Tennessee Williams play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is a story that captures a family with problems hidden behind many lies. The setting of the story on a plantation farm in Mississippi on Big Daddy’s, the Father of the main characters, beautiful estate. Each character in the play desires something completely different. The focus is going to be on Maggie the so called “Cat. ” Maggie is driven to have the perfect life with her husband, Brick, and wanted children on her father-in-laws beautiful estate she wishes to inherit.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” begins with Brick taking a bath and with Maggie whining about how Mae and Gooper’s children have been performing for Big Daddy and this has continually reminded her of her childless state. She believes that Mae and Gooper are trying to gain favor form from Big Daddy now that he has been diagnosed with cancer. The two families have been eyeing the family estate and since only one of these families can inherit it, they are both trying to out do each other in winning favor from Big Daddy.
However, Brick’s incessant drinking has not been helping the situation. Similarly, Big Daddy and Brick’s relationship has also been strained by the fact that Brick had injured his ankle and he had dropped sports casting and playing professional football. Big Daddy has never let go of the fact that Brick dropped his professionally cut out career to indulge in beer. Maggie (also referred to as Maggie the Cat) is Brick’s wife who comes from a poor family. From the beginning of the play we already know she is looking to be wealthy instead of poor.
John O’Connor says, “Maggie also lives in a separate world, one in which she wants never again to be “disgustingly poor” (O’Connor 2) Most people would rather be wealthy than poor. For people who are born into wealth they do not understand how life may be harder if you do not have assets to live comfortably. If you are poor the natural desire to want more for yourself is common as seen through Maggie’s character. Maggie had managed to escape childhood poverty and she had gotten married into the Pollitt’s family which was one of the wealthiest families in Mississippi.
However, she is not fulfilled in her marriage and she wants Brick to have the same desires that she does. The family is well aware of the fact that Brick and Maggie have not had a sexual relationship for a long time. Judith Newmark says, “Maggie is frustrated by his indifference to her genuine hunger for him and also is terrified that his behavior will cause his wealthy, power-crazed, physically ill father, Big Daddy, to leave them penniless” (Newmark 1). Now that Brick is an alcoholic he does not want anything in life besides “The Click” (Taylor that James C. Taylor describes.
The Click” is the feeling he gets when he is too drunk to think straight. He is an aging football fan who annoys Maggie further by seemingly ignoring the intentions of his brother to acquire the right to control the family’s fortune. Brick has a huge impact on Maggie’s life because life style he once would have lived, before he became an alcoholic, could have provided her with what she was looking for. Brick is an alcoholic because his best friend Skipper died. “Once the Southern football hero, as an almost totally defeated man, more obsessed with the relationship he had with his dead friend Skipper than with the marriage he has with Maggie.
Projecting the “charm of the defeated,” Brick has retreated into an alcoholic haze and shows not the slightest interest in Maggie as she prowls about their bedroom plotting to save their marriage” (O’Connor 1). Brick’s obsession with Skipper allows us to believe Brick is homosexual and he has an emotional attachment of love towards Skipper. Another reason Brick drinks is because Maggie cheated on him with Skipper. Linda Armstrong makes a good point when she says, “Maggie is an attractive woman, who has to endure being married to a man who will not touch her, a man who is disgusted to look at her ecause of a single act of betrayal she committed. The act she committed was so heinous that it also contributed to Brick beginning to drink alcohol (Armstrong 1).
Even though Brick does not show any feelings towards Maggie her ambition for living a perfect life blinds her into thinking Brick still loves her. Big Daddy’s health is slowly taking his life that is why Maggie is so determined to inherit his land. One of the things in the way of this happening besides Brick’s lack of communication with his father is Gooper and Mae. Gooper is Brick’s brother and Mae is his wife and they share five children with a sixth on the way.
Gooper and Mae feel the same way Maggie does about the inheritance. Linda Armstrong makes Gooper and Mae’s roles in the story clear when she says “Gooper) and (Mae) are absolutely perfect in their roles as the money-grubbing son of Big Daddy and his money-hungry wife. Mae shoots pure venom whenever she speaks about Maggie being childless or Brick’s alcoholism and Gooper does not care if Big Daddy is dying, he just wants to make arrangements so he can get the 28,000 acres of rich land that Big Daddy has amassed in Mississippi” (Armstrong 2).
Maggie and Mae constantly arguing because they know only one of them will be willed the estate. Mae always nags on Maggie about being childless. Having children plays a large factor in inheritance reasons because the huge estate can be filled with a whole family instead of a corrupt couple. No matter what Mae says Maggie remains positive in convincing Brick they can inherit the plantation, in an AMC review they capture a great moment when Maggie says to Brick, “Big Daddy dotes on you, honey. And he just can’t stand Brother Man and Brother Man’s wife, that monster of fertility.
She’s downright odious to him. I can tell. Just like I can tell he likes me. That’s the second thing we got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down, over, he’s still got an eye for girls” (AMC 2). The entire family gathers one evening in the family farm in Mississippi, and Big Daddy attempts to reconcile with his son Brick. Maggie and Big Daddy confront Brick regarding the nature of his friendship with Skipper as his death seems to have further aggravated his drinking problem. Both Maggie and Big Daddy believe that Brick and Skipper, his best friend had a homosexual relationship.
Brick explains to his father that Maggie had been jealous of his close friendship with Skipper because she believed that there was a romantic undercurrent. Skipper in a bid to prove Maggie wrong took her to bed. However, Brick believes that Skipper did not actualize his intention and he began to question the nature of his friendship with Brick, and if he was actually homosexually. This confusion made him “lose it” and he resultantly committed suicide. During this dinner, the family had told Big Daddy that the doctor had given him a clean bill of health, but this was actually false.
Big Daddy had been diagnosed with cancer but his family did not want to tell him because it was his birthday and they did not want to ruin the mood. After the confrontation with his father, Brick is by the “mendacity” of the family and he decided to tell Big Daddy the truth about his health. He tells him that they falsified the truth to keep him happy. Big Daddy infuriated storms out of the room and goes out to meet the other members of his family. Gooper, Mae, Maggie, Brick and the family physician decided that they should tell Big Mama the truth about Big Daddy’s health.
She is devastated by the sad news and as Mae and Gooper start discussing the division of the family’s estate, Big Mama does not agree to the proposals that are being put forward by Mae and Gooper in a drafted will. Big Daddy lets known his wish to die peacefully. Big Mama calls for her “only son” Brick and she implores Maggie to help straighten Brick from his drinking problem so that he can inherit the land. Big Mama embraces Brick and implores him to provide Big Daddy with a grandson before his death. Suddenly, Maggie in an attempt to salvage the family estate from the hands of Mae and Gooper tells them that she is expectant.
Both Gooper and Mae know that this is a lie but Big Mama and Big Daddy believe her. Big Mama heads out to go and share the good news with Big Daddy who had already gone to bed. The play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” has the recurring theme of falsehood, untruths and mendacities, the biggest of them being the illness of Big Daddy and Maggie’s pregnancy. The family also believes that Brick had a homosexual relationship with Skipper and that is why he could not stop drinking after his death, but Brick has been strongly denying it.
Big Daddy also lies to his wife. There is a recurring line used by both Big Daddy and Brick, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if that was true” when their wives Big Mama and Maggie told them that they loved them. This phrase was also the last line of the play, after Maggie told Brick that she loved him. Brick believes that Maggie is only after the family fortune and her escapade with Skipper has made Brick resent her strongly. We never truly find out if Maggie receives what she desires, bu the end of the play leads us to believe she does.
