The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

In one flashback early in the play, Vivian describes the moment she fell in love with words and language. She was sitting with her father, Mr. Bearing, and reading Beatrix Potter's book The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. She stumbles over the word "soporific," and Mr. Bearing explains that it means "makes you sleepy." Vivian is then delighted to see that in the book, the illustration accompanying the passage bears out the truth of this word-the picture shows bunnies asleep. "Because of soporific!" the young Vivian exclaims. Then, towards the end of the play, E. M. Ashford, Vivian's graduate school mentor, visits Vivian in the hospital, and she happens to bring along a children's book-The Runaway Bunny-that she bought as a gift for her great-grandson. At first, E. M. offers to recite some Donne poems to Vivian, but Vivian (who is on morphine and barely coherent) refuses. Instead, E. M. reads from The Runaway Bunny, a simplistic story about a bunny who wants to run away from home.