Exploring Pain in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," written by Tennessee Williams is a brilliant play about a dysfunctional family that is forces to deal with hidden deceptions and hypocrisy. The issues that this play revolves around transcend time and region.
By 1955 Tennessee Williams was already a well known and respected playwright. Theatergoers, as well as critics, had enthusiastically anticipated the arrival of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." Many loved the play, but they had difficulty with the play's resolution. (Winchell, 711)
...critics and ordinary theatre-goers have not always known what
to make of the play. Both the original and the Broadway versions
of the third act leave questions unanswered and an uneasy sense
that the answers suggested are willed and artificial. (Winchell, 711)
In addition, many people love Williams's play "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" because the plot is intriguing and the character's secrets unfold slowly. His play's premise is unique and it is not a re-hashed drama. They enjoy that Williams entertains and enlightens. "Audiences go to his plays not to be shocked but to see the playwright's sympathetic portrayal of characters whose fears and loneliness reflect their own."" (The New Book of Knowledge, 174)
Tennessee Williams's plays have been praised and criticized by literary scholars. Most applaud his prose and mastery in developing characters, yet they are sometimes offended by his subject matter. Mark Royden Winchell wrote a compelling article analyzing Williams's play "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." In his essay, Winchell states that the play "is a powerful work of art", yet he exclaims that it is perverse and "scandalous." (Winche...
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Leverich, Lyle. Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1995, 3, 17, 55, 59, 128, 129, 260, 417, 574
McLean, Colin. Interview, April 25th, 8:10 p.m.
The New Book of Knowledge vol. 20 US, Grolier, Inc. 1994, 174-175
Reiter, Amy. A Capital Cat." Entertainment Design January 1999 7-8 proquest.umi.com/pqdweb
Smith, Bruce. Costly Performances. New York: Paragon House, 1990, 6, 17, 59, 157
Williams, Tennessee. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof New York: Penguin Books Ltd. 1955 24, 124, 125
Winchell, Mark Royden. "Come Back To The Locker Room Ag'in Brick Honey." The Mississippi Quarterly 48 Fall 1995 701-712 webspirs3.silverplatter.com/cgi-binwaldo.cgi
Wolter, Jurgen C. "Strangers on Williams's Stage." The Mississippi Quarterly 49 Winter 1995 33-51 webspirs3.sinverplatter.com/cgi-bin/waldo/cgi
F. Scott Fitzgerald best selling book "The Great Gatsby" and Tennessee Williams play “Streetcar named desire”,are two american classic that share identical themes then you would picture. Since, Jay Gatsby is illustrated as a wealthy hard working man, while Blanche Dubois is characterized as a lying former prostitute who tries to escape reality, by creating her own fantasy you would think they don’t have much in common. By comparing, both the play “Streetcar named desire” and the novel “The Great Gatsby”, Blanche and Gatsby are not so different after all. By analyzing the two characters, in this comparative essay, I will be stating how Gatsby and Blanche are alike. Both Gatsby and Blanche share many similar themes, firstly they tend to deceive others, secondly they are confused by the difference between reality and illusion, and lastly they both have strong desires that leads them to their downfall. Both characters in these novels have a false perspective of their reality.
Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped.
In the game of life man is given the options to bluff, raise, or fold. He is dealt a hand created by the consequences of his choices or by outside forces beyond his control. It is a never ending cycle: choices made create more choices. Using diverse, complex characters simmering with passion and often a contradiction within themselves, Tennessee Williams examines the link of past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer is a one-act play with a cast of colourful characters ranging from the eccentric Violet to the troubled Catherine. One individual, George Holly, is more minor than others, and as such might get overlooked. However, the Fictional World method of analysis uncovers new insight into his nature. By analysing George’s character in the Social World of the play specifically, we get a better understanding of how traumatic and powerful the climax really is.
Tennessee Williams employs the uses of plot, symbolism, and dialogue to portray his theme of impossible true escape, which asserts itself in his play, The Glass Menagerie. Each of his characters fills in the plot by providing emotional tension and a deep, inherent desire to escape. Symbolism entraps meaning into tangible objects that the reader can visualize and attach significance to. Conclusively, Williams develops his characters and plot tensions through rich dialogue. Through brilliant construction and execution of literary techniques, Williams brings to life colorful characters in his precise, poignant on-stage drama.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
Tennessee Williams is widely known as one of the greatest playwrights in American history. Tennessee Williams's personal life and experiences have been the direct subject matter for his dramas. He uses his experiences and universalize them through the means of the stage. His life is utilized over and over again in the creation of his dramas.
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. Most of his plays take us to the southern states and show a confused society. In his works he exposes the degeneration of human feelings and relationships. His heroes suffer from broken families and they do not find their place in the society. They tend to be lonely and afraid of much that surrounds them. Among the major themes of his plays are racism, sexism, homophobia and realistic settings filled with loneliness and pain.1 Tennessee Williams characters showed us extremes of human brutality and sexual behavior.2 One of his most popular dramas was written in 1947, and it is called A Streetcar Named Desire.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Masterpieces of the Drama. Ed. Alexander W. Allison, Arthus J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman. 5th ed. NY: Macmillan, 1986. 779- 814.
The topic for my term paper is “A psychological study of the character of Blanche in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire”. I decided to choose this topic as it symbolizes realism in a practical way. A Streetcar Named Desire is a melodrama in which Blanche DuBois is the protagonist of the play. The play depicts how Blanche lies to herself as well as others, allowing herself to make life appear as it should be rather than accepting how it already is. She fantasises her own world rather than living in the reality. Further, Stanley, Stella’s husband who is a grounded gentleman, tries to disdain Blanche’s fabrications and makes all efforts to unravel them. Throughout the play there is a struggle between appearances and reality. William dramatizes Blanche’s psychological behavior which made it hard for her to accept things as they were and hence, she created a fantasy world of how things should’ve been. In the end, William shows that in both the physical and psychological world, the boundary between reality and fantasy is permeable. Though to some extent, fantasy is vital in every individual’s experience.
Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 1999. pp.1865-1908.
As a playwright write William’s was not afraid to depict his own life through his literary works. William’s has been a very significant author in literature, as described by the New York Times (1983) as “the most important American playwright after Eugene O 'Neill”. Tennessee William’s was also recognized because of the way he wrote, and his impact on society, and his personal experiences, inserted into the plays. ‘He had a profound effect on the American theater and on American playwrights and actors. He wrote with deep sympathy and expansive humor about outcasts in our society. Though his images were often violent, he was a poet of the human heart’ (M. Gussow, 1983). Three of his most famous works, out of all that he had were The Glass Menagerie, A street Car Named Desire, and lastly Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In all three of these plays they depicted/ reflected a point in time where William’s went through a negative experience, which influenced him to insert these experiences into the plays. Also in all his plays, they were about a family and their struggles to see the reality of their world and trying not to go along with the norms of society. A similarity in all the plays was that William’s made the women in all these plays as himself. In other words the women represented his life. "It 's true my heroines often speak for me. That doesn 't make them transvestites. Playwrights
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.