Little Pre-Essay Thing for Wit!

Okay, so, I was always told that the start of an essay was considered 'word vomit' and, boy, did this little rough draft live up to that name.

   Vivian Bearing is an extremely focused and highly respected scholar and professor who specializes in the poetry of John Donne. All her life, Vivian has used her study of Donne to maneuver through life. With such focus on her studies, Vivian doesn’t actually have a life outside of the poetry of Donne. After finding out she is terminally ill with stage 4 ovarian cancer, she is faced with the questions about life, death, and salvation that Donne so famously attempted to tackle. Jason, the extremely driven and impersonal fellow assigned to her research driven treatment plan, was one of her students. His vivacity for the research and study of Vivian’s cancer mirrors Vivian’s own determination and focus for study of poetry. Although Vivian and Jason are both extremely educated, candid, and pretentious in every other aspect of their lives, the recurring interaction of “how are you feeling today?” illustrates the inability of the characters to cope with interpersonal connections and their struggle to escape this handicap.

Just a Comma - Essay Analysis of Wit

Alrighty Professor Burton, under an hour. I kind of rushed through the final two paragraphs because I didn't want to break my promise and go over that hour. But I managed to do it. First draft. Phew! I was hyperventilating a bit at the end there... 

Wit Prewrite

It feels kind of weird copying my whole essay to a blog post... But here we are! Very briefly edited version of my essay:

In Margaret Edson's play "Wit," a professor Vivian Bearing is diagnosed with stage-four ovarian cancer. She experiences physical and emotional trauma but is assisted through the process by her ambitious but narcissistic research doctor Jason Posner and her selfless nurse Susie Monahan. Vivian experiences a transformation as she faces her trial with the help and perspective of her life's work--the poetry of John Donne. One of her previous students was, in fact, her doctor Jason, who dedicated himself just as devotedly to her passion--cancer research. But although both of these characters ave great experience and intelligence, neither Jason nor Vivian could have found the answer to their most important questions because of their blinding pride and their solitary search.
Vivian Bearing was no doubt a great contributor to the research of John Donne's poems. She began early as a student struggling to find meaning in these poems. She continued her search into her career. In her classes, she taught each poem with precision. She expected complete understanding from her students, and set the example by continuously writing papers and researching about these great poems.
However, her success came with the price of constant dissatisfaction. She was never pleased with her students' work and never satisfied with her own evaluations. The poems were her world, but they presented questions that could never be answered. Jason, as a former student, explained to Susie that Donne's poems struggled with questions of salvation but could only quantify the possibilities, not bring any meaning. Donne's search--and Vivian's--could never be over. She sacrificed too much for too little as she gave up creating meaningful relationship. Even while in school, when she came across a difficult poem, she retreated into the library to figure it out for himself. She chose to walk this endless path alone.
Jason, too, was a researcher with experience and incredible skill. He was ambitious; he took the three most difficult college course--one of them Professor Bearing's--just to prove that he could. He was a focused researcher and was confident in his vast medical knowledge. Vivian's lead doctor trusted Jason to be a contributing member to this research process.
But just like the cancer that he studied so enthusiastically, Jason over-expanded himself. When knowledge was available to be found, there were no boundaries in his mind, not even a person's well-being. Jason despised working with others because he felt they were holding him back--but he was too proud to take their advice and too selfish to care how they felt. When treating Vivian, he saw only a tool of research, not a person with limits and emotions, and this was his downfall. He ignored the wise council of others to take Vivian's rapidly deteriorating health into account, but he refused only for the sake of his research, and this is what caused Vivian's eventual death. This source of research was lost, and ultimately Jason's test failed because of his stubborn pride and completely boundless ambition.
Ultimately, both Vivian and Jason sought for a prize beyond personal intellect, though this was the medium through which they sought-they were looking for satisfaction and happiness. But neither of them could ever find it this way. They both refused personal relationships and outside help, which doomed them to failure. Because of their pride and solo searching, not even their great intelligence and ambition could allow either Vivian Bearing or Jason Posner to find the answers to their deepest questions.

Analysis of Edson’s Wit

1.      Genre: Drama. Wit is really meant to be performed, you just can’t get quite as much out of your own imagination and the words. Drama is a collaborative effort of many minds and views of the world. Without actors and directors, and you only have a playwright, while still meaningful, it isn’t as complete. 

