What is the significance of having a former student, Jason Posner, serve as the resident who treats Vivian and supervises her care?

For this Discussion, I have divided you into small groups. After reading Wit, by Margaret Edson, I’d like you to answer TWO of the following ten questions. Each of your two answers should be at least three sentences long. I’m hoping everyone will not answer the first two of these questions! See which ones raise topics of most interest to you after reading the play.
Vivian is suffering from ovarian cancer. In what way is this disease symbolic of the things that are missing from her life? What do we learn about her personal life? We see her struggling to become a literary scholar. We see her also in class, teaching. What does she reveal about herself through these scenes?
Vivian Bearing is a world renowned authority on the work of the seventeenth century poet John Donne. She is used to being listened to and having control. How does her situation change when she becomes a patient? Where do we see examples of this?
In what ways does Vivian identify with Dr. Kelekian? How does this connection with him contribute to her decision to submit to his study, a clinical trial for a new experimental drug?
What is the significance of having a former student, Jason Posner, serve as the resident who treats Vivian and supervises her care? What does Vivian see of herself in him?
At the start of the play, Vivian looks down on her nurse, Susie Monahan. Later in the play, Vivian’s attitude toward Susie seems to change. How does Vivian come to feel about Susie and what does this tell us about Vivian’s shift in values? What examples do we have of Susie’s compassion for and sensitivity to Vivian?
Edson has commented that her play is used as a teaching tool at hospitals and medical schools. Why do you think this is? What observations does Wit make about the relationships between patients and researchers, physicians, technicians, or nurses?
What is the significance of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, which Vivian reads to her father, and The Runaway Bunny, which her mentor E. M. Ashford later reads from? The father and Ashford, both Vivian’s teachers, help her understand the books in different ways. What does her father teach her? What does Ashford teach her?
Is Ashford’s visit to Vivian in the hospital a real event or Vivian’s hallucination?
To what degree do John Donne’s Holy Sonnets help Vivian cope with her cancer and her impending death? Why does she not want to hear John Donne’s poems as she is in great pain and dying at the end of the play?
What does the closing moment, with Vivian stepping away from the hospital bed (where the code team performs and Jason cries, “I made a mistake!”), slipping off her hospital gown, and standing naked and beautiful in the light, signify?

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