Hot Tin Roof Mendacity

863 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The Importance Of Family Dynamics

With any family comes issues that can present problems and resentments towards one another. Tennessee Williams addresses families that are struggling with problems in most of his plays. However, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams concentrates on, alcoholism, financial struggles, and mendacity which destroys a fictional family, just like in the real world.
First, a subject Tennessee Williams focusses on is alcoholism. One of the main characters in the story, Brick, suffers from alcoholism. Brick’s addiction not only hurts himself it also hurts his family. While his drinking problem causes him to break his leg it also causes emotional problems in his family. This mirrors real life problems with alcohol and addiction. Almost always addicts damage …show more content…

Mendacity, or untruthfulness, is a huge issue in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The family not only keeps the truth from each other they also lie to themselves. One of the biggest lies seen in the movie is the lie that Big Daddy is healthy and has plenty of life left. Brick while arguing with Big Daddy accidentally tells him of his terminal condition. Keeping this truth from Big Daddy would have been awful for the family. Not knowing of his death would have resulted in Big Daddy never resolving his problems with Brick and the rest of the family. Williams shows how lies and mendacity can negatively affect relationships and how the truth is important to solve problems with one another. This is not only true in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but also in real life. Another huge lie in the movie was Bricks own mendacity to himself. Brick, while saying he was disgusted with mendacity, was ironically being untruthful to himself. Instead of facing the truth of his friend’s death he chose to avoid it. This led him to develop an overall disgust for not only his wife and family, but his own life in general. This aspect of the story is also true to life. Lying to one’s self and not facing the truth can lead a person down a destructive path just like the one Brick was headed

Show More
Related

  • No Country for Old Men

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bitter about the evolution of the corruption of society, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell plays the official hero clinging to old traditions and reminiscing about the old days in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Delusions of a peaceful utopia during the time his grandpa Jack was a sheriff has left Bell looking at the world through hopeless eyes; a world on its knees with only one explanation for its demise: Satan. Not necessarily a religious man, Sheriff Bell, when asked if he believes in Satan, remarks: “He explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t have no explanation. Or not to me they don’t” (218). Throughout No County for Old Men, Sheriff Bell is determined to save Llewellyn Moss in order to prove that justice can be served in a world now drenched in decay. Throughout the book and the film adaptation, the audience can see Sheriff Bell, a tormented old man, sink deeper into his bitterness and his hope sizzle away in the Texas heat.

    Read More

  • E L Doctorow's Ragtime, By E. L. Doctorow

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another family is African American. They live in Harlem, which was populated only by African Americans at the time. The main character in this family that we follow, Coalhouse, is a Ragtime piano player. The next family represents the immigrants of that time. Tateh, a Jewish immigrant, arrives at Ellis Island and faces the challenges of achieving the American dream.

    Read More

  • Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

    1771 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stanton, Stephen. "Introduction." Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1977. 1-16.

    Read More

  • Children Of Men

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie Children of Men is directed by Alfonso Cuarón. This movie seems difficult to understand and enjoy without the back ground knowledge from original novel version of Children of Men and easily people misunderstand that this movie is boring movie but, this movie is well thought to articulate the original novel world and well condense in such a short play time. Honestly, this movie’s plot it self is not interesting as a entertainment. Moreover, this movie provide abstract and not informative about the setting and event which people might confuse while watching but, when focus to the moving image it self, this movie capture one of the most beautiful moving image. I think, this movie’s significant is beautiful moving image and expression

    Read More

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: The Destruction of Laura

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Identity Analysis

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    I often have a difficult time describing my situation to others, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Three divorces have taught me what successful and not so successful relationships look like. My younger sister with autism has taught me empathy, compassion, and patience. My step siblings have been there for me when did not have to be and for that I am grateful. No matter the family situation, every family has an undeniable sense of pride. For example, my family, most of whom were born in Ireland, throw the loudest St. Patrick’s day parties and keep our Irish flags up all through March. We are proud of our incredibly fair skin and abundance of freckles and redheads. My family’s pride is similar to that of Aunt Alexandra’s and her obsession with heredity and the certain “family streaks” in the novel’s Maycomb county. Scout mentions said streaks in chapter 13. “Everybody in Maycomb, it seemed, had a streak: a drinking streak, a gambling streak, a mean streak, a funny streak,” (Lee 129). I again feel Scout and I could relate to each other through our unique family situations, hers of course being her family’s cook Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie as her mother figures. Another unique family are the Pritchett’s on the show Modern Family. I was elated when this show came out because, while dramatized for comedic effect, it is a break from the straight, white, “we all get along fine” families usually depicted on TV.

