Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof represents a title of a brilliant play composed by Tennessee William, an American playwright. The play focuses on a non-adaptive southern family that is pushed by life to handle concealed deceit and hypocrisy. The issues presented in this play transcend time and realm. William has succeeded in producing a modern tragedy which looks into the consequences of social change, human heart deception and portrayal of the ordinary tragedies that are faced by ordinary people in a dynamic world.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Generally, the play emphasizes tragedy in contemporary troubles such as alcoholism, mendacity, regret, betrayal, bitterness, greed, cancer and death. The play also explores homosexuality and infidelity which in part, play a role in bringing these terrible and sorrowful events. Cat on a Tin Roof is, arguably, A Tragedy. Yet, t his is a somewhat a vague term; broad, certainly. This essay aims to discuss â€Å"tragedy† as presented in various ways in the play. Kolin argues that, the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with its classic antecedents, share a basic principle: â€Å"Man is not the master of his soul. The great decisions are made by forces beyond control (1)†. In the play, superior forces that the characters fight against are biological, social, psychological and economic. As the play commences, one observes that there seems to be lack of communication among the characters as they appear to be suffering from lonesomeness. Tennessee looks to be leery of the alterations in the social measures and household unit dissolution resulting from social and global modifications. This is a fear that is reflected by Big Daddy’s phrase; â€Å"Sometimes I think that a vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with†(122). This basically means that emergence an d development is in accordance with nature but the result brought about by the change is often damaging and unanticipated. Big Daddy, as a matter of fact is an American Dream embodiment and via his character. Tennessee depicts how the society of America has made a sacrifice of all values in the name of the most appealing value in the globe; money. Ambition has an atrocious aspect, and Big Daddy is an achiever in the world of business, but a failure in some other facets. As a human, he has gone wrong by concentrating his small empire upon himself rather than becoming sensitive to the opinions and demands of his family. He acts as though money were his mere value as a man, as evidenced by this; â€Å"Y’know how much I’m worth? Guess Brick! Guess how much I’m worth!† His being a failure in other aspects and a sorrowful character is by itself a form of tragedy (Kolin 122).† A conspicuous battle ensues in Big Daddy as he makes an effort as a father, to m ake advances Brick just as a caring dad goes up to his son, revealing his inmost affection and anxiety. The struggle is betwixt his great affection for his boy and his finding the facts, and the mindset of his miserable upbringing by which the dad was normally a removed and an unreachable figure.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The stage directions of the play hints this; â€Å"glancing quickly, shyly, from time to time, at his son†, â€Å"pressing his head quickly, shyly against his son’s head, then coughing with embarrassment†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this implies that he is embarrassed to display affection, which displays a form of tragedy within himself (Kolin 134). Via the difficulties experienced by Brick and his father to freely converse about the matter, deficiency in message conveyance is exhibited thus resulting to desolation and closing off. The two men continu ously talk while saying nothing of importance and not paying attention to each other at all, as pointed out by Brick’s speech; â€Å"We talk, you talk in circles! We get nowhere, nowhere!† (124) Big Daddy is however determined to converse with his son and he says, â€Å"Don’t let’s- leave it like this, like them other talks we’ve had†¦it’s always like something was left not spoken†. To some extent, the two men are tragic characters. At the earlier stages of the play, there is a family gathering aimed at celebrating the patriarch sixth-fifth birthday of Big Daddy when they barely discover that he had cancer and they start to quarrel and finally had to deal with many other prevarications and hypocrisy in their livings. The destiny of Big Daddy is determined by cancer for which he battles his life against. Meanwhile, Mae and Gooper compete against Maggie for the inheritance that insures economic security in the materialistic society apathetic to the needs of the poor. Big daddy has never made a will and now he is on the brink of dying thus he might end up having inheritance disputes within his family (Kolin 127). The tragedy of existence makes the troubles of Brick to look petty. Brick’s troubles however, are directly associated to the reality that exalted him at one time and he so much adored that he took on its entire preconception. When he had grown old and imperfect, the very world dropped him as a hot brick. At once the reality sickened him, and was displeased for becoming its part, and therefore he set himself apart. Contrariwise, Big Daddy learned to assume the untruthfulness of living, and this hard-boiled and made him misanthropic. Brick attempts to define himself either as homo or heterosexual. Simultaneously, as an idealistic individual, he tries to wage war with a realistic society of America (Kolin 122).