Research Paper on:
Margaret Edson's Wit and Ovarian Cancer

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
will not win by living, but yet a struggle she wins through her passion and her courage. While this is obviously a tale that is fictional, it is also a  story that applies to many people throughout the world who have discovered they have a disease that will kill them, or has the potential to kill them. Many people, like  Edsons heroine, have incredibly powerful spirits that keep them going. Perhaps it is a spirit that only a few possess, and perhaps, just perhaps, it is a spirit and courage  that is available to anyone. In the following paper we examine the heroine of Edsons play and discuss how this individuals spirit and courage, and also this individuals fear and  exhaustion, are very real and are a very powerful part of the inherent nature of man. "Wit" and Cancer The most notable aspect of Edsons play is that  which presents us with humor. Deadly diseases are frightening, this is very true. But, the heroine of Edsons book approaches her sickness with a courage that uses a great deal  of humor as well as intellect. The heroines name is Vivian Bearing and in the beginning of the play we see that she is already informing us that she will  die, as well as informing us that humor is a large part of her inherent nature in terms of dealing with the fatal realities. In better understanding this perspective  we first look at the following lines, words that come to us from Vivian as she speaks to the audience: "I have been asked How are you feeling today? while  I was throwing up into a plastic washbasin. I have been asked as I was emerging from a four-hour operation with a tube in every orifice, How are you feeling