“Understanding is needed on this place”. This is one of the truest comments within the play. Almost every member of family is at a disagreement with another. The family is very broken up and there is a lot of understanding needed to break these “abnormal family tensions”. “I guess you must have needed a lot of it…with your father’s liquor problem”. This is a bitter comment and demonstrates the relationship between Maggie and Mae. Throughout this passage there is a constant undermining of Maggie, “Do you know why she’s childless? She’s childless because that big, beautiful, athletic husband of hers won’t go to bed with her”. Gooper also undermines Maggie’s offering of support to Big Mama with nasty cynicism, “How beautiful, how touching, this display of devotion”. This undermining stands to mark out Maggie’s flaws in the light of, who is more responsible for the running of the estate. The relationships within the family are really emphasised by this competition. Mae and Gooper also attempt to demean Brick at every opportunity, advertising his defects, “Brick kept living in his past glory at College! Still a football player at 27!” Again, this is to illustrate that Brick is unsuitable for inheriting Big Daddy’s estate, “Big Daddy would never be foolish enough to-…put this place in irresponsible hands”.
There is evidence throughout the passage that Mae and Gooper and working as a team. This is carried even to the extent that they can finish off the other’s sentences,
“Mae: Yais, we’ve all had a shock, but…
Gooper: Let’s be realistic –
Mae: Big Daddy would never, would never be foolish enough to –
Gooper: - put this place in irresponsible hands” Their team work is also illustrated through the parallel thoughts, “there is a quick violent look between Mae and Gooper”. This aggression and violence becomes more physical when, “Gooper has stalked up to Margaret with clenched fists…as if he would strike her. Mae distorts her face…into a hideous grimace”. There are many examples of other physical assertions that emphasise the emotions and family dynamics. The relationship between Mae, Gooper and Maggie has already been outlined. Gooper also demonstrates his relationship with Big Mama by “Standing over Big Mama”. This stage direction shows how Tennessee Williams wanted Gooper to try to intimidate Big Mama. Gooper, later on, begins to try and take Big Daddy’s role by teasing Big Mama about her fat chins and again he is trying to establish himself as head of the family by trying to exert his power over Big Mama. Mae and Gooper are also almost portrayed as outcasts from the family. Earlier in the play Big Mama calls for “Brick? Where is my only son, Brick?” and Gooper admits to not having a good relationship with Big Daddy, “I don’t give a Goddam if Big Daddy likes me or don’t like me or did or never did or will or never will”
Brick’s relationship with the family is demonstrated by his singing, “Show me the way to go home…” He is very uninvolved in the family matters and disinterested. The singing gives the audience a break in the arguments but may increase the tension as Mae and Gooper get more frustrated about the estate. However, Brick is not entirely disengaged as he answers Big Mama, “Big Daddy says ‘crap’ when he’s disgusted”. This also hints at the relationship between Big Daddy and Brick. Brick knows Big Daddy well enough to know the answer to the question. It is clear that the relationship between Brick and Gooper has never been particularly comfortable. This conflict now exposes the relationship further as Gooper and Mae are sarcastic as soon as he enters the scene, “Behold the Conquering hero comes”, “The fabulous Brick Pollitt! Remember him?-who could forget him?” This source of this rivalry is explained at a deeper level when the stage directions state, “tense with sibling envy”. I believe there has always been a tension between Brick and Gooper due to this rivalry and that it is merely emphasised in this conflict.
Before Tennessee Williams and some of his contemporise, such as Arthur Miller, theatrical dramas were often about a glamorised or sanitised version of domestic events rather than a realistic portrayal. However, Williams does not glamorise life and the events within “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” may be a realistic definement of family life in the 1950’s. The Second World War had cost America many young lives. Therefore, the social conventions and family hierarchies may have been adjusting to life after the war. The emotions within the play are not sanitised but Tennessee Williams demonstrates the devastating effects of the family tensions.
Williams rightly deserves the criticism of “Furthering domestic realism in American Drama”.