Watching W;t

1) Narrator. W;t's entire texture depends greatly upon its style of narration, and the idea of "breaking the fourth wall". The film used this aspect well, showing Vivian speaking directly to the audience (whereas, when simply reading the play, it could possibly be interpreted as her narrating to no one in particular.)

More Analysis

Preliminary Analysis of "Wit"

(1) Camera close-ups. Just in the first scene, the faces of Vivian and Dr. Kelekian take up the entire screen, which gives the audience the sense that they are meant to experience these scenes very personally.

(2) Breaking the fourth wall. Clearly this is written into the play, but Vivian's direct gaze into the camera draws in the audience and makes them part of the story. Our opinions matter. Even our attention to her story and its details matter, since she invites us to be part of it with her.

(2) Lighting. There is always a white light, whether from the window or a small light in or outside the room, but the light never shines directly on Vivian's face (at least while she is in the hospital).

(3) Music. The music reflects Vivian's experience--usually quieter, almost lethargic and nostalgic, with brief periods of tense and frantic chords.

(4) Flashbacks. Vivian's memories are seen in very real detail through her own eyes, so her memories and her current state is often intermixed. These experiences make up who she is, so they are seen in real time (in her current state).

(5) Emma Thompson's performance. Her acting emphasizes her relationship with Jason vs. Susie. Around Jason she is formal, stiff, and uncertain. He makes no effort to befriend her; when he gets engaged in conversation with her, it is to talk about his work and interests. Around Susie she gradually becomes more comfortable, even laughing with her. She is honest with Susie, even though emotions are difficult for her.

(7) The character of Jason. There are many thing to be said about Jason, but the thing that stuck out to me in the film was his obsession with cancer. He was fascinated with it because the cells multiplied endlessly, which is, as he says, "an error in judgment." The same thing can be applied to Jason himself as he makes crucial errors in judgement.

(8) The character of Susie. As with Jason, there are many things to be said about Susie. Almost ironically, it is Susie with her kindness who could have caused the experiment (Vivian's treatment) to be a success. She insisted that they have mercy on Vivian, but because the "experts" ignored her and Vivian's obviously horrendous condition, the treatment was a failure.

(9) Language. John Donne's poems mean everything to Vivian. She hides behind her words; we see her turn to poems in moments of distress or solitude. She turns to the poems for comfort and also for escape from her situation and from herself.

(10) Theme. There was a focus on knowledge and its cost--yes, it's beneficial to be inquisitive, but if the cost is humanity, then it is not worth the price.

I tried to keep these short and sweet so I wouldn't expand on/analyze anything too early in the writing process.
I could look at 7, 9, and 10. Both Jason and Vivian make an essential error in judgment by believing that getting information and gaining knowledge comes above all else. We see this in Vivian during her memories--she did not care about her students as much as she cared about the work they produced. Jason shows this through his narcissism and impersonal attitude with everyone--he cares only about his research and looking like the smartest person in the room at all times. We see that when their walls are dissolved--Vivian's words and Jason's perfect performance--they have to live with themselves. It is clear in seeing Vivian's deep regret and guilt that it isn't worth it to be smart if all personal connections are severed in the process. She pays the price later when she is the one being used for information and her well-being is not even considered.

Working Thesis Statements
(1) Both Jason and Vivian were consumed with the things that represented them best--Jason longed to increase his knowledge and status without restraint, and Vivian had planned to search within words forever for companionship, which she could never have found.

(2) Although they were both intelligent and ambitious, neither Jason nor Vivian could have found the answer to their most important questions because of their blinding pride and their solitary search.

(3) Although they both made great contributions to their respective fields, Susan had more success than Jason, since ultimately Jason's project failed when Vivian died while Susan excelled in her role as Vivian's nurse before and after her death.

Forming an Analysis About Form

Elements of Form:

1.       Music. In the movie, mood is controlled by sharp changes in the music. It varies from being simple piano melodies to screaming violins when the scene changes. Sometimes the lack of music indicates that audiences should pay closer attention to a particular conversation or scene.

2.       Zooming. When audiences need to direct their attention to a certain character, the camera zooms way up on their face. In this film, there is little action. The story therefore moves based on reactions from the characters captured by the zoom.

3.       Contrast of E.M. Ashford. Written, acted, or filmed, Professor Ashford is juxtaposed against Vivian as an example of what her life could be like if she understood the difference between the comma and the exclamation mark back in college.