Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a popular play written by Tennessee Williams that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. This play is based on one of Tennessee Williams’ previous short stories titled “Three Players of a Summer Game.” The drama is a three-act play that starts, continues, and ends in a single bedroom. It is set in a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta. Williams won his first Pulitzer Prize for his play A Streetcar Named Desire, and this was his second one. The major theme of the play includes mendacity or falsehood, and unrequited love. Sexual frustration and homosexuality remain the hidden theme.
Characters:
Brick Pollitt is a good-looking handsome married man with a cool attitude marked with aloofness. His good looks win love and favor for him from all including his parents and his beautiful wife Margaret also called Maggie. However, he is unable to reciprocate their love. Maggie continues to try and win Brick’s affection but fails and suffers unrequited love. Maggie is a vivacious woman who deeply loves her husband but fails to win his love. She is desperate to get Brick not only for her own satisfaction but also to make a claim on the fortunes of the Pollitt family for which she needs an heir. Big Daddy is the father of Brick and he is also as impressive and aloof,. Big Mama is Brick’s mother and like Magie, she also fails to win her husband’s approval. While Big Daddy is suffering a prolonged illness, Big Mama is taking care of the plantation and businesses. Big Daddy is a cancer patient however, he and his wife Big Mama do not know about his cancer and that he is near his death. Gooper is Brick’s elder brother and Mae is his wife. Gooper is jealous of Brick the favorite child of their parents. However, Gooper and Mae have children and Gooper tries to take control of Pollitt's estate. Mae continues to taunt Maggie for her barrenness. Dr. Baugh is the family doctor. He is sensitive and intelligent. He allows Brick and Gooper to make their own decision about when and whether to tell Big Mama and Big Daddy about the patriarch's terminal condition. Skipper is a dead friend of Brick who committed suicide.
Summary:
At the Pollitt mansion, everybody is busy preparing to celebrate Big Daddy Pollitt's 65th birthday. Big Daddy is being ill for a long time and except for him and his wife Big Mama, everybody in the family knows that he is suffering from cancer and may soon die. The family has avoided telling him or Big Mama the truth, to avoid any shock to them. Meanwhile, Gooper and his wife Mae are trying to gain control over Pollitt's estate as Big Daddy hasn’t made any will yet, and while they have children, the younger brother Brick and his wife Maggie are yet to have offspring. They are planning on letting him know later that night, right after he blows out the candles.
Maggie and Brick are in their bedroom. Maggie chides Brick for his foolish behavior as last night, he broke his leg while trying to jump hurdles at the school track. She blames it on his constant state of drunkenness. However, her attitude is not that of argumentation or fighting, rather, she is trying to please and seduce Brick. We learn that Brick hasn’t had any physical relationship with Maggie for a long time and this has strained their marriages. Maggie wants Brick to sleep with her so that she may get pregnant and give birth to a potential heir of the Pollit estate. Maggie belongs to a poor family and she is extremely afraid of poverty. She knows about the cancer of Big Daddy and that he hasn’t made any will. So she wants to be pregnant to make sure that she and Brick have a secure place in Big Daddy's will. To do so, however, she must contend with Brick's brother Gooper and his wife's children.
Brick not only remains uninterested in Maggie’s effort, he says that he is disgusted with Maggie and he has no interest in Pollitt's estate. He has been this aloof since the death of his close friend Skipper.
He and Skipper were best friends. However, Maggie always felt that their relationship is much more than that. She noticed that brick prefers to spend more time with Skipper than her. Brick often used to show disinterest in her. She felt that Brick and Skipper were homosexually involved and she confronted Skipper about it. Skipper denied his homosexual inclinations and to prove Maggie wrong, he forced a physical relationship with her. However, deep within, Skipper did love Brick the way Maggie believed he loved him. Thus, Maggie and Skipper both deeply loved Brick while Brick didn’t return any of the two’s love in the manner they wished. Maggie and Skipper continued to make love with each other instead of Brick. This created a dilemma for Skipper and he soon began self-destructing. He was having an affair with the wife of the man whom he actually loved. Soon he committed suicide. His suicide turned brick towards alcohol because deep within, he too loved Skipper.
While the two are having their arguments, more people in the family join them. Everyone but Big Daddy and Big Mama know that Big Daddy is dying, but he and his wife were told by the doctor that he just had a spastic colon. Tonight, the sons will tell their mother the truth.
In the evening, after celebrating the birthday, the older couple is left alone. Big Daddy is cruel to Big Mama, who insists that she loves him even though he doesn't believe her. They appear like an older version of Brick and Maggie. Big Daddy is frustrated that she has taken charge of the estate since he became sick, but now that he knows that his days are no longer numbered (he thinks he is going to be fine) he is going to take it all back and return Big Mama to her place.
Big Daddy reveals that he is concerned about Brick’s alcoholism. As Big Mama leaves, Big Daddy calls Brick to talk to him. The father tries his best to engage Brick in a conversation but Brick is not interested. He says that he never had any interest in Big Mama and he is thinking of taking a young mistress. He openly shows that he has a great deal of affection for Brick but brick remains uninterested.
He tries to coerce his son into admitting why he drinks, eventually stealing his crutch and knocking him to the ground. Soon Brick admits to revealing the truth. He informs that it is all because of Skipper. The night that Skipper made a physical relationship with Maggie, Skipper called Brick and tried to make an admission. As Skipper admitted that he is in love with Brick, Brick hung up on him, because he was entirely incapable of even allowing the possibility of homosexuality into his outlook. It is this disgust with himself and with his world and his knowledge about Skipper sleeping with Maggie that drove Brick to alcohol.
As he is forced to reveal his truth and shame, he reveals the truth about Big Daddy’s cancer and that he won’t be living long. Big Daddy leaves, upset, and the rest of the family enters. With difficulty, Big Mama is told that Big Daddy has cancer, although she refuses to believe it at first. She tells Maggie that Brick has to get his act together so that he can take care of the estate when Big Daddy is gone. However, Gooper and Mae aren’t happy about this. They produce legal papers that would establish a will favorable to their interests. Gooper tells Big Mamma that it will be in the best interest of the family as Brick is always drowned in alcohol while Maggie is barren. To this, Maggie objects and claims that she is pregnant and is expecting a child soon. Her brother- and sister-in-law don't believe her for a second, but Big Mama rejoices in the good news and leaves to tell Big Daddy.
Maggie and Brick are left alone. He says she was very bold to make that lie, but Maggie intends to turn the lie into truth. She takes away Brick's liquor and says that she will not get him any more drinks until he consents to sleep with her. Big Mama runs in, searching for the morphine that the doctor left for Big Daddy as he is suffering pain. She leaves, and as the play ends, Maggie tells Brick that she loves him as Brick wonders "wouldn't it be funny if that were true?"
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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