Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a three-act play, written in 1955 by Tennessee Williams, an adaptation of his 1952 short story Three Players of a Summer Game. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in the "plantation home in the Mississippi Delta" of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie the "Cat", Brick's wife. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features motifs such as social mores, greed, superficiality, mendacity, decay, sexual desire, repression and death.


 * See also Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)

Brick

 * One man has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true! I had friendship with Skipper. You are namin' it dirty!

Big Daddy

 * What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?

Maggie

 * I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all.


 * One more crack, queenie, just one, and I will not only spit in your eye but I will punch it black and blue!

Dialogue

 * Maggie: I'll win, all right.
 * Brick: Win what? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
 * Maggie: Just staying on it, I guess. As long as she can.


 * Big Daddy: Why do you drink so much?
 * Brick: Gimme another drink and I'll tell you.