What does Vivian's dying teach her about life?

The main character of the play "Wit" is an English literature teacher named Vivian Bearing. Her class is known to be the toughest and most demanding in the university. When one of her students asks her for an extension for a paper because of his grandparent's death, she tells him that all papers should be done on time, regardless of any situation. Vivian spends most of her life studying and researching John Donne's poetry. Back when she was a student in a university, her English professor, E.M. Ashford, asked Vivian to rewrite her paper on John Donne's poem, "Death, Be Not Proud." Vivian tells her that she will go back to the library to do more in-depth research on the poem so she can write a better paper. However, Ashford suggests for her to go out, see her friends, and enjoy life, and not spend her life in the books to fully understand the message in the piece of poetry. She tries to do what her professor told her to do, but in the end, she fails and returns to the library. She lives on the words, and not the true meaning of those words. Her obsession on poetry isolates her from society and life itself, making her careless to the surroundings, people, and emotions.

Her view on "life" slowly changes while she is treated as a research subject at a hospital after she was diagnosed with cancer. One of the doctors, Jason Posner, is Vivian's former student. He treats her as if she's merely a subject, an object for research. He does not care much about how Vivian truly feels but how the disease is functioning and spreading in the body. She feels uncomfortable and shocked to see how the doctors care more about the cancer itself than the patient. However, as time goes by, she starts to notice herself in them. Vivian herself treated her students more like subjects than human beings. She regrets her past and wishes she could have done more in life than just staring at the words on paper. The life she has lived in was what others have said and written in their books. She never experienced one of her own.

As her death gets closer, she starts to crave for human warmth. When her former professor comes to visit her, she cries in front of her like a baby. She shows her true emotion in front of a teacher who gave her a mission she did not understand doing. Ashford feels pity and sorrow for Vivian and lies next to her, putting her arms around her to keep her company. She starts reading a children’s book until Vivian falls asleep.

Through her struggle with illness, she learns that there is more to life than just facts and analysis in books. She was able to learn from her death that she should have dared herself to go out and experience the poem than just reading it. What truly is important in life is human contact, kindness, forgiveness, experiences, and many other priceless matters. However, I don't think Vivian understood all of this when she was dying because she never did live a life outside of the books.

What is poetry?

What is poetry? For me, it is a kind of device that allows your voice to be heard by the public. Not only is it a way to express your emotions, such as love, passion, anger, but also send messages on specific issues. What's fascinating is that one piece of poetry can have numerous perceptions and opinions, depending on who's reading it. Poetry can be both something that gives hope and something that creates a social phenomenon.

“…Poetry is looking down both roads that diverge in a narrow wood...”

When you are reading or analyzing a poem, it is like you are walking in a "narrow wood." You don't know where you are going and what's waiting for you. Then you come across "roads that diverge in a narrow wood." The quote suggests that you should look "down both roads" in order to get enough information of the surrounding. You might find something you wouldn't have found if you went one way. We need to observe a poem from different angles in order to get as many ideas and information as possible.

“...Poetry is eternal graffiti in the heart of everyone...”

When you draw graffiti on a wall, you draw or write whatever comes to your mind or anything that's building up in you. It is same in poetry. On paper, you just let your emotions and thoughts run wild on it. It does not have to be beautiful or perfect. Poetry is a everlasting graffiti in our "heart" where we can spray, or express, ourselves however we want to.

“...Poetry is the last refuge of humanity in dark times...”

Poetry can be a last resort for people who are suffering or even dying in a harsh situation. By writing a poem on hope and/or peace, it can encourage the writer or others to be stronger and believe in a brighter future at "dark times." It is the "last refuge of humanity" where people can show their true human nature and express whatever they want to scream out from bottom of their heart.