Domestic Realism in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Throughout the play of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" various members of the family are at loggerheads. However, this comes to a climax in this passage as Big Daddy's imminent death is confirmed and the question of the heir to the estate becomes an important issue. The Oxford Companion to American Literature describes the play as "depicting bitter, abnormal family tensions". These family tensions are clearly seen in this passage. Big Daddy is dying and the only characters who appear to be more concerned about his death than the estate are Big Mama and Maggie, "Precious Mommy. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry". Maggie is sorry for the death of Big Daddy and all the petty arguments surrounding it. "Big Daddy is not going to die" This denial of what the doctors have claimed as inevitable is evidence of her not wanting Big Daddy to die. Mae and Gooper, however, seem to be desperate to get rid of him. "Eventualities have to be considered and now's the time". This is inhumane of Gooper and he is wrong when he claims, "now's the time". Big Mama is still discovering Big Daddy is going to die and Gooper is forcing legalities on her. "Understanding is needed on this place". This is one of the truest comments within the play. Almost every member of family is at a disagreement with another. The family is very broken up and there is a lot of understanding needed to break these "abnormal family tensions". "I guess you must have needed a lot of it…with your father's liquor problem". This is a bitter comment and demonstrates the relationship between Maggie and Mae. Throughout this passage there is a c... ... middle of paper ... ...n Brick and Gooper due to this rivalry and that it is merely emphasised in this conflict. Before Tennessee Williams and some of his contemporise, such as Arthur Miller, theatrical dramas were often about a glamorised or sanitised version of domestic events rather than a realistic portrayal. However, Williams does not glamorise life and the events within "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" may be a realistic definement of family life in the 1950's. The Second World War had cost America many young lives. Therefore, the social conventions and family hierarchies may have been adjusting to life after the war. The emotions within the play are not sanitised but Tennessee Williams demonstrates the devastating effects of the family tensions. Williams rightly deserves the criticism of "Furthering domestic realism in American Drama".
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof In the game of life, a man is given the option 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 between past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. "
The patriarchal figures in both plays are portrayed as omnipotent. In other words, both male figures belief that their rules must be obeyed and the expectations they have for their children must be exceeded. Tennessee Williams, depicts Big Daddy as the leader of Brick´s family. Big Daddy is described as an old aristocratic man, living in a mansion. Big Daddy represents the successful American men during the 1950´s a man of power and family priorities. Although this patriarchal figure shows his love for his family through materialism, he also portrays a dominating face through his actions towards his son.
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.
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. As a successful playwright, his career was greatly influenced by events in his life. He was noted for bringing the reader "a slice of his own life and the feel of southern culture", as his primary sources of inspiration were "the writers he grew up with, his family, and the South." The connection between his life and his work can be seen in several of his plays.
In Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire the characters represent two opposing themes. These themes are of illusion and reality. The two characters that demonstrate these themes are Blanche, and Stanley. Blanche represents the theme of Illusion, with her lies, and excuses. Stanley demonstrates the theme of reality with his straightforward vulgar ness. Tennessee Williams uses these characters effectively to demonstrate these themes, while also using music and background characters to reinforce one another.
The plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun, deal with the love, honor, and respect of family. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda, the caring but overbearing and over protective mother, wants to be taken care of, but in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, as she is known, is the overseer of the family. The prospective of the plays identify that we have family members, like Amanda, as overprotective, or like Mama, as overseers. I am going to give a contrast of the mothers in the plays.
Mama’s dreams were first deferred when she moved into the small apartment that the Youngers family stay in through out most of the play. She became too busy that she couldn’t accomplish her dream. She also could not for fill her dreams since she did not have enough money to do so. Her dreams were even more shattered with the death of her husband, but when she got the money from her husband’s death her dreams then became a reality again. Mama wants Travis to be happy and play in the garden but she cannot do this since they live in a dirty ghetto.
fact that Jim did im fact turn out to be engaged. I guess that I
The lacking of a positive male role model can be very troublesome for any family; especially during the mid-thirties. Prior to the Second World War, women did not have significant roles in the workforce and depended on their husbands or fathers to provide for them financially. There were limited government assistance programs during the era of The Great Depression, and it was up to the families to provide for themselves. The absence of Mr. Wingfield placed enormous strains on the physical as well as mental wellbeing of his family. The effects the abandonment of their father had on the Wingfield family from Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie are undeniable.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around Amanda's search to find Laura a "gentleman caller. The Glass Menagerie's plot closely mirrors actual events in the author's life. Because Williams related so well to the characters and situations, he was able to beautifully portray the play's theme through his creative use of symbolism.
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.
Reality can be difficult to bear and countless individuals attempt to find any way they can to escape it. Sometimes, the stress life brings can become too overbearing and taxing, causing mental and physical deterioration and fatigue. This was exactly the case for Blanche DuBois, the main character in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She found herself lying to those in her life, including herself, concerning who she is and was. She refused to face reality and instead created a false persona she used to hide from her true existence in the shadows of insanity and deception. Slipping further away from what was genuine, wanting to live in a world of magic where none existed, she eventually was forced into a pit of lunacy and depression
Literary realism is the trend, beginning with mid nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors, toward depictions of contemporary life and society as it was, or is. In the spirit of general "realism," realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation. (Wikipedia, Literary Realism)
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.