Dr. Vivian Bearing is a fifty-year-old professor of seventeenth-century poetry who specializes in the work of the metaphysical poet John Donne. She is also a terminally ill cancer patient: she has been diagnosed with a stage-four ovarian cancer that has spread to other areas of her body. While Wit offers audiences flashes of insight into Vivian’s life, the play is mainly concerned with her death. In fact, Vivian tells viewers in the play’s first scene that she has two hours to live, and the play follows her journey from diagnosis to her demise.

As the audience walks alongside Vivian through her diagnosis and treatment, Edson puts Vivian’s personhood front and center in all its messiness. Vivian is far from perfect. She can be difficult and stubborn, and her intelligence often distances her from those around her. Her tenacious dedication to her research has made her one of the most celebrated Donne scholars alive, but her success has left her isolated (though not lonely). It is important to note that Vivian’s only regret is how hard she was on her students; at no point does she lament her decision to dedicate her life to scholarship. Thus, Vivian’s march toward death reveals the complexities of life, too.