Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
...rings a new, deeper level to Brick and Maggie’s failing marriage. Skipper, while a very close friend of Brick’s, is also the man who slept with his wife. The love triangle between Brick, Maggie, and Skipper brings irony into Williams’ play. Because of their combined relationships, Maggie has a moment of truth; before the story began Maggie confessed her affair with Skipper to Brick, but now regrets telling him the truth, looking back she thinks she should have lied. At the closing of the story, a final twist is brought into the family, a lie told by Maggie. Throughout the entire story pressure has been put upon Brick by his parents to reproduce an heir that will be as loved by Big Daddy as Brick. In a desperate attempt to save face in the family, Maggie announces that she is pregnant with Brick’s child, a lie she claims will be fact later. This is a nearly impossible situation, however, since Brick refuses to sleep in the same bed as his wife. Even though Brick’s brother Gooper and his wife Mae are skeptical, the rest of the family is overjoyed for Maggie, and the lie only builds Big Daddy’s favoritism of Brick. “I’m going to tell [Big Daddy] his dream’s come true this minute! A child will make you pull yourself together,” cries Mama after hearing Maggie’s news. (Williams 972) Maggie and Brick aren’t the only family members who kept secrets though. Gooper and his wife Mae are also guilty of keeping their own secrets, but in a different way. Unlike Brick and Maggie, Gooper and Mae have five children and a sixth on the way. Even though Gooper and his father, Big Daddy, never got along he believes that he is the rightful heir to the family plantation, despite the fact that Brick is the family’s obvious favorite. During an argument Mama called out, “Where’s Brick? Where is my only son,” completely forgetting her first born son, Gooper. (Williams 962) Because of this Gooper and Mae began scheming behind the rest of the family’s backs. Gooper even went as far as having legal papers regarding the family’s assets drawn up with out telling anyone else, something that angered all members of the family, especially Mama, who reminded the rest of the family that she is, “[Big Daddy’s] wife, not his widow”. (Williams 970) Throughout the play, there is one lie that connects all the others. Near the beginning of the play, both Big Daddy and Big Mama were told that Big Daddy suffered from a ‘spastic colon,’ the truth was known by the rest of the family, that he has cancer that will eventually kill him. This lie was one of the only ones in the play to be told with good intentions, Big Daddy wasn’t told the truth because it was believed it would lead him into depression and death sooner. “Nobody says, “You’re dying,” You have to fool them,” explains Maggie when asked about the lie. (Williams 906) Mama also wasn’t told because the family and doctors believed that her reaction would be too much for her husband to handle. This lie begins many of the others in the play, after hearing the news of Big Daddy’s condition Gooper and Mae begin their plan to take over the family plantation, while Maggie, also desperate to inherit the family’s assets, begins to work hard...