Margaret Edson

In the book Wit, by Margaret Edson, Vivian Bearing an English professor is diagnosed with cancer and decides to have an experimental treatment so doctors could learn about her disease. In this book Bearing has many goals she wishes to fulfil before her passing much like Faulkner’s book, As I Lay Dying. Much like Wit, Faulkner’s As I lay Dying follows an order of events that the ill mother, Addie and her loved ones needed to fulfil before death came for Addie. In both works an individual is presented in the stage of sickness rushing against time to fulfil their wishes. Over the next few pages we will discuss the events that both Addie from As I Lay Dying and Vivian from Wit had to achieve so their last wishes would be fulfilled. In an article by Madison Reparatory Theatre 2000 (8-21) “Wit Guide,” we are given the points that Edson intended to get across in this work, which were “finding someone’s inner self in this case Vivian Bearing and finding their relationship with God.” Throughout Wit, Vivian reflects on her life on instances where she was a student, a teacher, or a daughter who was very intelligent. It can be inferred that Vivian was never the party or socially active type that attended parties and whatnot but, the…

Wit by Margaret Edson is a play about Dr. Vivian Bearing succumbing to advanced metastatic ovarian cancer. Edson herself has said that this is a play about grace. This theme is evident in Vivian’s gradual transition from graceless intellectual to gracious cancer patient; a transition which is accompanied by her finally understanding life and death from a human perspective, rather than a scholarly one. Edson uses literary foils and mirrors, the evolution of Dr. Bearing’s character, Vivian’s…

Professor Bearing’s Journey Through Cancer In the story “Wit “by Margaret Edson, the author depicts how a professor by the name Vivian Bearing was brilliant, cold hearted and then she became filled with kindness. Professor Bearing was a tough love teacher; she doesn’t really care about the students and their struggles. Her main fervor is for 17th Century poetry, especially the complicated Holy Sonnets of John Donne; well at least at the beginning of the play. In the latter half of the story…

It was important for Katharine Dexter because she was married to a man with schizophrenia and since there’s a chance that the kids have this mental illness too, even though there wasn’t a physical connection between her and her husband, but since she knew there were people out there that were at risk, she wanted to help them. Also she wanted women have control over their bodies and so they can prevent unplanned pregnancy. For Margaret Sanger, after the death of Sadie Sachs, she was so sad and…

Margaret Sanger helped thousands of women by combating laws that controlled women’s access to birth control. Margaret Sanger’s birth control clinic in New York attracted women from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts (Wardell 740). Now thanks to her efforts women across the country have access to birth control, including myself. Women had many reasons to utilize birth control methods which led to quite a few impacts on society during the early twentieth century. The contraception…

The novel of Oryx and Crake is a science fiction developed by Margaret Atwood in 2003. It describes a possible future of human beings associated with the elements of misusing bioengineering science powers, death of literature and post-apocalyptic scenarios. It can be identified as an anti-utopia novel that believes an ostensibly peaceful society with various kinds of uncontrollable evils inside. The stories of this novel unfold with the two-clued structure associated with the interactions among…

The Struggle of Women In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the women in Gilead appear to have diminished rights and a limited amount of freedom. These women have lives that resemble a lifestyle similar to the women who lived prior to women’s suffrage, even though this novel takes place in a futuristic time. Some of these women, like Offred, remember the past and long for a time when they can be free again. However, for many of the women, they will never understand what it is…

movements powered by women was the fight for reproductive rights led by Margaret Sanger in the 1920’s through the 60’s. Originally, the men were responsible for providing birth control, with methods such as using a condom, or pulling out. In the event that a woman should become pregnant, it became her job to take responsibility for the baby. A woman’s inability to control her body limited her choices in life and her sexual freedom. During the late 1800’s and through the late 1900’s, the Comstock…

“Fear makes us the instruments of Power. When we fear, we obey” – Anonyms. Fear is the heart pounding, and the knots in the stomach feeling. It is the second thoughts and the reason one limits themselves. Fear is often seen as a weakness. Ultimately, fear controls people. In the highly controversial novel, The Handmaids Tale written in 1985 by author Margaret Atwood, Atwood creates a dystopian society where fear along with ignorance and abasement control the people within The Republic of Gilead.…

any people overlook the privileges we have today, however, these “rights” can be taken away at any time. This is what happened to the people of the fictional city, Gilead, in “The Handmaids Tale” by Margret Atwood. In this dystopian world we follow Offred as she describes the new totalitarian society. Offred compares the new world to how it was previously in a series of flashbacks, describing the fall of democracy and equality. Over time the rights of the people were taken away, stripping the…