Hot Tin Roof Masculinity

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“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955) is a play written in the post-war period by Tennessee Williams. It opened at the Morosco Theatre in New York on March 24, 1955, and it was directed by Elia Kazan, a friend of Williams. The play belongs to Minimalism – a movement based on taking a picture at a moment in time – which Tennessee Williams understood as the best way to represent realism. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” focuses on the members of an Southern American family, specially on the younger son of the family and his wife, Brick and Maggie. The relationship between these characters is not as close as Maggie would like it to be, and that is mainly caused by Brick's behaviour after the death of his friend, Skipper. The aim of this essay is to explore how …show more content…

Brick's injury stops him from being able to be the breadwinner he is expected to be. Because of this, he is not seen as a real man but as a child. He is even described as such by Big Mama when she says that “Tonight Brick looks like he used to look when he was a little boy, just like he did when he played wild games and used to come home all sweaty and pink-cheeked and sleepy” (III. 156. 589-594), implying that Brick is not a man because he is not behaving as such. He is taking a passive role, which is what is expected of women, as opposed to an active one. Maggie, on the other hand, is being as active as she can be being a women, trying to do what she can to assure her and Brick inherit as much as they can from Big Daddy: “Born poor, raised poor, expect to die poor unless I manage to get us something out of what Big Daddy leaves when he dies of cancer!” (I.60) She is the person in the relationship that is fighting, working to earn money in her own way. Having Brick be the passive partner is revolutionary and an effective way to break patriarchial expectations of what it means to be a …show more content…

Once again addressing Brick as she would a child, Big Mama says to him “Here he is, here's my precious baby! What's that you've got in your hand? You put that liquor down, son, your hand was made fo' holdin' somethin' better than that!” (36). Here, a link between his lack of masculinity and his addiction can be found, a man is supposed to be strong and brave, he should not have to depend on alcohol to live peacefully, that is why he is not addressed as a man but as a kid. Moreso, Maggie does not think alcohol consumption is attractive. “I always thought drinkin' men lost their looks, but I was plainly mistaken. […] You're the only drinkin' man I know that it never seems t' put fat on. […] Well, sooner or later it's bound to soften you up.” (10). Despite it taking a while to have its effect on Brick's physique, she believes that he cannot perform his masculinity to the best of his ability, which makes a man unattractive. She even speaks of his dad who “[...] loved his liquor, he fell in love with his liquor […] And my poor Mama, having to maintain some semblance of social position, to keep appearances up, on an income of one hundred and fifty dollars a month on those old government bonds!” and Skipper who “[became] nothing at all but a receptacle for liquor and drugs” (28), suggesting how

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