Of the plays we have discussed and read over, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the most realistic and powerful, but also the least enjoyable. A lack of enjoyment does not mean a lack of greatness; this play was great. What I mean is, this play didn’t promote good feelings, and if I was to go see it I wouldn’t be able to see it again afterwards. Each character was whiny and conniving, and honest despite maintaining a web of lies between eachother. It was the honesty and lack of pretense that made Cat on a Hot Tin Roof so real and so repulsive. Sometimes plays are not meant to entertain. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was meant to share the cynicism of its playwright and shock the audience into reassessing themselves and their motives. The whole play takes place …show more content…
in Brick and Maggie’s bedroom at Big Daddy’s house for Big Daddy’s birthday. Brick was an exceptional football athlete and almost played professionally if not for a back injury. He had just broken his leg exercising before the play. During the play he is an alcoholic and drinks, as he says, because of one word, “DISGUST (Williams, 432).” His wife, Maggie, spends the whole time conniving and complaining. She was born poor and is trying to win the favor of Big Daddy so that Brick, and ultimately her, gain inheritance when Big Daddy dies. Big Daddy has cancer, and the family had decided to withhold that information from Big Daddy and Big Mama, in order to keep them from worrying. Brick and Maggie withhold from the family their broken marriage. The play ends with the family telling Big Daddy and Big Mama that Big Daddy has cancer, and the whole family fights about who should get the inheritance. I have always thought of humanity as having two different realities: what is normal, and what is true.
Sometimes these two merge, and most people are a combination of normality, and logical principles. For example, in the play, Maggie and rest of the family (minus Big Daddy and Brick) get caught up in the political circus that ensues Big Daddy getting cancer, and try to win the favor of Big Daddy for his inheritance. During the time of the play, and even now, this was and is normal. Money normally drives people to kowtow to powerful owners of money. However, it’s not truly realistic to do that. Brick does not attempt in the slightest to gain Big Daddy’s money, and Big Daddy only attends to Brick. Big Daddy even says to Brick, “You I do like for some reason, did always have some kind of real feelin’ for-affection-respect (Williams, 433).” Brick’s not trying to deceive Big Daddy, and he’s not concealing an ulterior motive in false affection. He’s being true to himself, which in the play isn’t normal. This play exaggerates the normal minded people, and the truthfully minded people, so that there is contrast (Big Daddy is both keeping a façade of normality, and being true to himself). So then, if Maggie and the family are acting normal, and Brick is acting truthfully then, who is
broken? Ironically, it is not the drunken cripple who is broken in this play. Tennessee Williams portrays Brick as an outcast, but in reality it’s because he’s exceptional. Being crippled, drunk, depressed or homosexual does not make someone broken, and at the time of the play there was inequality and oppression against anyone who was not like the family, because they were considered broken. In true reality however, it’s people like Maggie, and the family that are broken. None of them can gain a new perspective, and none of them are true to themselves. I believe that you are only broken if you cannot think for yourself. Maggie and the family spend all of their time trying to curry favor, as if they were animals. They desperately try to beat a dead horse in order to get what they want, even if they can tell that it’s not working. They were never successful and only leeched onto greater people than themselves. They followed the normal, riskless, path through life and failed. That is unless they get the inheritance. Something’s only broken if it fails, and even if it’s fixed it won’t be the same. Maggie and the family are broken because they are failing themselves and eachother. Brick may not be fully functional, but at least because he is himself, he’s not broken.
My least favorite aspect of this play was the ending. The ending confused me and was anticlimactic. It was not funny and not entertaining at all.
...od out because he used charm and just the book to advance in the company. I think young adults and adults who are into economics, how companies work or even realistic plays would like the production that was put. It was simple and gave across a clear point. I think that people who grew up in the sixties and worked during the time period would enjoy the play. I feel that they would have a different understanding of it because they grew up in the time period and lived through what was going. Over all the play head a straight forward point that in my opinion put J. Pierrepont Finch as the protagonist because everything revolved around him, he had a simple objective and every set or choice he made effect something or someone. Whereas the antagonist was reaching high positions in the company because that was the main thing that was in Finch is way at achieving his goal.
In these five paragraphs I will be writing about the book “Hotel on the Corner of Sweet and Bitter” written by Jamie Ford and five quotation that important and made up the theme for me. This book gives a feel a lot of different emotions. The first quote was “‘You are Chinese aren’t you,Henry? That’s fine. Be who you are, she said, turning away, a look of disappointment in her eyes. “But I’m an American’’(p. 60). This quote is important because it shows how Keiko believes even if her parents are Japanese she feels more American then Japanese since she barely spoke Japanese.
The movie Neighbors (2014) is about a family, Mac, Kelly and their new born daughter, who are settling into a quiet neighborhood until a fraternity moves into the house next door. The fraternity keeps the couple up at night because they are being to loud which ultimately leads to a ‘war’ between the couple and the fraternity. Each of the main characters are trying to prove that they have more power and establish their male dominance over one another. This paper will highlight the masculinities and place emphasis on the main male characters in this movie, the father, Mac, and the fraternity president, Teddy.
