Suffering and Identity in Donne and Wit
One s identity may be questioned when suffering; ultimately suffering is what creates one s sense of
self or what destroys it. The poetry of John Donne and the play W;t, 1993, by Margaret Edson, both
illustrate and explore a sense of suffering and identity. In John Donne s poetry, suffering, both
emotionally and physically allows the speaker to understand their identity in more depth, in
comparison to Margaret Edson s play, W;t, Vivian s suffering leads her identity to be stripped away. In
Donne s sonnet, If poysonous mineralls we are shown suffering religiously and emotionally, through
one s sin s, questioning god s justice, which leads to a realisation of one s identity. In Margaret Edson
s play, W;t, Vivian s emotional suffering ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
And I their Mapp, who lie Flat on this bed . He describes his body as a map, a metaphor for his life
being a journey, which his doctors attempt to read in order to discover his illness and his suffering and
ultimately where his journey ends. In reference to Cartography, Donne refers to bearings, using the
imagery of a map to point out that what we see on the western edge of a flat map is also to be found
on the eastern edge, showing that he believes life and death are connected to each other. In the final
stanza, Donne feels joy at the though of death as he feels he will recover his identity by reuniting with
the lord. In the final stanza, he returns to the idea of the first stanza, summing up the poem s central
message with the use of a paradox. Therefore that he may raise the Lord throws down. This paradox
shows that to rise up to heaven, one must be thrown down by death, so therefore one must suffer to be
accepted and united in a place where one s identity is established. His extreme suffering has purged
and prepared him for paradise.
Vivian s physical suffering is caused by her illness, which slowly deteriorates her identity. In W;t,
Vivian s physical character is enhanced by her power through Language and it s discourse. As time
progresses, cancer slowly cause s her to suffer physically, and therefore inverts her powerful identity.
On page 25, Vivian s body is clinically deconstructed, the
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