Line #9 Theatre/Wit


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3	A 1999 Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Margaret Edson that was later adapted to television by Creator/MikeNichols and Creator/EmmaThompson, ''Wit'' is about Vivian Bearing, an English professor who specializes in the metaphysical {{poetry}} of John Donne, who finds out she has an aggressive case of ovarian cancer. The story depicts her struggles with her illness and chemotherapy, as well as dealing with hospital bureaucracy. She spends much of the story [[BreakingTheFourthWall discussing the situation with the audience]], reflecting on her life and the choices she's made, as well as the poetry she's studied and how it relates to her current condition.
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5	!!The film version of ''Wit'' includes examples of:
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7	* ArcWords: "And death, thou shalt die". Also "soporific."
8	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Vivian's appearance goes gradually downhill as she suffers more and more from her cancer. Notably, her [[BaldnessMeansSickness hair is among the first of her features to go]].
9	* BookWorm: Deconstructed - Vivian prefers books and her research to social interaction, to the point where engaging with people who don't share her interests or have the same priorities as her can be problematic.
10	* BreakTheHaughty: The play is a gradual one for Vivian, as she goes from a respected professor to a mere cancer patient that only lives for research.
11	* TheCameo: In the film, Creator/HaroldPinter as Vivian's father.
12	* DaddysGirl: It seems that Vivian had this sort of relationship with her dad, as she cites him as the inspiration for her love of reading.
13	* DoomedProtagonist: No points for guessing that [[spoiler:Vivian dies from her cancer]].
14	* DownerEnding: There are no prizes for guessing that [[spoiler:Vivian dies at the end,]] but it's much bleaker than you think it will be at the start.
15	* DrJerk: Kelekian turns out to be one despite his pleasant exterior when it's revealed that [[spoiler:he knew Vivian had no chance of survival and was only keeping her alive for research purposes.]] Jason's better, but he has his moments as well.
16	* DyingAlone: [[spoiler:It's implied this happened to Vivian, but we can't be sure.]]
17	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
18	-->'''Kelekian''': You have cancer...Ms. Bearing, you have advanced metastatic ovarian cancer.
19	-->'''Vivian''': [[TheStoic Go on.]]
20	* ForegoneConclusion: In the play, we start with Vivian in [[spoiler:her death throes]]. The film skips over this to go straight to her diagnosis. This could be a case of PragmaticAdaptation, since in the play she wears the paper gown for the entire show, even when looking back over earlier periods in her life. The film chops and changes a bit more with this.
21	* FriendlessBackground: Vivian. When Professor Ashford suggests that she go out and enjoy herself with her friends, she seizes up inside:
22	-->"I went outside. It was a warm day.There were students on the lawn talking about nothing, laughing. Simple human truth. Uncompromising scholarly standards. They're connected. I just couldn't...I went back to the library."
23	* GoodNightSweetPrince: [[spoiler:Professor Ashford quotes the second half of this line when she says goodbye to Vivian, despite her not actually being dead at that point.]]
24	* HumblePie: At first, Vivian is able to take the poking and prodding in her stride, until being subjected to a particularly cack-handed and painful pelvic exam performed by Jason, her former student. Things [[FromBadToWorse start]] [[HumiliationConga going]] [[TraumaCongaLine downhill]] from there.
25	-->"I wish I had given him an A."
26	* InsufferableGenius: Vivian displays shades of this in her flashbacks to her teaching days.
27	* TheIntern: Jason.
28	* LaserGuidedKarma: Vivian has spent her life being more interested in her research than other people, and now she's dependent on doctors and hospital staff who are more interested in their own research than her emotional and physical well-being.
29	* MagicalNegro: In the film, Susie (played by Audra [=McDonald=]) comes close, both as a nurse who's almost too angelic, and as the one major character whose background isn't explored.
30	* MissingMum: While we at least meet Vivian's dad, any details about her mum are conspicuously absent, despite her living for twenty years longer than him and having [[spoiler:died, at least in the film,]] in roughly the same manner as Vivian.
31	* MeaningfulName: "Vivian" comes from the Latin word for alive.
32	* MediumAwareness: Vivian knows that she's being watched. She also decides which scenes that the audience will see from her story, but acknowledges that she can't control what's happening to her.
33	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Emma Thompson in the film sticks with her natural English accent. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since academics tend to develop odd accents from working and living abroad for long periods of time.
34	* NotSoStoic: Vivian appears tough about her situation in the beginning, but as the play goes on; it's clear that she's suffering from not only her cancer, but the treatment as well.
35	* OnlyMostlyDead: Jason's attitude towards Vivian once [[spoiler:her heart stops.]]
36	* ShownTheirWork: Towards the end of the film, Vivian displays what is colloquially known as the [[spoiler:"O Sign", where morbidity is indicated by the patient being slack-jawed to the point of their mouth forming an "O" shape.]]
37	* SimpleScoreOfSadness: Arvo Part's "Spiegel im Spiegel". (Again.)
38	* SoapOperaDisease: Averted. Very, very much averted.
39	* TooCleverByHalf: Jason. A brilliant young man with a terrible ego and an abysmal bedside manner who forgets the entire point of his cancer research in the first place.
40	* TooDumbToFool: Though probably the least educated character in a movie populated with geniuses, Susie is perhaps the one who understands life, death, and human dignity better than anyone else there (certainly her colleagues). Contrast with Jason's TooCleverByHalf.
41	* TookALevelInKindness: Vivian realizes that she shouldn't have been so tough on her students but, apart from being able to offer Susie half of her popsicle, she is too sick to act on her change of heart.
42	* TheTopicOfCancer: Perhaps one of the most brutal works on the subject.

Context Theatre / Wit