Genre
Drama
Language
English
Setting and Context
1995 - Unnamed University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator is Vivian, and her point-of-view is also central.
Tone and Mood
Dramatic, Serious, Humorous
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is Vivian. Antagonist is Jason.
Major Conflict
Vivan is diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and chooses to undergo an experimental chemo treatment.
Climax
The chemo doesn't kill off the cancer in Vivian's body, it spreads until it eventually takes her life.
Foreshadowing
Vivian tells the audience she will be dead by the end of the play. This foreshadows...well, her death.
Understatement
It is understated that Ashford is still alive until she arrives at the end of the play.
Allusions
The play is an allusion to how living one's life is the greatest study of poetry, and the dangers of losing oneself in an academic career pursuit.
Imagery
Vivian reaching towards the light after shedding her hospital gowns creates the image of shedding the burdens of life and entering the freedom of eternity.
Paradox
Vivian is a scholar of Donne's Holy Sonnets; paradoxically, when given the chance to listen to one of his sonnets on her death bed, she begs Ashford not to do so.
Parallelism
The scene with Vivian and her father where she reads The Runaway Bunny is paralleled when Dr. Ashford comes in to read the same book to Vivian on her death bed.
Personification
Jason becomes the personification of sterility in the medical community towards patients when he attempts to resuscitate Vivian when she is DNR.
Use of Dramatic Devices
Vivian breaks the fourth wall to address the audience throughout the play as the narrator.
