Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Script Analysis PDF

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Julie Schaefer Stagecraft – Script Analysis

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The play is one continuous scene, set in the bed-sitting room of Margaret and Brick, in the home of Bricks father, Big Daddy, a Delta planter. It is Victorian, with a touch of the Far East, a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta. Off stage are rooms of Gooper and Mae, Big Mama and Big Daddy, and the gallery. The house is a plantation home, decorated still from its last owners. The bed-sitting room is furnished with a bed, a radio-phonograph television set, and liquor cabinet. It also has a bathroom to the side, door slightly opened, showing the tiles of the floor. The sepia toned interior contrasts with that of the cool exterior tones, with the set roofed by the sky. The space has room for the actors to move about freely, exemplifying the characters restless need to break free from the cages created by themselves and others. Big Daddy is the head of the house, slowly being taken over by his family, because he is dying of cancer and everyone wants a share in his property. Gooper and Mae want the property for themselves and their five children, while Big Daddy wants to bestow it on his favorite son Brick, who is slowly losing himself to alcohol. Big Mama cares about Big Daddy’s opinions, but wishes that Brick and Margaret would have children. Margaret wants this as well, but finds that Brick does not care for her anymore because he is sinking into oblivion from the guilt of his best friend’s death. It is revealed that Brick and Skipper, his best friend, may have had feelings toward each other. It

unnerves Brick to think of himself as a “lush”, and so he dodges away from life through alcohol. Money appears to be a driving force of the play. It fuels Gooper and Mae to be in good favor with Big Daddy so that they may acquire the estate when he passes. Margaret has grown up poor, and therefor knows the pain of not having money. She tries to make Brick love her, in order that she may conceive a child, so that Big Daddy will bestow the property on them. Big Daddy is also affected by his estate because he worked from the ground up to get what he has now, and is very lax about giving it to anyone. Love also fuels each characters action’s in different way. Margaret loves Brick, but he does not love her back because he sees her as conniving and a driving force behind Skippers death. In a similar way, Big Daddy does not return Big Mama’s affections because she disgusts him and he lusts for younger women. Gooper and Mae love money and the prospect of inheriting all of Big Daddy’s estate. Also, Bricks love for Skipper as a friend, and possibly romantically, cause him to feel guilty about his death and therefor drink his way into oblivion....