The character I chose to analyze is Bonnie Grape from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, an American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström. Bonnie Grape is a Caucasian woman who is, approximately, in her mid 50’s and lives in a small town of Endora, Iowa with her four children, and has lost her husband seven years ago. Bonnie who is suppose to be the immediate care taker of all of her kids is shown to have abandoned all of her parental duties after her husbands passing and she hasn’t left the house for seven years. She has become completely housebound she sleeps, eats, and stays on the couch all day. Her day starts out with eating breakfast with the family, and then she watches TV all day. Even though she loves her children a lot, but she does not take any part in raising them. She also has become an object of ridicule or amusement many times children sneak on to the yard to catch a glimpse of her through the window. However, Bonnie sees no problem with her weight or her lifestyle, until one day when she has to make a trip to the town for her son. When Bonnie is leaving the town a crowd comes together around the police station to get a glimpse of Bonnie, and many also begin taking pictures of her. At this point, Bonnie realizes that she has become something that she never intended to be. In one particular scene Bonnie tells her oldest son Gilbert “I know what a burden I am. I know that you are ashamed of me. I never meant to be like this. I never wanted to be a joke” (Hallström, 1993). From Bonnie’s background information we can conclude that she is clearly facing some psychological problems, and in order to gain more information we would have to conduct more assessments.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
In order to climb up the ladder of society, people oppress those characteristics that lead them to failure. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, homosexuality was seeing as a mental disease of the human race. Homosexuals did not fit in the schema of the American family. Tennessee Williams, in his play “The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof”, shows the effects of society´s views on homosexuals through the main character Brick. In addition to Williams´ play, the theatrical work, “Doubt” by John Shanley, also depicts the struggles that an African American kid undergoes in order to suppress his sexuality. Both plays show two characters in different social classes and from different races trying to survive the denial of society towards their sexual orientation. Through their oppression by male hegemony and with the help of the maternal figure in each play, both Brick and Donald struggle to overcome their fear of acceptance.
Lies and Mendacity run rampant in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. They help keep the play going and keep it interesting. The play shows us the lies that people tell themselves and other instead of the truth that is hard to accept but must be said.
Usually in novels grappling with identity crisis, there is a downfall like for Brick’s struggle to be true to his sexual identity in Tennessee Williams’s play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It was in a time when America did not tolerate same sex relationships, so each character acted in accordance with the sexual identity given to their genders. For Seymour, he is heavily praised like some kind of God for his...
The “Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams shows a family facing economic and social hardships due to the father abandoning them. The father’s absence forces the rest of the family to fill roles that they wouldn’t be obliged to face if the father remained. The mother, Amanda, is a strong single mother who pushes her kids to be economically self-sustaining individuals. Amanda tries to impose her desires for her kids in a very direct and controlling manner which causes them to dislike her initiatives. The son, Tom, is the breadwinner for the family, however is dissatisfied with his situation due to his increased responsibilities. The daughter, Laura, is handicapped and dropped out of business school. Each member of the family is limited by their ability to grow out of their negative habits, however, it is likely that these habits or characteristics came from the family situation and the roles that each member was forced to fill.
One reason that this play is well known is because many of the characters are identifiable with ourselves. Willy is a burnt-out businessman with no special talents or qualities. Linda is a kind and dedicated housewife, but she has not accomplished anything noteworthy. Biff has a habit of theft and a number of pent-up frustrations. Happy tries to smooth out the tensions in the family, but he is also unsatisfied. The only “successful” major character in the play is Bernard, but even he was considered “liked, but not well-liked” by the Lomans when he was young. There are not any heroes or bad guys in the play. The characters are all very human, and very flawed.
Dorothy Johnson in “A Man Called Horse” writes about a young man who was born and raised in Boston. He lives in a gracious home under his grandmothers and grandfather’s loving care. For some reason, he is discontent. He leaves home to try to find out the reason for his discontent. Upon leaving he undergoes a change in status and opinion of himself and others. He begins a wealthy young man arrogant and spoiled, becomes a captive of Crow Indians- docile and humble, and emerges a man equal to all.
Alistair Deacon from As Time Goes By once said that, “The people in the book need to be people.” The main character in a story or in a play always has to be somewhat likeable or relatable. Who doesn’t like to feel like they can relate to their favorite character in a story? In many cases the authors of stories or books always try to make the reader feel like they are not the only ones with problems or going through a crazy situation. Wanting the reader to become engaged in the characters' conflicts is what they aim for. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, many people were gripped by Willy Loman’s, the main character, problems because they too struggle with many of the conflicts that Willy faces. Willy could not keep his life together, failing to see reality and pursuing the wrong dream, with a wrong viewpoint, ended up causing others around him and himself to hurt.
Dramatic Devices in Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof "Williams instinctively understands the loneliness of a human being - his or her constant and desperate attempt that is to escape the reality that is there loneliness and their subsequent failure to do so". Williams portrays this loneliness to an audience through the spatial distances on stage between characters, which is suggested in the stage direction. " Margaret is alone". It is also emphasised through symbolism and the dialogue between characters. Big Mama accuses Margaret of not satisfying Brick in bed and of Brick's break down.
Tennessee Williams's 1955 play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is separated into a three-act structure. The play has become a common play that is commonly revitalized in 1955 the play was debut on Broadway and was reenacted into a film in 1958 and many more broadway plays afterwards. One of the major broadway revivals in particular, is the 2008 play in Broadhurst Theatre that took Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, to a different interpretation and meaning for future plays that was directed by Debbie Allen.