    Read More

  • August Wilson's Fences - Building Fences

    3030 Words  | 7 Pages

    As I reflected more and more on Wilson's masterpiece, my anger turned to curiosity instead of my curiosity waning, it grew. I felt like I was unraveling a huge ball of yarn. In a play about family, a million different issues are lived. I was astounded at the number of issues that Wilson touched upon, issues ranging from family relationships, to problems in the workplace, racial tensions, and infidelity. And under each one of these was another, underlying issue, the reason, or the catalyst that enabled these to prevail.

    Read More

  • 'True West A Dysfunctional Family In The Play True West'

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the play “True West” by Sam Shepard, there are two main characters Austin and Lee that are so different and similar due to their family culture of dysfunction. A dysfunctional family is one in which that shows conflict, hostile environments, inappropriate behaviors to not only upon them, but to those around them. In most dysfunctional families you will find children that have been neglected or abused by parents, to which most of these children tend to think that these such behaviors are normal. Shepard shows this relationship of dysfunction of a family between two brothers that shows one brother who thinks he has escaped the dysfunction, and one that has carried out the dysfunctional family culture.

    Read More

  • No Country For Old Men

    1756 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, the increased brutality and violence along the Texas-Mexico border leads to various moral conflicts among the citizens as well as authority figures. Because of this ominous presence, the characters, especially the older men, are forced to combat such violence and brutality, with varying degrees of success. Although experience and ethical obligations can allow for some success, it is ultimately achieved by those that are able to conform to such brutality rather than fight it. In the novel, Anton Chigurh represents the new era of men in Texas through his defiance of law and justice whereas Sheriff Bell stands for the old values of the country and Llewelyn Moss holds a position in the world between the two ultimatums. Throughout the novel, the drastic societal alterations affect characters differently depending on their moral values and physical capabilities thus revealing how the country has become too violent and brutal for the men who rely on justice

    Read More

  • William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    Williams’ minimalist writing style employed free verse and by maintaining simplicity allowed the wheelbarrow to be the center of attention. He accomplished this task by breaking up the poem, which consisted of one sentence, into eight lines and further divided it into couplets. The beginning line of each couplet was longer than the second line, which only had one word. This formation allowed the reader to focus on specific words before moving to the next line. This is best illustrated in the opening lines, “so much depends/upon,” (Williams 288). Already, Williams has established the importance of the object by conveying to the reader that many things are dependent on the object. It is also significant that none of the words in the poem are capitalized nor did Williams

    Read More

  • A Raisin In The Sun And A Streetcar Named Desire

    2128 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many people let the conflicts they have take over their relationships with their loved ones. In the plays A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the readers are introduced to the conflicts between each of the families. The Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun, face conflict when Lena Younger’s husband has passed and has left them ten thousand dollars in his will. The Kowalski family in A Streetcar Named Desire are faced with conflict when Stella’s sister Blanche Dubois comes to town. Most particularly, both plays have each faced challenging hurdles and fatalities during their lives. Although both families come from tremendously diverse backgrounds, they share the same conflicts that occur

    Read More

  • Examples Of Lying In The Great Gatsby

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    Telling the truth can have some consequences, but a lie can cause more damage in a relationship once it has been figured out. People believe that by just lying, a problem is solved, but problems start when lies are told. Lying destroys relationships and truth builds honest relationships which, can last forever. In both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Rob Marshall’s Chicago, characters lie because they feel that it is easier. However, lying leads to a downward- spiral. The society we live in can either lead us to a complicated relationship with the truth or easygoing. The problem with constantly telling lies is that it starts off with one, then leads to another until everything you say is a lie. Being truthful

    Read More

  • Dishonesty in The Great Gatsby

    1501 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lies are a treacherous thing, yet everyone tells a few lies during their lifetime. Deceit surrounds us all the time even when one reads classic literature. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes dishonesty a major theme in his novel The Great Gatsby. The falsehoods told by the characters in this novel lead to inevitable tragedy when the truth is revealed. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters in the novel, fails to realize that when one tells a lie, it comes back to bite you.

    Read More

  • Lies and Mendacity in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

    276 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sometimes the lies are not even lies; they are just seen to be that. Big Daddy thinks that Big Momma is scheming to take over the place, when in fact she really does love him. He only sees this as a lie because of his feelings toward her. Brick seems to feel them same way about Maggie, and is surprised in the end when Maggie declares her love for him.

    Read More

  • The Use of Deception in Arthur Miller's The Death of a Salesman

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lying is a string that ties together a great part of the plot in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The Lomans are all greatly self-deceptive, and in their particular fancies and delusions to reality, they fuel and nourish off of each other. Willy convinces himself that he is effective, overall loved, and that his children are bound for significance. Unable to adapt to reality, he totally forsakes it through his vivid dreams and eventually through suicide. Linda and Happy also accept that the Lomans are going to become showbiz royalty. Not at all like alternate parts of his family, has Biff developed to distinguish that he and his relatives reliably bamboozle themselves, and he battles to escape the cycle of lying.

    Read More

More about Hot Tin Roof Mendacity

Open Document