Exploring Dramatic Arts - Essay Example

Dr Vivian is stern at most times with her students. For example, when one of her students ask for a deadline extension of an essay due to the demise of her grandmother, Dr Vivian responded in a very unsympathetic way: “Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due” (Edson, “Think Tank: About Life, Death and the Pause That Separates Them”). Little did she realize that her unconforming attitude would later cause her own distress. Another character is Susie Monahan, a registered nurse who took care of Dr Vivian during her last moments.

Her role in the play is just as important as the other major characters in a sense that she subtly revealed the main message of the play, that is, to realize that intellect is just part of being a human, and that there are other things that should not be discounted: kindness, love, and care. Other character like Jason, who was a former student of Dr Vivian, can be labelled as a non-biological offspring of Dr Vivien. As her former student, Jason absorbed so much of the resounding principles of Dr Vivian for intellect and education.

Jason turns out to be a significant element in the play that induces Dr Vivian to recognize her mistakes as an individual and as a teacher. Jason sees Dr Vivian as nothing but a sick body when he yelled to Susie, “She's Research! “ (Cohen, “Margaret Edison’s Wit: An Audience Guide”). Jason made Dr Vivian realize that being human needs not just wit or knowledge but also things that are simple; real. The play Wit written by Margaret Edson affords me a whole new understanding of life. It introduces me to what is more important: things that are more important than intellect, fame or money.

After reading the play, I realized that every person who walks this world should preclude himself or herself from taking a step outside of reality. Dr Vivian escaped from reality when she entirely bent all her focus to literature and on becoming the best scholar in her field; and started to stay away from normalcy. She lost the common human trait of sympathy and compassion. She developed the thought that every person can live a single existence and that there is no such thing as a multi-faceted life.

Later she understood that, intellect or wit is just a portion of one’s being. It should not override other essential things that make a human being a human being. While it is also beneficial to be knowledgeable about your chosen field, it should not come at the expense of your existential truth. Personally, I would say Dr Vivian, the lead character of the play Wit, and I are very much alike. I always believe in the gain you can get out of sharpening your knowledge on a particular field of knowledge.

Like Dr Vivian, I relatively developed a personality that is averse to living a life that embraces minimalism. I would say that one can be more useful if he or she knows a lot of things; and even when it comes to the most sensitive and confronting issues of life, like death, superior intellect and deep grasp of the philosophical notions of life will simply let death pass by without causing any distress or anxiety. Nevertheless, Dr Vivian and I also have characteristics that, I would say, are not similar.

Dr Bearing, because of her concentration to knowledge and intellect, she failed to recognize other aspects of her being. She only values her brain, which for her, is her most important organ. She displays unfeeling and stubborn behaviour to the people surrounding her. I have not gone this far. While Dr Vivian and I are very mu