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof specifical ly for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Brick has become unhappy, unemotional, detached and hard to get on with ever since the death of his friend Skipper. He becomes a drunk and nobody, not even Maggie, his wife, could make him happy. He badly misses Skipper and blames himself on what happened to his friend thence sees alcohol as the only remedy to his sorrow. The reason why Brick is very bitter toward life is that he feels there are lies all over in his life which are impossible to get away from. He believes that his wife betrayed him with his closest friend, Skipper. Moreover, everybody was lying about the condition of his father and his family including his brother, are doing all that is possible to make sure that they inherit his father’s fortune after he passes on. With all this occupying his mind, he finds it best to become unemotional and detach himself from his entire family and life. He supposes that if he drinks into oblivion each da y of his life, then it will come to pass or he will have nothing to deal with at the least. From his past happy life, Bricks life turned into hell- it had an unhappy ending which brings in the definition of tragic. Due to him not responding to his friend’s call for help, Skipper died leading to his tragic end (Kolin 122-126). Another victim who suffers tragedy is Maggie, Bricks wife. She is constantly rejected by her husband who is supposed to love and comfort her as a soul mate; therefore she suffers that tragedy of rejection and loneliness. When Maggie complains about the trail that their marriage is taking, Brick coldly tells her to have an outside affair if she so wished to have sexual satisfaction. He goes on to tell her that they only shared a roof because she wanted to and had agreed to do so only in name, â€Å"I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to! Now, you keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.† Such t reatment is inappropriate regarding the reality that they were man and wife; hence Maggie continually suffered silently. Maggie on her part is unwilling to go out and have an affair. She opts to remain â€Å"a cat on a hot tin roof† till her husband appreciates her. While being angry and frustrated with the entire situation, she hopes that her husband would change for the better. She does not seem to matter to Brick at all as he becomes bitter and cold toward her and is amazed that Maggie could actually want to bear child with a man who does not love her (Kolin 123). This is truly a tragedy in that it is an unhappy event in life. Families are perhaps the most difficult to understand in human relationships. In the play, they seem to lend themselves towards tragedy naturally. Tennessee’s family greed tragedy is encountered when the news of Big Daddy’s illness is learned of. Mae and Gooper want to gain Big Daddy’s favor and they aim to achieve this by discre diting Maggie and Brick. They claim that they have five kids with the sixth one on the way while Brick and Maggie do not have any (Kolin 128-130).Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This way, they are trying to impersonate that the estate of Big Daddy will be in good hands with the responsible family members, â€Å"Suspicious of her greedy, prolific relatives who have produced five grandchildren for Big Daddy, she explains to him why they have assembled – to battle over the vast inheritance of the 28,000 acre Mississippi cotton plantation/estate†¦ (131)† The two form a team of public relations, blandishing Big Daddy as they tear down their contenders at every opportunity. They always take caution in maintaining their polite and civilized appearance while betraying Big Daddy’s back. Doctor Baugh and Reverend Tooker also portray the same traits as Mae and Gooper while hoping to be included in the will (Kolin 122). The characters’ stories in the play is in reality a mere means through which Tennessee delivers his message and captures the volatile depth of feelings experienced by groups of people during times of crises. Tragedy, bas ically defined as an unhappy ending of an event or a sorrowful character with a disastrous conclusion, has been dealt with by Tennessee in his play. The discussed fateful events can be summarized as; the rich Big Daddy who is now facing a terminal illness and a broken family, Brick who once valued and enjoyed life but has turned to an alcoholic due to his friend’s death, Maggie who hopes to be loved and treated well by her husband but all is in vain, and finally Mae and Gooper who hope to acquire the inheritance. They have been pushed to battle for the inheritance by their economic situation, thus it is unfortunate that they do not possess enough wealth given the fact that they have many children. Conclusively, the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is indeed a play filled with tragedy. Works Cited Williams, Tennessee. Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance. Trans. Philip Kolin. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998. Print This essay on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was written and submitted by user Wyatt Gibson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The fundamentals of the play While discussing Tennessee Williams’s play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I would like to highlight some fundamentals of the author’s work. First of all, I would like to point out that at the first time the play seems to be easy to read; however, it is only the first impression. Generally, there are a lot of complicated themes the author discloses in the play.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In my opinion, all the works written by Tennessee Williams reflect some biographical data. For instance, everybody knows that the playwright’s father was an adventurous and an alcoholic, and his mother was a submissive, but hysterical woman. So, how these facts can be interpreted? First of all, I have to admit that these data have direct relation to the plot of the play. While reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it becomes obvious that one of the main characters, Brick was an alcoholic. When speaking about the author’s relations with his mother, one can make a conclusion that feminist aspects must be considered in depth. Of course, nobody will deny the fact that the play is based on the author’s personal experience. The author reflected his inner world and the feelings he experienced when being a child. The thesis statement The major themes the author discloses in his plays are related to sexual violence, family and financial constraints. When speaking about Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one is to keep in mind that the key aspects Tennessee Williams highlights are associated with â€Å"undertones of emotional, sexual, and spiritual need that are apparent in his character Maggie the Cat† (Fellows 1). The basic points of an analysis According to the plot of the play, Brick doesn’t support any relations with his wife; this point gives us an opportunity to suppose that lack of desire by husband a nd Maggie’s social standing can be explained by the time period in which Tennessee Williams’s play was written. To my mind, one of the key themes of the play is considered to be absence of mutual respect and support.