1999.
Franklin, Nancy. Wit and Wisdom The New Yorker. (18. 1. 99.): 86-87.
Rpt. In Wit. Drama For Students. Elizabeth Thomason. 13. Farmington
Hills: Gale Group, 2001. 348-350.
Hart, Joyce. Critical Essay on Wit. Drama For Students. 2001. 337-340.
Smith, Kathy. Critical Essay on Wit. Drama For Students. 2001. 340-343.
Wren, Celia. Attitude. Commonweal. CXXVI. ( 29. 1. 99.): 23-24.
Rpt. In Wit. Drama For Students. Elizabeth Thomason. 13. Farmington
Hills: Gale Group, 2001. 348.