In the play Wit, the main character, Dr. Vivian Bearing, is portrayed as a shrill, quick-witted scholar who often uses her intelligence to undermine and challenge her doctors and their discourteous staff. Throughout the play, she frequently offers feisty asides to the audience – an aspect of the play (her personality) that truly makes Bearing the loveable character that she is. It is in her asides that she connects with the audience as she offers her honest emotions and thoughts. She charges into her battle with cancer exhibiting a congenial and witty attitude which makes the reader respect her strength and her will as an individual.
While Bearing’s asides are not as sassy or quick-witted in the movie as they are in the play, the audience can see the emotional side to her character much more clearly in the movie – as should be expected – because most live acting presents a better feel and understanding of the characters’ emotions to the audience. For example, in the scene where Bearing reflects on the student that told her that his grandmother died and he would need an extension on his paper deadline, and she responded with, “the paper is due when it is due” – she is nearly in tears in the movie because of the guilt she feels for her harsh actions, but the reader of the play does not understand that emotion. Vivian Bearing from the movie presents herself as a prissy, dull woman (compared to the clever, feisty woman from the play). As a result, the audience connects with her on a more emotional level in the movie, but she is much funnier and wittier in the play.
Furthermore, in the play, Bearing’s relationships with Susie and her teacher are very mother/daughter. They both comfort Bearing, and they take the role of “family.” In the movie, Susie’s relationship with Bearing is not as strong as it is in the play – perhaps it is due to poor acting on Susie’s part, but the mother/daughter, caretaker relationship is very watered down in the movie. On the contrary, Bearing’s relationship with her teacher skyrockets on an emotional level in the movie. When her teacher first walks in to see her at the hospital, the two immediately become teary-eyed, and the connection is much more emotionally intense in the movie than it is in the play. Bearing is literally high-pitched-whining like a baby (more in a literal, helpless sense as compared to a bratty, spoiled sense) while her teacher is in tears comforting her like she would comfort her own daughter. The scene is very touching, and it really rounds out the emotional connection the audience has for Bearing in the movie compared to the love of her personality that the reader has in the play.
3 comments:
Sonya Bonnin- Baker
You bring up an interesting point regarding Vivian and her professor’s relationship in the film as being much stronger, or almost maternal, in comparison to that in the play, which seems strictly professional. It is difficult to know if the play intended for the relationship between these women to evolve into such a strong one, but it is very effective in the film’s transmitting of Vivian’s longing for affection at the last moments of her life. Why the filmmaker would chose to develop this relationship further than Vivian’s relationship with Susie might have something to do with the film’s portrayal of the hospital as a cold and sterile setting where patients are treated as lab rats. Susie is nice to Vivian in the film, but I agree that the play does present Susie as being much more warm and caring or maternal with Vivian. It could be bad acting, but it could have also been deliberate to show that Vivian at least had someone from her past that still cared about her. I also agree with you that the film makes it possible for the viewer to connect with Vivian at a much deeper emotional level than in the play, and that is because one is moved by her tears and as a result of seeing her in a state of agony.
I like your comments about the acerbic asides of the play. They do seem to be given a more emotional twist in the fil, softening Vivian's character. I once had a Vivian as. Shakespeare teacher. It ws her wit--in yhevsense that Donne meant it--that made her so effective.q
I like you points about Vivian's character being witty and feisty and how it contributes to her being a lovable character. I also agree that live acting does a deeper understanding for the emotions of a character. The emotion seen when she regrets not giving one of her past students and extension is stronger in the film than in the play. The audience feels a sense of closeness to the emotion they can connect a character with. This sort of deep emotion is made so much more clear and believable by great acting. However I think she was funnier in the film than in the text.
Vivian displays strength by getting through treatments and sickness virtually alone. A level of respect is formed by the audience for the strength Vivian shows during her battle with cancer. However, I do wish the film showed Vivian and Susie's relationship in a more loving light and I agree that the relationship between the two is stronger in the play. Another point is that the level of intelligence Vivian had, made her challenge her doctors and their treatment towards her. She never let go of her smart and witty comments, which kept the audience hooked for more.
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