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Margaret Edson, Wit

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Reading Questions

Text on p. 1500 of the full Ninth Edition.

Reading Questions

1. One student has called Wit "a roller coaster of emotions." What were some of the emotions you felt as you read the play? Have you had any personal experiences that relate to those in the play? In what ways did those experiences influence your reaction to the play? Were there any parts of the play that made you laugh? Were you surprised to find humor in a play about death?

2. This ninety-minute play has no act or scene divisions and no intermission. Margaret Edson told an interviewer that there was no intermission because she was afraid that the audience would not return for the second half of the play. What is there about the nature of the play that might cause an audience to leave? Is there anything in your own experiences that would have made you uncomfortable as you watched the play or that made you uneasy as you read the play?

3. Look at this list of subjects that are present in the play: dying, cancer, chemotherapy, medicine, research, universities, teachers, students, nursing, fear of death, poetry, careers, patient-physician interaction, student-teacher interaction, childhood memories, reading, children's books, religious beliefs, spiritual doubt, resuscitation, death, afterlife. Do any of these relate to your life? Which ideas relate to issues that are important in contemporary culture? Are there ideas that you would add to this list?

4. Are there parts of this play that you did not understand well? Is there anything in the play that you wish you could remove? Consider how the play would be changed if those specific scenes or passages were omitted. Do they contribute to the overall meaning of the story? Do they tell us something valuable about the characters?

5. How did you feel about the personality of Vivian? Have you ever known someone like Vivian? If you have, did that experience influence your feelings toward the character? Make a list of words you would use to describe Vivian in the first half of the play and then make a second list to describe Vivian near the end of the play. Has Vivian changed? Did your feelings about Vivian change at the end of the play?

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