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Critical analysis of cat on a hot tin roof
Critical analysis of cat on a hot tin roof
Critical analysis of cat on a hot tin roof
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“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is a very appropriate title for the story line. In the play, the title is a metaphor: it refers to someone who is doing something that is hurting him/her physically or emotionally. Dharanidhar Sahu believes that everyone has something to hide and this is why many characters could be the ‘cat’ that Tennessee Williams was referring to. This self-inflicting harm has to be done as a cat would. A cat would have to jump from one hot tin roof to another to get around quickly; they have the ability to jump off at any time and not burn their paws, but they still carry on. However, some cats like a hot tin roof because they are able to bask in the sun. This implies that the characters in the play, who feel like cats, may enjoy …show more content…
being in the situations they are in. In the play, the significance of the title is very important, as nearly all of the main characters could be labeled as a cat in a way. Maggie acts like this because she wants children, but Brick will not have them with her. Cats often walk across hot tin roofs to get to their companions who may live far away; this is, essentially, what Maggie is trying to do with Brick, and anticipating the result will be children. Maggie could be somewhat described as our title character, as she refers to herself as the Cat.
Brick and Maggie’s marriage is like tin because it conducts heat from the fiery arguments around it. This roof of a marriage is also tin-like because it is flimsy, and does not protect the couple, beneath it. The marriage can be seen as a fragile union. She proclaims to Brick, “I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.” Brick replies, “Then jump off.” Their marriage is hot because it is full of antagonism, animosity, and arguments usually incited by Brick, and it is also full of Maggie’s lust and sexual frustration. With that sexual frustration, one could say she is like a cat in heat. Each character alienates themselves in different ways and Maggie does so by lying (Sahu). Readers can assume that Maggie and Brick’s marriage is basically a lie, because Brick doesn’t really love Maggie, and Maggie made Brick marry her; Tin roofs seem far, far away from the lavish Pollitt mansion, and they remind readers of the miserable poverty away from which Maggie runs. She is looking at getting the mansion to secure herself under the non-tin roof of the Pollitt mansion. Maggie is also a fighter similarly to a stray cat. She states that her father was an alcoholic and that her mother made and sewed her clothes when she was growing up. When Maggie made her debut into southern society, she only had two dresses: a hand me down, and a home-made one by her …show more content…
mother. Much like Maggie, Mae could also be considered a cat on a hot tin roof. The family and the emotional fire that’s burning under the Pollitt roof is placing stress on her and Gooper as well. Maggie and Mae both want Big Daddy’s money, and are cunningly “squaring off on it, each other determined to knock off a bigger piece of it than the other” as Brick puts it (p.56). They are playing a game that is dangerous, but they play it because the end result would be Big Daddy’s inheritance. Mae asks Maggie, “Why are you so catty?” and Maggie replies “Because I’m a cat!” This shows that both women know who they are up against, which essentially is a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Maggie relates that Mae and Gooper watched big daddy “like hawks” while at dinner, implying that they are scavengers (Dukore). I disagree with Dukore as I would not so directly relate Mae and Gooper to hawks, but with a mountain lion stalking its prey. The title is significant in this context because it tells us what Maggie and Mae are feeling and how they both want Big Daddy’s inheritance. She constantly brings out her claws to fight with Maggie. Big Mama could also be described as a cat on a hot tin roof; she is an older version of Maggie (more hysterical, sloppy, needy). She is a short, overweight, vulgar but a sincere woman who wears expensive, flashy gems. She talks a lot and laughs a lot, mainly at herself. Much of this is an attempt to cover up the hurt she feels at her rejection by Big Daddy, who often makes cruel jokes at her expense. She loves her husband in spite of his cold attitude to her. Despite the adversity she faces, Big Mama tries to keep her family together. Her favorite son is Brick; she is aware that Gooper does not like his father, and she refuses to sign the papers he has prepared that would hand control of the plantation over to him and his wife.She loves both of her sons, but she cannot help but prefer Brick, who is so much like his father. Her outbursts are a willful effort to avoid the truth about Big Daddy’s health; she is more clever than she lets on, though not by much. She sees how bad her marriage to Big Daddy is, yet she still will not get out even with all of the emotional heat around her. The Pollitt men have a tendency to inspire love that cannot be required, including love that dare not speak its name. Maggie and Big Mama both love their husbands passionately and fruitlessly, as the husbands are incapable of returning their affections. Even among Pollitt men, Big daddy loves Brick, but Brick is too drunk to respond. The title “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is significant here because it flows and fits in with the theme.
