Shown, Not Told

Death is something that makes people reevaluate their lives and their priorities.  In Margaret Edson’s play, Wit, Dr. Vivian Bearing is made to reevaluate life just like she does the poetry of John Donne. 

One of the best parts of reading this as a play, I think, was being able to get insight about Dr. Bearing’s character from descriptions by other people.  For example, in most works, you’re able to understand the protagonist because of the way that they think or describe events that happen in the storyline.  While Vivian does give insight to the audience by monologues sprinkled throughout, we are able to learn so much about her from the way that she interacts with the doctors and nurses that care for her. 

The play’s form is more “show” rather than “tell” in general, and that’s what makes it interesting to audiences.  They’re left to draw conclusions about characters indirectly.  In Wit, I learned much about Vivian because of her dramatic foil, Susan.  Susan is Vivian’s nurse, and she is everything that Vivian is not.  She cares deeply for her patients and is kind, she respects their wishes and serves selflessly.  Vivian has spent her whole life in scholarly pursuits that, while worthwhile, were selfish nonetheless.  She has no family and has been self-sufficient all her life.  Edson sends her world spinning by putting her in a compromising position, playing the subject of analysis rather than the analyzer. 

We also gain a lot of knowledge about Dr. Bearing’s past from one of her former students, Dr. Jason Posner.  He took a class from her and describes what it was like to be her student—how she was difficult to please and at times heartless, but brilliant and an excellent teacher—all through his dialogue with other characters.  It’s interesting to watch him develop as a character as well, because he displays many of her attributes, just within medicine, his own field of study.  He becomes devoted to study and ignores her humanity, just like she did as a professor and a scholar.  It isn’t ‘til the end that he realizes how she does, in fact, have wishes and feelings.  When the “Do not resuscitate” code is broken, it takes Susan, always the model of kindness and respect for others, pull off his academic blinders and help him see the humanity of the situation.  He has become very similar to Vivian herself in that respect.

Usually I’m not into plays because it’s hard for me to visualize what’s going on.  I didn’t really enjoy this one either upon the first read-through.  However, as I studied it more and looked into more of the symbolism, I learned that plays have a lot of power that other forms of literature don’t have because they use other means to develop characters aside from the out-and-out description used by novels and similar works. I’m interested to see the other perspectives on this one from the class because it’s all pretty new to me and we can figure out a lot more together!