Theme Of Truth In Tennessee Williams Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

648 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cat on a hot tin roof lies

When is it okay to tell a lie? Some may say you should lie to spare the feelings of a friend, or to keep yourself out of trouble. However, in a way, lies will always come back around in the end. Therefore the truth is always better than lying because there may be less consequences. This is a lesson that can be observed from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. The play takes place on an expensive plantation home owned by a wealthy family in Mississippi in the 1950’s. Williams based the whole basis of the play around lies, and even the absence of the truth. The truth was rarely discussed to satisfy the views of society and to keep the Pollitt family together. The phrase that comes to mind when watching this play in action is “ignorance …show more content…

It is said that he just has a “spastic colon” and that he’ll be okay. The set up for this scene is supposed to be a happy time, since they are celebrating a birthday. There are many people there, the outfits all bright and lively. Big Mama is crying because she is so happy that there isn’t anything thing fatal about Big Daddy’s illness. The setting plays a big role into this lie because, just like Big Mama, is sugarcoats the truth. Later Big Daddy realizes they were lying about the results from the critic and that it’s not just a spastic colon. He has cancer and is going to die. This news for anyone would be a lot to handle. When he thought it was just something small that wouldn’t kill him, it didn’t matter to him. That lie was used to spare Big Daddy’s feelings. However, in the end, it would have been better to have known the truth to hurt him less. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof shows what lying could do to someone. The truth is very important because it is clean and doesn’t hide anything. Lying can lead to built up anger and stress, as seen in Brick throughout the play. If Brick had just been honest with himself, he could’ve been happier. The same goes with Big Daddy; he knew that death was coming for him, but ignored it with false information. They are both stubborn men who care about their image. For that reason the truth came too late for them and left them drowning in

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Big Dadddy, By Tennesssee Williams '

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    In others he stated he didn 't like having sex with her and didn 't really love her. I think if Big Daddy would 've been up front and honest when he started feeling that way, then he wouldn 't even had to deal with Big Mama and pretended to be something that he really wasn 't. She was crushed to find out as well that Big Daddy had kept his diagnose from her.

    Read More

  • Crucible Unresolved Conflicts

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Is it okay to lie in order to protect oneself? What about if it puts someone else at risk? In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, a group of girls conjure spirits in the woods and then tell a series of lies in order to cover up their mistake. Many people die or get hurt because of their fibs and the truth is never revealed. Innocent lives are taken because these girls accuse them of witchcraft. Unresolved conflicts between people can have tragic results leading to unnecessary death, marriage conflicts, and town unraveling.

    Read More

  • Theme expressed in Tape by Jose Rivera

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    This play shows that lying is wrong and will get you nowhere. At the end, lying will come back and haunt you. Also, lying will get you known as a liar. A liar who no one will believe at the end of the day. A liar that will be hard to be trusted by others. All of this is something that you want to avoid. Never lie and always tell the truth and you will end up feeling better about yourself. That is what I ended up getting from this ten minute play. Never lie because all those lies will be stored somewhere, maybe not recorded on tape like they were for the Person but stored somewhere like ones conscious. Lies will come back soon or later to come and bite you when you least expect it.

    Read More

  • Tobias Wolff's The Great Gatsby

    1705 Words  | 4 Pages

    The people who claim that they do not lie are probably lying when they say it. Whether it is to deceive authority or just to play a joke on a friend, it is part of human nature to lie. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby takes on a character of wealth and luxury. Gatsby wants to win back his love interest from five years ago, so he secretly becomes wealthy through owning an illegal drug business, using his abundance of money to impress her. In contrast, in Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” he tells a story of teenage James as he lies about his life to appear more fascinating. He lies not because he wants to, but because it comes naturally to him. Both stories convey people struggling to find the purpose of their

    Read More

  • Judith Viorst The Truth About Lying Summary

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Truth about Lying” Judith Viorst explains the four different kinds of lying. She categorizes lies as social lies, peace-keeping lies, protective lies, and trust-keeping lies. Social lies are lies that are “acceptable and necessary”, they are the little white lies most people use all the time. Peace keeping lies are told when the liar is trying to protect themselves from getting in trouble or causing any conflict. The protective lies are far more serious, are often told because of fear that the truth would be “too damaging” for the person being lied to. Lastly, there are the trust keeping lies, which are lies in which the liar is lying for a friend in order to keep a promise. Viorst finds that most of these lies, while some are more acceptable than others, are necessary and she can understand them.

    Read More

  • Homosexual Theme in Tennessee William's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his essay "Come back to the Locker Room Ag'in, Brick Honey!" Mark Royden Winchell discusses several aspects of the homosexual theme in Tennessee William's play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Winchell describes the play as subversive because it casts doubt onto the innocence of male companionship, the two most tolerant characters are the most overtly heterosexual characters, and homosexuality is depicted as a personal rather than social or political problem, despite the time period of this play. I think that Winchell is correct in all these thoughts, but what I want to know is what was Williams' approach, and that is never answered.

    Read More

  • Tennessee Williams and His Message in "The Glass Menagerie"

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.