In the play, the title is a metaphor: it refers to someone who is doing something that is hurting himself/herself physically or emotionally. Big Mama unquestionably is an older version of Maggie, yet more helpless and less independent. She loves her husband completely despite his spitefulness and indifference towards her. A cat would jump from one hot tin roof to another to get around; they can jump off at any time and not burn their paws, yet they still move along. Animal imagery is used throughout the play with Maggie saying the most in her dialogue. She refers to Mae and Goopers children as “no-neck monsters” and “pigs at a trough”. Not only does it show that the characters may be behaving like animals, but it also shows that the characters know the others are behaving wildly. Mae and Maggie are playing a game that is perilous, but they play it because the end result would be Big Daddy’s wealth. The play was written during the Cold War in March 1955 and amid much hostility between Russia and the United States. This play was not only written as a drama containing a feud between family members, but also as a testament to how Americans of that era felt. Williams, seeing the emotions of the time, saw people as though they were like a “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
”.
The narrator has two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee was this cute girl who was super intelligent and sophisticated. She often saw herself as being above her mother and sister and would often make them feel stupid and bad about themselves. "She used to read to us without pity, forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice". She shows that Dee enjoyed making her mother and younger sister feel dumb about themselves because it made her feel superior. Her whole life Dee detested her family and where she came from and couldn’t wait to get away. But, still her mother worked her booty off to provide her with high education and a good life. Dee goes away to college and when she returns she is a completely different person, suddenly interested in her family; photographing them upon arrival. With her guest, new "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo", invades her mothers house taking everything in like it’s a cute display for her. Finally, when Wangero (Dee) demands that her mother give her some quilts, her mum can not take anymore. She tells Dee that Maggie, not her, will be receiving the quilts and she snaps. "I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands, and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat
'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' is essentially about Tennessee Williams as a writer uncovering the broad truths to an unsuspecting audience, by testing the social boundaries. The characters in this 1950s patriarchal play are amplified and give us an ambiguous ending to confirm to the audience that the constraints women face in the play are something to be considered. Williams introduces Maggie in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ as a self-evident, dominant character from very early on. Describing her voice to be “both rapid and drawling” Saying “she has the vocal tricks of a priest delivering a liturgical chant” In the play she is the first one on stage and lengthily stage directions are used conveniently to exhibit her significance in the play. The detailed description of her voice helps to build curiosity. By doing so Williams use of a dramatic technique, slowly creates tension, which is effective to the reader as it helps stimulate the beginning of the play. Very early on Maggie is illustrated as a genuine beauty “Way he always drops his eyes down my body when I'm talkin' to him” She is depicted as a very cunning woman, with the way she presents her body and looks to get what she wants. She recognises that her role in society is to be displayed as a trophy wife and be kept behind the scenes in many situations; in many ways she abides to this role, while also using it to supplement her own personal motives...
Adversity can cause an individual to overcome their challenges and strengthen their identity, however, it can also have the opposite negative effect. Adversity can trigger an individual to lose their identity in their attempt to escape from their problems. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois is unable to face adversity, which leads her to lose her individual identity during her attempt to escape reality. Blanche had experienced numerous hardships such as the deaths of many family members and the loss of her young husband, Allan. Instead of overcoming these challenges and becoming stronger, Blanche tried to run away from them.
When we meet our narrator, the mother of Maggie and Dee, she is waiting in the yard with Maggie for Dee to visit. The mother takes simple pleasure in such a pleasant place where, "anyone can come back and look up at the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house." (Walker 383) This is her basic attitude, the simple everyday pleasures that have nothing to do with great ideas, cultural heritage or family or racial histories. She later reveals to us that she is even more the rough rural woman since she, "can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." (Walker 383) Hardly a woman one would expect to have much patience with hanging historical quilts on a wall. Daughter Maggie is very much the opposite of her older sister, Dee. Maggie is portrayed as knowing "she is not bright." (Walker 384)
In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. As a successful playwright, his career was greatly influenced by events in his life. He was noted for bringing the reader "a slice of his own life and the feel of southern culture", as his primary sources of inspiration were "the writers he grew up with, his family, and the South." The connection between his life and his work can be seen in several of his plays.
"Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe."(61) She is afraid of being weak and unable to project her happiness with the life she has chosen. Maggie attempts to remain quiet and reserved during the visit of her sister. The difference of their lifestyle interpretations is one of humble to extravagant. Unlike other young women, Maggie continues to live in an un-educated world where happiness is formed in the heart, not with possessions.
Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911. He was the second child of Edwina and Cornelius Coffin Williams. His father was a shoe salesman who spent most of his time away from home. Edwina was a “southern belle” she was snobbish and her behavior was neurotic. As a child, Williams suffered from diphtheria which almost ended his life. Williams attended Soldan High School, a setting he referred to in The Glass Menagerie. Later, he attended University City High School. He then attended the University of Missouri. (Tennessee)
In Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Stella and Stanley Kowalski live in the heart of poor, urban New Orleans in a one-story flat very different from the prestigious home Stella came from. This prestige is alive and well inside Stella’s lady-like sister, Blanche Du Bois. Over the course of Blanche’s life, she has experienced many tragedies that deeply affected her, such as the death of her gay husband, the downward spiral in her mental health that followed, and most recently the loss of her wealth and therefore social status. She constructs a proverbial lampshade to mask her pain and to control the last part of her world that she is able to, the image she projects into the world for herself and others to see. The brooding prince of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” chooses a very similar way of coping with the hand life has dealt him. When his mother remarries his uncle only a month after his father’s passing, the ghost of Hamlet’s father visits the young prince demanding avengement. These events cause Hamlet to try to replace the old lampshade that helped him cope with reality by changing his own image and fooling himself and others into thinking he’s crazy. An examination of both plays reveals that the importance of subjective truths and the way in which Blanche and Hamlet use them to cope transcends the context of both plays.
In the study of Tennessee Willliams' plays: "Suddenly Last Summer" and "The Glass Menagerie", we can find a great deal of autobiographical connections. "The Glass Menagerie" is particularly considered the author's most biographical work. It is described by the playwright as "a memory play"; indeed, it is a memory of the author's own youth, an expression of his own life and experiences. Similarly, "Suddenly Last Summer" includes many of Tennesse Williams' real life details.
Tennessee Williams gives insight into three ordinary lives in his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” which is set in the mid-1930’s in New Orleans. The main characters in the play are Blanche, Stanley, and Stella. All three of these characters suffer from personalities that differentiate each of them to great extremes. Because of these dramatic contrarieties in attitudes, there are mounting conflicts between the characters throughout the play. The principal conflict lies between Blanche and Stanley, due to their conflicting ideals of happiness and the way things “ought to be”.
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
In his essay "Come back to the Locker Room Ag'in, Brick Honey!" Mark Royden Winchell discusses several aspects of the homosexual theme in Tennessee William's play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Winchell describes the play as subversive because it casts doubt onto the innocence of male companionship, the two most tolerant characters are the most overtly heterosexual characters, and homosexuality is depicted as a personal rather than social or political problem, despite the time period of this play. I think that Winchell is correct in all these thoughts, but what I want to know is what was Williams' approach, and that is never answered.
Communication is a very important aspect of any type of relationship. There are many themes in the play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, but the major theme is that of isolation and the lack of communication. This type of theme involves many character such as Brick and Margaret. Big Daddy and his oldest son Gooper. And Big Daddy and his youngest son Brick. The entire Pollitt family manifests the theme isolation and lack of communication.
Big Mama, Maggie and Mae all have very different roles within the family as well as in their respective relationships. Big Mama is, in both literal and metaphorical terms, the mother of the family but her most important role is being Big Daddy’s wife. Through all the years her and Big Daddy have been married, she’s been hopelessly devoted the entire time. Even after all the treatment she’s received from Big Daddy and even the cancer scare, it’s obvious she is very much in love with Big Daddy: “And I did, I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate an’ your hardness, Big Daddy!” (II.39). In everything she does, she only looks to please Big Daddy as housewives were supposed to please their husbands even through her outspoken ways. Big Mama’s personal identity is a mixture of society’s norms and her love for Big Daddy. Maggie doesn’t necessarily have a positive role in the Pollitt family. She’s supposed to be pleasing her husband and having children, but she’s doing neither of these things and it’s clear the rest of the family is concerned or looking down upon her for it. Maggie is not fulfilling a woman’s typical role in her relationship with Brick, which to the family means something is wrong with her. Even Big Mama says, “Some single men stop drinkin’ when they get married and others start! Brick never touched liquor…” (I.22), showing how even she