Wit by Margaret Edson

912 Words4 Pages
The Modern Tragic Hero In Margaret Edson’s play Wit, Vivian Bearing bares the soul of a critical, strong minded intelligence that is being treated for cancer. She is a noble scholar of seventeenth century poetry, John Donne to be exact, and very well known to the public. Aristotle claims that a tragic hero is “greater than ourselves” and “the actions they perform are of noble actions. ‘’Along with these physical characteristics they also have a “downfall”: Bearing contains all of these qualities. She is influential, strong, and at times overbearing. Bearing being treated with cancer made her realize the things she has missed out on in her isolated life. Through one final honorable act, in the end the character’s death -although tragic- will impact the treatments of future cancer patients. One can see that she contains all the qualities of a tragic hero. The character is used to being in control and interpreting what something means. Instead of breaking out in an emotional outrage, when Vivian finds out she has cancer, she maintains her composure and begins analyzing what the doctor is saying. Miller states, " . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life . . . to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (1021). As cancer, she maintains her composure and begins analyzing what the doctor is saying. Vivian is consumed with assessment and investigation, which makes her a worry really hard. Her extreme need for knowledge, which can be perceived as her tragic flaw, causes her to be unaware to the reality of her diagnosis: she is going to die. At the end of Vivian and Dr. Kelekian’s conversation Vivian decides that she will take the “full dose” of chemotherapy for the following eight months. “I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to

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