Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Playwright Tennessee Williams

                                                                                                                               

     There are a lot of things that are taking place in this play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." There's Love, Homosexuality, Alcoholism, Lies, Truth, Abuse, Death. Could it be a possibility that the reason Brick does not want to have sex with Maggie is because he in fact is homosexual and at one time, had an affair with Skipper? The answers all lie in the truth. One of the observations that I noticed is, why does Maggie continue to stay with him if he does not want to really be with her? Plus, he hit her with his cane. She even goes as far as to say if she knew that she would never have sex again with Brick, she would kill herself.

After all, she's dying inside to have sexual contact with her husband while in the meantime, he appears to be very depressed, drowning in his alcohol addiction. This truly is a coping mechanism for his unhappiness. Alcohol is helping to numb the lie. Could it be that he's still grieving the loss of Skipper, his "best friend?"  I think it's also a combination of the fact that Maggie slept with Skipper.

 The truth may come from Brick’s own "Mendacity" of his sexual orientation. Just like Skipper wanted to dismiss his sexual orientation by having sex with Maggie, Brick married Maggie to cover up his sexual identity. I also believe that since Maggie didn’t come from money, the only reason why she's staying with Brick is to cash in on the 28,000-acre plantation when Big Daddy dies. In many ways, Maggie and Mae are just alike coming from humble beginnings and both expecting to be beneficiaries of their husband’s inheritance. The Character we see least of in this play is the Matriarch, Big Mama, who I’m not sure is happy if Big Daddy will live or dies.

But before Big Daddy dies, he needs to find out the truth from his son as to if he's gay.  I can also say, I believe that another theme in this play is denial because of the denial of Big Daddy's terminal cancer. They're all lying to him about his spastic colon.  Another lie that Big Daddy made aware of was his disdain for Big Mama. Another loveless marriage.

Even Gooper was only concerned with what he could benefit from his father’s death. He’s had to contend with the fact that Brick is his mother’s favorite son. Maggie, even to the end, was relentless in getting Brick to make love to her. Still, when and how did she become pregnant?  I believe everyone was angry and very selfish in this play. Everyone is lying and manipulative and trying to take control of  everyone's lives. They just all seem so dissatisfied with everything. Even before Maggie said she was the "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" I had come to believe that she was the cat because of, for a lack of a better term, "in heat."