er. However, Brick's father (Big Daddy) doesn't know about his upcoming demise until he confronts his son about his homosexuality and Brick responds by letting Big Daddy know that he hasn't long left. A more complex play than The Glass Menagerie, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof still addresses many of the themes from The Glass Menagerie; themes that were common in all of Williams' work. With The Glass Menagerie and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams displays the skills that made him one of America's most prominent playwrights; addressing psychological motives, using autobiographical elements, and creating truly heart-wrenching tragedy, Williams weaves tales that, despite some dramatic variations, develop characters that Americans can both identify with and despise.
             Williams' plays are as much character portraits as they are stories; Williams did not write actions for his characters, he wrote his characters and then let their personalities, pasts, desires, and fears dictate their action (3-381). These psychological motives are abundant in The Glass Menagerie and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Williams' traumatic past and the resulting aimlessness is a constant in his works; most of his characters suffer a psychological lack of direction; Joseph K. Davis calls them "landscapes of the dislocated mind" (Davis 381). This lack of direction is especially well defined in Williams' male characters; characters like Tom and Brick. Tom and Brick reflect the emotional turmoil that plagued Williams his whole life, and while many of their tribulations are the same, the two characters are not mirror images of one another.
             Tom is listless; a poetic individual by nature, his poor economic situation and smothering family have dimmed his creative flame, denying him the creative, productive life that he could potentially lead. Tom's stifling environment make him apathetic and angry, but Tom is above all th...