"Major dramatic writers were influenced and in tern influenced, the
intellectual treads of their times"(Prof. Brent, syllabus). Tennessee
Williams, a dramatis who's painful experiences during his earlier life
contributed to impact his plays. Although he plays are not only
autobiographies he did portray the members of his family in Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie. Williams also
tackles with the themes of illusion and reality in his plays. His plays are
family plays that also include the themes of love, trust and continued
In a Cat On a hot tin Roof, there is a difference between the realistic and
unrealistic characters when they fist appear. Love is also the first theme
introduced. Love that cannot be bought and trappings of the world of
illusion is the single act of buying things, material objects to replace
love. They play in short is about a "big family", the head of the family,
Big Daddy is away with Big Mama for health reasons. Gooper is the first son,
a lawyer and married to Mae. She is pregnant expecting their sixth child.
Brick the second son is married to Maggie but there is no chemistry between
their marriage, which is why Maggie is still childless.
Maggie is one of the realistic characters in the play. Although she is
dissatisfied by the fact that her husband is not sexually intimate with her,
something bigger worries her that is beyond her reach. Maggie is determined
that Big Daddy will die soon, leaving the whole estate and the business to
Gooper and his family. Maggie knows that unless she is able to bear a child
of Bricks they will get nothing out of Big Daddy's fortune. Right from the
beginning she feels that threat, but what she doesn't know is that Big Daddy
already planned to give the fortune to Brick. The reason this is not an
illusion is be...