Summary

Scene 15 (p. 74-78)

With Vivian unconscious, Jason and Susie insert a catheter to collect Vivian’s urine. The doctor describes how magnificent Vivian used to be, a great scholar and a superb lecturer with no notes. This didn’t make her any more popular with the students, though, as she was ascerbic. Susie says she’d expect a scholar of poetry would be ‘sort of dreamy’, but Jason explains Donne was challenging and intense. The content of the Holy Sonnets occupied themselves with what Jason has named Salvation Anxiety: Donne is both brilliant and aware he has sinned. He can seek salvation but under scrutiny, religion doesn’t stand up very well. Equally true, Donne can’t abandon religion. And his way of processing these dichotomies was to write these complex sonnets. The doctor defends both Donne’s work and his own, saying...