Analyzing Wit
- Tone: The first thing that came to mind when considering the form of the play was the tone. This could have just been my observation, and I don't know if anyone else got this feel, but I got the sense that the play wasn't very emotional. It was written about cancer and death, but I did not feel emotionally attached at all. I think this was due to the fact that the play is written from the perspective of the one with the cancer, and she is such a scholar. Throughout the book she keeps her scholarly perspective on everything happening.
- Characters: I thought the character development was really important as well. I felt like, as the reader, I was fairly distant from all of the characters, even Vivian. I feel like I didn't know any of the characters or how they would react in certain situations. I felt like this contributed to the tone of the play.
- Language: Vivian uses a lot of sophisticated language throughout the play. She also quotes a lot of english from the plays of John Donne. There was also a lot of english used, and it seemed like the author didn't expect anyone to understand it, because it was just a bunch of crazy medical terms I had never heard of.
- Setting: There were a lot of flash backs. The main scene took place in the hospital rooms, but there were also a lot of scenes at the college where Vivian taught.
I also felt distant about the characters at first, but maybe not through the entire play as you might have. I think that was the author's intention with the frank and academic language.
ReplyDeleteI agree, most of the medical terms were hard to understand. Glad I wasn't the only one.
Although there was a distance, I still felt as if though the more walls which were put up the more emotional the play became, especially at the end when vivian is yearning for someone, anyone to be there and realizing that no one would come.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to feel distant from a character when all you really know about them is from what you hear them say. But then, that's more realistic. We get used to being able to read every thought a character has, and so analyzing a play's characters is an interesting difference.
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