Another conflicting theme in this play is the willingness of married couples to remain together even though they are hurting each other. This attitude is seen between Brick and Maggie. For instance, Brick reminds Maggie that the only reason they’re living together is because they agreed to do so in name only. When Maggie complains that their relationship is not what marriage should be all about, Brick suggests that she should just go out and have an affair with someone else, so she can get the sexual satisfaction she so desires. Maggie, unwilling to pursue this sort of relationship, tells Brick that she wishes to have a normal loving and sexual relationship with him and until they do she would prefer to remain “a cat on a hot tin roof”, being frustrated with the situation hoping that things will change for the better. Brick, on the other hand is rather bitter and cold and expresses his amazement at a woman who wants to have a child with a man who hates her. However, despite his abuse towards her, she decides to stay and live with the one and only man she loves. In the real world today, men continue to abuse and batter women and society apparently does not give this issue the attention it needs. However, because of feelings of helplessness and financial dependence, many women stay married to their husbands, hoping that they can somehow change them.
Another conflict we see in this play is the choice of escaping life’s many challenges by indulging in alcohol. This sort of behavior comes from Brick, a former sports hero who has become and alcoholic and presently on crutches because of an accident he had while drunk. When facing a tough life situation that is drowning him, he begins to drink continuously, only putting down the bottle when he hears a click in his head, which indicates that he has left reality and has entered his carefree alcoholic fantasyland. In our society today, without a doubt, there is no shortage of alcohol and drugs and kids as young as 10 often times find themselves drinking or taking drugs with no limits. In a society that permits this form of escape, the lives of young people are corroded on a daily basis.
Yet another conflicting theme in this play is the tendency of people who become rich to turn utterly cruel and malicious. This pattern is seen in Big Daddy as he thinks that because of his wealth he could curse at anyone he pleases, especially his wife, Big Mama. Although Big Daddy has a quality that allows him to be very honest and strong with people, this does not change the fact that most economically disadvantaged people are not so malicious and conceited. Therefore Big Daddy believes that because he has more money than others he cannot be criticized, because if he is he has the total power of removing them from his will. Throughout “cat on a hot tin roof” the message was made clear that achieving land, money, and power are life’s ultimate goals and anything that may stand in the way of obtaining them is unimportant and should be disregarded. Big Daddy’s description of the plantation creates this belief and myth that men can escape death by buying all the material things that can bring one self-satisfaction.
It isn’t difficult to envision a world based on the conflicts portrayed in “cat on a hot tin roof” because it is basically a mirrored representation of the moral conflicts already present in our society today. This day in age people engage themselves in many backstabbing situations, where the only way of escape is by resorting to drugs, alcohol, and material possessions, essentially blocking our paths of obtaining life’s more important values. Brick is the perfect example to prove this, as towards the end of the play the conversation between him and his father seems to have expelled the fog that Brick has hidden for so long, and he is ready to confront life at once, instead of hiding and covering up his true feelings.
