Seeing the film "Wit" was more heart warming than reading the play. Everything seemed more meaningful to be able to see the emotions of the characters, especially Vivian's. She is a very strong woman dealing with one of life's most hardest things to battle, cancer. Vivian has Matastatic Stage IV ovarian cancer and is terminally ill with not much time to live. It's bothering to watch people suffer and wonder why them. All the science and technology enhancements in the world and nothing is going to save her. Vivian was only fifty years old and didn't even get a chance to live a full life. However, she was happy with the life she had lived by herself for years. Strangely, she had to relatives to be with her during her last moments of life. She knew that she was going to die and was willing to accept it.One of the things that was most saddening to watch, was how her doctors were handling her as if she was a test subject in a lab. Vivian agreed to go through with the series of chemography treatments, but her doctor didn't seem too concern with her failing help. He seemed to be more concerned with his treatments he were offering her rather than how she would benefit from them. Her nurse was one of the few people in the hospital to truly care about her and her health. I read in the play how she felt less of a human while undergoing the treatments but to watch the film, I was able to see how she was affected by it.
The treatment she was given was making her really ill and causing her to suffer more than she already was. She would have been better off just dying peacefully from the cancer alone. The treatment caused her to have abdominal pain, fever, chills, and vomiting. Usually when taking medicine, you benefit from it and it is suppose to help you feel better and not worse. When she was nearing death, she was realizing that she could have been more generous to people. It was at her death bed that she realized the true importance of compassion. Compassion is the essence of the human spirit, a very important virtue.
4 comments:
Celestine:Hubbard your assessment of the film was similar to mine because like you the film gave more meaning and understanding of Vivian’s character and her life. Being able to see the mistreatment she felt was hard for me because there was know one there for her except her nurse Susie. You mention relatives coming to visit her but from my knowledge the only visitor she had was her old teacher that came and read to her a book about bunnies. Watching Vivian suffer and go through this pain alone was enough but realizing the medicine was making her feel worse was hurtful. In your blog you discussed how her Doctors treated her like a test subject in a lab. I could not believe doctors would treat a patient who was on her dying bed like she was nothing. When they realized the chemotherapy was not working the doctors should have tried different methods to shrink her cancer. With the new advancement in technology other cures or medicines could have been given to her. I am aware that side effects occur but when it is worse than the actual problem then something new needs to be done. Finally Hubbard, I like how you end your blog with the discussion of compassion. Throughout the play and the film there was an absence of this and it was needed especially because Vivian was going through this traumatic event alone. If compassion had been the center of their lives Vivian and Dr. Posner would have been better at that jobs and overall a better person in life.
Both the blog and the comment bring up a very important point. plays are written to be viewed. The film gives viewers a sense of the play, but ultimately viewing a play, with real characters on the stage, is even more immediate than viewing a film.
I think that it is hard to say whether or not she would have been better without the chemotherapy treatment. Although she did suffer a great deal because of the treatment, I think that dealing with the side effects would have been easier if she had a better support system of friends and family to help her get through her suffering. When one has friends and family to think about, it may be a more difficult decision to go without treatment because they may be reliant on that person, or simply express a greater interest in the cancer patient continuing their life. But with no one around Dr. Bearing to tell her that they truly enjoy her company and want her to stay alive, dealing with the fact that it is only the ineffective treatment that is making her miserable is harder to deal with. I do agree that in her situation it may have been better to not go as strong on the treatment, but you also have to consider that dying from cancer is a painful process without the treatment. Even after Dr. Bearing's treatment had stopped working and had finished, she was experiencing severe pain because of the cancer itself.
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