TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Either *
(a) Discuss Williams’s dramatic presentation of parent and child relationships in Cat on
a Hot Tin Roof. [25]
Or *
(b) Discuss the presentation of Margaret in the following extract. In your answer you
should pay close attention to dramatic methods and their effects. [25]

Margaret: Did anyone ever tell you that you're an ass-aching Puritan, Brick? I
think it's mighty fine that that ole fellow, on the doorstep of death, still
takes in my shape with what I think is deserved appreciation! And
you wanta know something else? Big Daddy didn't know how many
little Maes and Goopers had been produced! 'How many kids have
you got?' he asked at the table, just like Brother Man and his wife
were new acquaintances to him! Big Mama said he was jokin', but
that ole boy wasn't jokin', Lord, no! And when they infawmed him
that they had five already and were turning out number six!--The
news seemed to come as a sort of unpleasant surprise… [Children
yell below.] Scream, monsters!
[Turns to Brick with a sudden, gay, charming smile which fades as
she notices that be is not looking at her but into fading gold space
with a troubled expression. It is constant rejection that makes her
humor 'bitchy'.] Yes, you should of been at that supper-table, Baby.
[Whenever she calls him 'baby' the word is a soft caress...]
Y'know, Big Daddy, bless his ole sweet soul, he's the dearest ole
thing in the world, but he does hunch over his food as if he preferred
not to notice anything else. Well, Mae an' Gooper were side by side
at the table, directly across from Big Daddy, watchin' his face like
hawks while they jawed an' jabbered about the cuteness an'
brilliance of th' no-neck monsters!
[She giggles with a hand fluttering at her throat and her breast and
her long throat arched. She comes downstage and recreates the
scene with voice and gesture.]
And the no-neck monsters were ranged around the table, some in
high chairs and some on th' Books of Knowledge, all in fancy little
paper caps in honour of Big Daddy's birthday, and all through dinner,
well, I want you to know that Brother Man an' his partner never once,
for one moment, stopped exchanging pokes an' pinches an' kicks
an' signs an' signals I--Why, they were like a couple of cardsharps
fleecing a sucker.--Even Big Mama, bless her ole sweet soul, she
isn't th' quickest an' brightest thing in the world, she finally noticed,
at last, an' said to Gooper, 'Gooper, what are you an' Mae makin' all
these signs at each other about?'--I swear t' goodness, I nearly
choked on my chicken!
 2

[Margaret, back at the dressing-table, still doesn't see Brick. | He is

watching her with a look that is not quite definable--Amused?
shocked? contemptuous?--part of those and part of something else.]
Y'know--your brother Gooper still cherishes the illusion he took a
giant step up on the social ladder when he married Miss Mae Flynn
of the Memphis Flynns.
[Margaret moves about the room as she talks, stops before the
mirror, moves on.]
But I have a piece of Spanish news for Gooper. The Flynns never
had a thing in this world but money and they lost that, they were
nothing at all but fairly successful climbers. Of course, Mae Flynn
came out in Memphis eight years before I made my debut in
Nashville, but I had friends at Ward-Belmont who came from
Memphis and they used to come to see me and I used to go to see
them for Christmas and spring vacations, and so I know who rates
an' who doesn't rate in Memphis society. Why, y'know ole Papa
Flynn, he barely escaped doing time in the Federal pen for shady
manipulations on th' stock market when his chain stores crashed,
and as for Mae having been a cotton carnival queen, as they remind
us so often, lest we forget, well, that's one honour that I don't envy
her for!--Sit on a brass throne on a tacky float an' ride down Main
Street, smilin', bowin', and blowin' kisses to all the trash on the
street–
[She picks out a pair of jewelled sandals and rushes to the dressing-
table.]
Why, year before last, when Susan McPheeters was singled out fo'
that honour, y'know what happened to her? Y'know what happened
to poor little Susie McPheeters?

Brick: [absently] No. What happened to little Susie McPheeters?

Margaret: Somebody spit tobacco juice in her face.

(from Act 1)

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