Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Study Guide

Tennessee Williams

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Course Hero. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide." Course Hero. 12 Jan. 2017. Web. 3 June 2020. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Cat-on-a-Hot-Tin-Roof/>.

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Course Hero. (2017, January 12). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Cat-on-a-Hot-Tin-Roof/

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Course Hero. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide." January 12, 2017. Accessed June 3, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Cat-on-a-Hot-Tin-Roof/.

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Course Hero, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide," January 12, 2017, accessed June 3, 2020, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Cat-on-a-Hot-Tin-Roof/.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Infographic

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Check out this Infographic to learn more about Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Study visually with character maps, plot summaries, helpful context, and more.

cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof-tennessee-williams_EDIT_4BrickYounger, favored son of Big DaddyGooperBrick’s successful but unloved older brother MaeGooper’s sharp, scheming wifeBig DaddyFamily patriarch; owner of a large cotton plantation Big Mama Big Daddy’s flashy, despised wife; sweet but tense MaggieNervous, envious, lonely wifeMarriedFamilyCatSymbolizes Maggie’s craftiness and determination CrutchRepresents Brick’s use of self-deceit and alcohol to cope with life Children Represent trickery and deviousness as part of Mae’s plans to win Big Daddy's inheritance Brick, Act 2ho can face truth? Can you?Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Famous Authors, IMDb, LA Weekly, Official London Theatre, The Pulitzer Prizes, The Tennessee Williams Annual Review for HomosexualityCopyright © 2016 Course Hero, Inc.Cat on a Hot Tin Roofby the NumbersYear the play won the Pulitzer Prize for DramaYear all public performances of the play were banned in London for its references to homosexuality Full-length plays Williams wrote Academy Awards for which the 1958 film adaptation, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, was nominated 61958251955Born in Mississippi as Thomas Lanier Williams, Tennessee Williams is known for his plays that feature intense characters and heavythemes about human frustration. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of his best-known plays, family interactions create serious drama through vivid language.TENNESSEE WILLIAMS1911–83AuthorDelusion & ArtificeWhether it’s lying to themselves or others, nobody can face the truth.HomophobiaBrick’s rejection of his homosexuality and others’ responses to it triggers his alcoholism and disgust with Maggie.CrueltyBrick and Big Daddy are fiercely cruel to their wives, despite their wives’ love for them.Main CharactersSymbolsCat on a Hot Tin Roof takes place on a single evening during a birthday party for Big Daddy, the patriarch of a Southern plantation. Crisis strikes, and the family must deal with long-standing artifice, lies, jealousy, greed, cruelty, and homophobia. What culminates is an explosive night that burns through the family’s web of deceit.“Lying! Dying! Liars!” THEMESTennessee Williams1955EnglishAuthorFirst PerformedOriginal LanguageCat on a Hot Tin RoofPlay Drama
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