Cat on a hot tin roof: Nov 11-12-13

1- Where and when does the story take place?
2- Who are the characters?
3- What is their relationship?
4- What is the mood of the scene?
5- What and whom are they talking about?

• Setting: Place (geographical) & Time (Historical)
• Characterization
• Dramatic Tension
• Plot dialogue

Questions on Study Guide

Context: Write short answers.
What kind of family did Tennessee Williams (TW) have?
Where does his first name come from?
What is the Pulitzer Prize?
How was the original play changed for both Broadway and the cinema?
How did TW die?
What was the new American drama that TW represented?

Plot Overview: Put the events in the correct order.
Maggie confesses to making love with Skipper. _____
The family gets together with Mama and talks of Big Daddy’s cancer._____
Big Daddy asks Brick about his drinking problem. _____
Maggie says the Brick’s brother and wife are plotting to take all the inheritance. _____
Maggie announces that she’s pregnant. _____
Maggie talks about Brick and Skipper’s love for each other. _____
We learn that Brick injured his ankle. _____
Big Daddy enters the room. _____
Brick says that the relationship with Skipper was pure. _____

Character List: Write down all the adjectives used to describe each character. Find the definition of the words you don’t know.

Margaret: (Maggy) hard, nervous, bitchy, lonely and gorgeous (CAT)
Brick: alcoholis, masculine, suppressed homosexual, broken
Big Daddy: (B's father and M's father-in-law) large, brash (agressive), vulgar, fat, redneck, rich
Big Mama: fat, crude, earnest (sincere), dedicated to BD
Mae: (B's sister-in-law, Gooper's husband) mean, agitated, scheming (conspiring)
Gooper:(B's older brother) successful lawyer, eldest son, less loved than B, resentful, only educated one, ruthless (mean)
Reverend Tucker:
Doctor Baugh:
The children:

Analysis of Major Characters:
Why is Maggie the most interesting character?
What does Brick’s injury represent?
Why does Maggie call Big Daddy a “redneck’?
What does Mama desperately want?

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols:
What was American society’s view of homosexuality at the time?
What are the two “lies” in the play?
What does the image of the “cat” represent?
What is Big Daddy’s narcissistic love for Brick?
What do the children represent?

Symbols:What do these three things symbolize?
- Bed
- Console
- Crutch