    Read More

  • Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Analysis

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    Big Mama, Maggie and Mae all have very different roles within the family as well as in their respective relationships. Big Mama is, in both literal and metaphorical terms, the mother of the family but her most important role is being Big Daddy’s wife. Through all the years her and Big Daddy have been married, she’s been hopelessly devoted the entire time. Even after all the treatment she’s received from Big Daddy and even the cancer scare, it’s obvious she is very much in love with Big Daddy: “And I did, I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate an’ your hardness, Big Daddy!” (II.39). In everything she does, she only looks to please Big Daddy as housewives were supposed to please their husbands even through her outspoken ways. Big Mama’s personal identity is a mixture of society’s norms and her love for Big Daddy. Maggie doesn’t necessarily have a positive role in the Pollitt family. She’s supposed to be pleasing her husband and having children, but she’s doing neither of these things and it’s clear the rest of the family is concerned or looking down upon her for it. Maggie is not fulfilling a woman’s typical role in her relationship with Brick, which to the family means something is wrong with her. Even Big Mama says, “Some single men stop drinkin’ when they get married and others start! Brick never touched liquor…” (I.22), showing how even she

    Read More

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

    276 Words  | 1 Pages

    The entire family is involved with lies to Big Daddy and Big Momma, as are the doctors. They tell them that Big Daddy does not have cancer, but only a spastic colon. Brick lies to himself about his feelings for Skipper until Big Daddy forces him to face it. He then understands that he is upset about the way his clean friendship has been misinterpreted. Gooper and Mae pretend to be loving and doting children, when in fact all they want is money and land. Big Mama lies to herself, think all the cruel things Big Daddy says are just jokes. She also lies to herself by thinking that a child from Maggie and Brick would turn Brick into a non-drinking, family man qualified to take over the family place. Big Daddy is even wrapped up in the mendacity. He admits to Brick that he is tired of letting all the lies. He has lied for years about his feelings for his wife, his son Gooper and his daughter-in-law Mae, he says he loves them, when in fact he can't stand any of them. Maggie, who seems to tell close to the truth the entire play, breaks down and lies about her pregnancy.

    Read More

  • The Lack of Communication in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    Communication is a very important aspect of any type of relationship. There are many themes in the play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, but the major theme is that of isolation and the lack of communication. This type of theme involves many character such as Brick and Margaret. Big Daddy and his oldest son Gooper. And Big Daddy and his youngest son Brick. The entire Pollitt family manifests the theme isolation and lack of communication.

    Read More

  • Ethical Lessons in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who is in misplaced circumstances. Her life is lived through fantasies, the remembrance of her lost husband and the resentment that she feels for her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Various moral and ethical lessons arise in this play such as: Lying ultimately gets you nowhere, Abuse is never good, Treat people how you want to be treated, Stay true to yourself and Don’t judge a book by its cover.

    Read More

  • Big Daddy and the American Dream in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a thought-provoking play that explores human relationships of all kinds. The character of Brick is forced to examine the relationship with his friend, Skipper, his wife, his family, and himself. Other characters, Gooper, Mae, and Big Mama, demonstrate stifling marriage relationships. Big Daddy, though, is one of the most interesting characters in that he illustrates the strange relationship one can have with one's possessions.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Being Earnest, By Oscar Wilde

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    Is lying wrong? While lying strikes almost everyone as an immoral act, people often find themselves telling “little white lies.” In Oscar Wilde’s witty play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the word earnest implies seriousness and sincerity, yet the two protagonists, Jack and Algernon, both deceive people around them. To escape the constraints of society, each one fabricates a fictitious alter ego named Earnest. When their finances, who swore they could only marry a man named Earnest, discover the truth, chaos ensues. Meanwhile, Wilde cleverly reveals the consequences of petty untruths.

    Read More

  • Is Lying Always Bad?

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    Secondly, it is okay to be untruthful if you are trying to protect people. In certain situations, it is safer, and more practical for you to tell a lie rather than putting a loved one in jeopardy. To illustrate you may be in a situation where you are in a serious or dangerous situation, and you do not what anyone else involved, to keep them safe. For example, if you are getting held up for ransom, would you tell the truth to a loved one and get them involved, or lie and keep them safe? The obvious answer is to keep them safe at all costs, even if it means lying. Also, you do not want to put someone in harm’s way, so it would be ...

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Telling The Truth

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Telling the truth teaches one person self- respect for themselves and others as well. Telling the truth also sets a good example for others to do the same thing and make a “chain reaction”. People can make a “chain reaction” by passing on what they have done from one person to another, and before you know it, everyone is changing greatly, and the world is progressing tremendously. Lies are told all around the world, and they are told every day. One lie can often lead to another lie and cause you to be caught up in one big lie that will be hard to get out of if people do not tell the truth. If a person thinks that is okay to lie, they better think again, the truth always comes out no matter how hard a person tries to keep it in, or how much someone thinks that they can get away with lying. No person can keep in or hold a grudge with what they have done. After all, telling the truth is the right thing to do, and everyone should do it. Telling the truth is always much easier than the trouble of a

    Read More

More about Theme Of Truth In Tennessee Williams Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Open Document