Wit
A 1999 Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Margaret Edson that was later adapted to television by Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson, Wit is about Vivian Bearing, an English professor who specializes in the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, who finds out she has an aggressive case of ovarian cancer. The story depicts her struggles with her illness and chemotherapy, as well as dealing with hospital bureaucracy. She spends much of the story discussing the situation with the audience, reflecting on her life and the choices she's made, as well as the poetry she's studied and how it relates to her current condition.
Tropes used in Wit include:
- Adult Fear: Dying from cancer is as adult as you can get.
- Arc Words: "Death thou shalt die". Also "soporific."
- Break the Haughty
- The Cameo: Harold Pinter as Vivian's father.
- Dr. Jerk: Kelekian turns out to be one despite his pleasant exterior when it's revealed that he knew Vivian had no chance of survival and was only keeping her alive for research purposes. Jason's better, but he has his moments as well.
- Dying Alone: It's implied this happened to Vivian, but we can't be sure.
- Insufferable Genius: Vivian displays shades of this in her flashbacks to her teaching days.
- The Intern: Jason.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Vivian has spent her life being more interested in her research than other people, and now she's dependent on doctors and hospital staff who are more interested in their own research than her emotional and physical well-being.
- Magical Negro: Susie comes close, both as a nurse who's almost too angelic, and as the one major character whose background isn't explored.
- Simple Score of Sadness: Arvo Part's "Spiegel im Spiegel". (Again.)
- Soap Opera Disease: Averted. Very, very averted.