Wit: What It Really Mean

3 Pages 752 Words

According to The Random House College Dictionary, the word wit is defined as “to know” (1512). However, does wit cover all aspects of our lives or just the academic portion of our life? In the play Wit, Dr. Vivian Bearing is faced with a life altering disease, ovarian cancer. Dr. Bearing is a seventeenth-century English professor, specializing in all of John Donne’s work. Towards the end of Dr. Bearing’s cancer treatment, she realizes that her wit did not mean as much as what she perceived it has.
In the first scene of the play, where Vivian delivers her soliloquy, the audience views Vivian and acknowledges her intelligence. Yet, it is not until the second scene with Vivian and Dr. Kelekian where you see Vivian’s full intelligence. Through the whole conversation Vivian understands everything Dr. Kelekian explains to her in doctor’s terms. It seems like this


conversation between the two is more like two teachers talking than a doctor/patient conversation.
The play continues telling Vivian’s story and how she sees her life. Throughout her treatment, Vivian looks back at her life. Her first flashback is with her favorite professor, Dr. Ashford. During this flashback Dr. Ashford talks to Vivian about her paper and how she wants more from her. But in the end of the conversation she also tells her to ‘go out and have fun.’ Vivian is taken back by this but does not listen to Dr. Ashford; she instead goes back to the library and works on her paper. This shows how Vivian is obsessed with her job and wants to only exceed in it alone.
Vivian is so impressed with her intelligence that she looks down upon others who are not as smart as her. Because of this, she pushes herself apart from everyone and encloses herself in her job. In another flashback, Vivian is reading with her father. In this flashback, one can notice that Vivian is trying to impress her father with her intelligence by learning and re...