John

Although contextually different, John Donne and Margaret Edson both explore similar ideas and values in their work. Through his poems, Donne explores the idea of relationships, and the human need and effect of them. We see this in poems such as The Sunne Rising. Donne, as the protagonist, has personal experiences of love and this is evident as he writes about them. However, personal relationships are conspicuous in their absence from Vivian Bearing’s life. Wit deals with more human interaction and compassion then with relationships, however, Vivian’s longing for care and affection is evident. The exploration of death and mortality can be seen in both texts. For Vivian, death becomes a reality rather than a subject that she studies. The play becomes an exploration of methods of dealing with the end of life. In Donne’s poems, Death, be not Proud, This is my Playes last scene, If Poisonous Minerals and Hymne to God, My God, in my sicknesse, Donne also writes from the perspective of one who is at the end of their life. Different social values give Donne and Vivian a different perspective on the circumstance. Edson’s own interpretation of the play is that the protagonist is seeking to be redeemed as a person through their experiences of dying. This is mutual in John Donne’s poems as he begs for purity and forgiveness from God as he is dying. The Sunne Rising is a love poem in which Donne arrives at a position as a lover and causes him to be egotistic. It is power and self-value through an interpersonal relationship. The poem plays the microcosm of the lover’s world off against the macrocosm of the workaday world, signified by the rising of the sun. At the end of the poem, Donne welcomes the sun but it is on the basis of patronising it and glorifying himself and his lover: “To warm the world, that’s done in warming us”. Contrastingly, Vivian does not have a personal relationship with anyone. She has no relatives for Dr. Kelekian to call and when Susie asks “You’re not having a lot of visitors are you'” Vivian corrects her with “none”. Her need for human contact is stressed in the growing importance of her relationship with Susie and, to an extent, Jason. In the play, Vivian admits that she needed Susie: “I wanted her to come and see me”. She also lets Susie refer to her as “sweetheart”, although she points out that this is not something she normally allows. She admits to Susie that she is scared and Susie comforts her. As soon as Susie leaves, Vivian feels the need to justify herself by explaining that it does not normally happen by placing the blame on the chemotherapy. Margaret Edson said the play “is about miscommunication and misunderstanding”. Like having a personal relationship allows Donne to boast confidence and self-value, Vivian finds this in her intelligence and her work. In the modern context of Wit, the doctors are more concerned with gaining medical information from Vivian then referring to her feelings. Edson has simply re-created the circumstance of John Donne in a modern context and revealed the differences in the responses of the surrounding people. For Vivian, she has found herself dealing directly with death rather than simply studying it. It becomes, for her, an experience for which she calls upon her powers of language and academia; however these powers have little effect in dealing with the physicality of her own mortality and in the face of all the complex medical jargon which she is faced with. Similarly, Donne calls upon God to help him through this time. In Death, Be not Proud, Donne finds the power to face death because he is secure in the fact that he will not be eternally dead, “One short sleep past, we wake eternally”. For Donne, he believes he understands what happens after death; Vivian has no such reassurance although she thinks that she does: “I know all about life and death”. By studying Donne and his perceptions, Vivian believes that she is able to cope with her illness. However, she soon learns that death in theory and death in reality are not the same. She perceives it differently now because “we are discussing my life and my death”. Vivian is only seen as an object of research to Jason and Dr. Kelekian. Similarly, Donne in, Hymne to God, my God, in my sicknesse, uses the metaphor of his physicians being “cosmographers, and I their map”. Both Donne and Vivian’s doctors are looking to make discoveries. However, it is suggested that Donne’s doctors are not harsh with him like Vivian’s treat her. This assists the audience in understanding the reasons behind Vivian’s confusion is regards to death. At one point in the play, Vivian says “I just want to curl up in a little ball” to escape the agony of her illness. In Donne’s poem If poisonous minerals he also crawls up in a little to hide in fear instead of accepting the simple truth. Just as Donne’s intellect prevents him from accepting simple forgiveness, “But who am I, that dare dispute with thee'”, so Vivian’s intellect is prevents her from opening herself up to experiencing fear, hurt and confusion. Again, to avoid facing the subject of death, Vivian hides behind her wit, in the exact way one of her students accused Donne of doing. Vivian recites part of the holy sonnet This is My Playes Last Scene and then states that she finds the image of “my minutes last point” a “little shall we say, pointed”. Both Donne and Vivian are faced with issues of death and mortality, however, Donne has God to rely upon, Vivian has to overcome it alone. Edson stated that "The play is about redemption". Throughout the play, Vivian attempts to redeem herself for her compassionate pre-cancer life. She tries to find relationships with Susie and Jason. She comes to resent listening to Ashford's advice that a scholar cannot be sentimental. In a sense, Vivian’s final abnegation of all that she pursued becomes a Christian metaphor, that her final victory is resurrection after her death. Her redemption is symbolised by the removal of her clothes and the act of reaching for the light. Throughout the play, Vivian attempts to attain redemption by justifying her life through her intellect and knowledge. All her achievements are listed as academic. In the flashback to when she is sitting with her father and he is disinterested in her, Vivian seeks to explain why she is disconnected from other people. Wit ultimately affirms both Christian faith and serious scholarship. When Vivian’s old professor reads her the children’s book, it preaches the irresistible grace for which Donne’s poetry longs for. Edson shows that academic excellence may enhance faith and compassion. In the play, Donne serves to symbolise both the intellectual life and Christian faith. In This is my play’s last scene, Donne asks God to “impute me righteous, thus purged of evil”. Through her analysis of Donne’s poems, Vivian realises that to cope with dying, she needs redemption. Her dismissal of Christianity causes her to try to find redemption through the people around her, especially Susie. Hymne to God, My God, in my sicknesse illustrates “Therefore that he may raise, the Lord throws down”. As Donne is “thrown down” by God, so Vivian is “thrown down” by her sickness. Yet, Vivian is raised up, not by God, but be her own spirit. This ability to choose becomes Vivian’s ultimate redemption. Donne is under the power of God, but Vivian is able to assume some power of her own. She cannot decide not to die, but she can decide how and when to die. Vivian goes as a visual and theatrical image of dignity. Ultimately, both Donne and Bearing find redemption, Donne finds it in God, Vivian, in herself. The contextual and textual differences of both Donne’s poem and Edson’s play cause the composers to present the ideas and values explored in diverse manners. Both Donne and Edson explore human relationship and interactions, Edson, however, explores the effect of the absence. Death and mortality are both faced by the protagonists and their different beliefs cause them to cope in dissimilar ways. Redemption is achieved in both, through God and through the strength of the human spirit. Ultimately they conclude similarly, although the process in different.