Wit: Scene 5 Summary & Analysis

Vivian addresses the audience, saying that “in this dramatic structure you will see the most interesting aspects” of her treatment and stay at the hospital, but that the vast majority of her time is spent simply lying there in silence. She says if she were writing the scene, she would lie there for fifteen minutes and make the audience sit and watch. But she reassures the audience that she won’t, since “brevity is the soul of wit.”

Vivian then introduces the scene—a Friday morning, “Grand Rounds”—and says “Action.” Dr. Kelekian, Jason, and four other clinical fellows enter. Jason asks Vivian how she’s feeling, and she responds with “Fine.” Jason then gives Vivian a pelvic exam, describing her cancer and treatment aloud to the other fellows. As he continues his monologue (which is full of medical jargon), Vivian comments to herself on the term “Grand Rounds,” and how the practice is similar to a graduate seminar in literature, except now she is the one being read like a book.

As Jason finishes his description, Vivian remarks to herself, “excellent command of details.” Dr. Kelekian then gives Jason this same compliment, and starts to ask the fellows questions about Vivian’s treatment. Jason always answers first, and the other fellows “resent him.” They discuss Vivian’s side effects, and when the fellows fail to answer one of Kelekian’s questions he commiserates with Vivian about the inadequacies of students. Vivian is “delighted” to be addressed thus.

The questioning over, the fellows leave, but Kelekian stops Jason and reminds him, “Clinical.” Jason then thanks Vivian, and then he and Kelekian leave her “with her stomach uncovered.” Vivian gets up and muses on the detailed examinations she receives, and the cycles of her treatment. She says she has been looking up the medical terms the doctors use, because she has always treated words “with respect.” She then recalls the exact hour that she “knew words would be [her] life’s work.”