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It is obvious throughout the script of the play that everyone has their own agenda in the family, and no one is really there to support each other as a normal family should be† (â€Å"Cat On a Hot Tin Roof: Plot and Theme† par. 3). The first family, which includes Brick and Margaret, is not rich; moreover, Brick aggravates financial situation in his family. The second family, which includes Gooper and Mae, is selfish. The most interesting fact, however, is that nobody wants to become a real family. Nobody understands what the term unity means and how important this word for both families.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More On th e other hand, it seems that the author added some elements of humor in his play. Thus, it is really funny to observe how hostile all characters are. Although, it seems that Tennessee Williams’s humor was not healthy, unfortunately†¦The fact that all characters are against each other is not comical, anyway. In Cat, Maggie probably does love Brick, Big Mama probably does love Big Daddy, and Brick loves Skipper and Big Daddy as surely as they have loved him. Yet the lies separating those who would love are not easily vanquished. In this web of familial, fraternal and marital relationships, Williams finds only psychic ruin, as terminal as Big Daddy’s cancer and as inexorable as the greed that is devouring the romantic Old South (Crandell 124).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In my opinion, it is uncertainty in family relationships which brough t fatal consequences. On the other hand, it is not a secret that psychological support is one of the most important things people need to be happy. In spite of the fact that Gooper and Mae were selfish for the wealth and had established jobs they were not happy. They had normal home setting; however, they lost the most important thing in family relations – they didn’t respect the strongest feeling in the world. On the contrary, they didn’t understand what they lost and what their real trouble was. Another important theme of the play I would like to touch on is homosexuality. Taking into account the time period in which the play was written (1955), one can suppose that the second theme seems to be hidden. On the one hand, there is nothing unusual that Brick and Skipper were best friends. However, one is to keep in mind that they were extremely close friends and Brick’s wife became jealous because of such friendship. â€Å"It is obvious Brick does not appr eciate the devotion of Maggie. He is in a state of denial about life (and his possible sexual orientation and attraction to Skipper) and has degraded Maggie since the beginning of the relationship† (Fellows 1). So, again feminist aspect takes place. There many critical articles concerning the play Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. In my opinion, the author reflects the conflict of the personality; so, a person’s inner problems and isolations caused unstable family relations. Thus, there is a need to remember the author’s childhood and the time period when he acquired poor social skills and most of his peers referred to him as ‘Miss Nancy’ (Londre 20). The conclusion Unfortunately, the driving force the main characters rely on is recognized to be some kind of lie. For instance, Mae and Gooper who are selfish for wealth lie not only to each other, but to other people who surround them. Of course, their lie is related to their affection for Big Mama’s husba nd. Moreover, it is evident that they neglect the fact that Big Daddy hates all their children and doesn’t like Gooper. On the other hand, Big Daddy can’t understand the basic reasons of the so-called pretence. Taking into account the previous paragraph, I suppose that another important theme of the author’s play is considered to be the conflict between honesty and lie. This is a global theme, and in some way, one can call the theme unique, as it existed at all times.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Generally, I think Tennessee Williams is really a psychologist. He reveals the truth, the brutal reality and discloses helplessness of other characters. Let’s consider one of the examples: BIG MAMA: You don’t mean that! BIG DADDY: What makes you think I don’t mean it? BIG MAMA: I just know you don’t mean it. BIG DADDY: You don’t know a goddam thing and you never did! BIG MAMA: Big Daddy, you don’t mean that (Williams 77). This dialogue shows us that Big Daddy’s wife has no arguments to prove her thoughts or ideas. She doesn’t want to accept her husband’s brutality and denies his words. All the characters do the same; unfortunately, they can’t be honest and destroy their lives with their own hands. Works Cited â€Å"Cat On a Hot Tin Roof: Plot and Theme.† The Pennsylvania State University. Web. Crandell, George W., ed. The Critical Response to Tennessee Williams. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. Questia. Web. Fellows, Niki. Feminist Analysis of â€Å"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof†, n.d. Web. Londre, Hardison. Tennessee Williams. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishers, 1979. Print Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1955. Print This essay on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was written and submitted by user Gianna Rosales to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.