Publication
Signet (1958), Edition: Reissue, 192 pages
Original publication date
1955
1975, revised version
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Awards
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Drama — 1955)
Tony Award (Nominee — Play — 1956)
New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (1954-1955)
Description
For use in schools and libraries only. Maggie the Cat fights for the lives of her damaged and drinking husband Brick, herself, and their unborn children in the revised version of the dramatization of Big Daddy's birthday and deathday party and family gathering.
User reviews
LibraryThing member marfita
I played Sisterwoman at the little theatre in Winthrop, MA. It was directed by ... let's not go into that little prig. It was my introduction to that group and the man playing Gooper later directed me in "Mack and Mabel." This is a classic story about how it's not your fault that someone else is
I'd like to add that the no-neck monsters in this production were the most professional kids I've ever seen in a show. They sat in the back, huddled in their winter coats, coloring until it was their scene. You never had to prod them to do anything nor did they make so much as a peep.
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gay. I don't suppose anyone cares anymore, but it's a tour de force for those of us who enjoy chewing the scenery. Bless you, Mr. Williams. Word of advice: don't put this on in the wintertime in a theatre that has the heat sucked out of it every time a plane either lands or takes off from the nearby airport. Maggie won everyone's sympathy the instant she took an ice cube and ran it up her arm to "cool off." You could hear the audience sucking back a gasp in unison. The rest of the time we swear we could see their breath.I'd like to add that the no-neck monsters in this production were the most professional kids I've ever seen in a show. They sat in the back, huddled in their winter coats, coloring until it was their scene. You never had to prod them to do anything nor did they make so much as a peep.
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LibraryThing member gbill
In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams pulls the covers back on a Southern family to reveal frustration, unfulfilled dreams, drinking, and sorrow over a friend’s suicide. It’s a dark play, and shocking in 1955 for its language, overtones of homosexual attraction, and frank discussions about sex,
Quotes:
Love the preface, from Dylan Thomas:
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”
On alcohol:
“A drinking man’s someone who wants to forget he isn’t still young an’ believing.”
On loneliness:
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’love doesn’t love you…”
On marriage:
Brick: “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. You keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.”
Margaret [out before she knows it]: “I’m not living with you. We occupy the same cage.”
[…She turns at the door and points at the bed.]
“When a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there!”
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older generation included. Deception and disappointment abound here, the most striking of which is remaining married without love. Powerful stuff.Quotes:
Love the preface, from Dylan Thomas:
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”
On alcohol:
“A drinking man’s someone who wants to forget he isn’t still young an’ believing.”
On loneliness:
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’love doesn’t love you…”
On marriage:
Brick: “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. You keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.”
Margaret [out before she knows it]: “I’m not living with you. We occupy the same cage.”
[…She turns at the door and points at the bed.]
“When a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there!”
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LibraryThing member StephenBarkley
I know I'm supposed to adore this book. It's one of America's premiere plays. "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" is proudly stamped on the cover. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to resonate with me. Perhaps it's because I'm a minister, and this is a story of horrible relationships that would take
The dialogue is quick and brilliant—I'd love to see it performed live. Williams did a fantastic job of displaying broken relationships; he just forgot to provide any hope for his characters' future. In both versions of the third act, the resolution can hardly be considered even a minor step forward between husband and wife.
If you're the sort of person who draws hope from relationships that are more damaged than your own, this might interest you. If you're looking for an example of the human condition—family dynamics gone awry—this is an excellent case-study. I suppose I was looking for something more.
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any pastoral counselor ages to sort out.The dialogue is quick and brilliant—I'd love to see it performed live. Williams did a fantastic job of displaying broken relationships; he just forgot to provide any hope for his characters' future. In both versions of the third act, the resolution can hardly be considered even a minor step forward between husband and wife.
If you're the sort of person who draws hope from relationships that are more damaged than your own, this might interest you. If you're looking for an example of the human condition—family dynamics gone awry—this is an excellent case-study. I suppose I was looking for something more.
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LibraryThing member reedchr3
Williams is one of the playwrights that inspired me to pick up a pen. Before reading this play, I had not realized how much of a story could be told over the course of one night, within one family, even in one room. Of course, it wasn't long before I came to understand that tighter connections and
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a tighter story meant that the drama would be allowed to raise its stakes even higher, but Williams was the first to open my eyes to that and similar ideas, and he did it with this play. Williams is not taught as frequently as Miller, and when he is, Cat is not the go to text ('Streetcar' usually gets the honor), but I would love to see that changed. Show Less
LibraryThing member AlCracka
"Living with someone you love can be lonelier - than living entirely alone!
- Margaret, Act 1
"Life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is - all - over..."
- Margaret, Act I
So here is Tennessee Williams coming out, with his customary rage and insight. And darkness.
Once
Act III doesn't quite work. The infamous Elia Kazan convinced Williams to rewrite it, and that version works even less; either way, the play matters in its first act with Margaret's tour de force, and its second, with its duet between Big Daddy and Brick. The third act is an afterthought; Williams has said what he wanted to say already.
Shit is ill.
- Margaret, Act 1
"Life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is - all - over..."
- Margaret, Act I
So here is Tennessee Williams coming out, with his customary rage and insight. And darkness.
Once
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again, I'm surprised. This is the most I've seen homosexuality dealt with, so far; EM Forster hinted at it, and there was Oscar Wilde, but it was all innuendo and shadows before. This feels very bold, and I was snapped back and impressed.Act III doesn't quite work. The infamous Elia Kazan convinced Williams to rewrite it, and that version works even less; either way, the play matters in its first act with Margaret's tour de force, and its second, with its duet between Big Daddy and Brick. The third act is an afterthought; Williams has said what he wanted to say already.
Shit is ill.
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LibraryThing member 391
A deliciously dark and painful look at family drama.
LibraryThing member HotWolfie
This is my favorite Tennessee WIlliams play. All of the characters are distinctive and unique, and there is a lot of substance to the story. Maggie "The Cat" is a character that really sinks her claws into the audience. The dialog is raw and compelling, and it's interesting to read about characters
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who strike out so cruelly at each other, but still harbor love for one another. This is a play about infidelity, homosexuality, greed, unrequited love, and family drama. Show Less
LibraryThing member br13wivan
Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is an impressive play, notably for how Williams exhibits such a large part of the human experience in just the few short hours that pass by in the play. He includes pieces of life, death, religion, science, sexuality, love... He puts so much into it, it is
The play takes place at a plantation on the delta of the Mississippi River. The plantation is “the most fertile land west of the Nile,” and all of it is owned by a very rich man, known only as Big Daddy. The day that the play takes place on is Big Daddy’s birthday. All of his family is there, but they aren’t there only for his birthday. They are there also because Big Daddy is dying of cancer (though he doesn’t know it), and want to take the land before the other sibling gets it. There are two pairs of contenders. There’s Brick and Maggie, who Big Daddy likes more, but who don’t have any kids because of their loveless marriage (giving rise to the metaphor - “Maggie the Cat” is trapped in this loveless marriage - the hot tin roof - and, like an actual cat on an actual tin roof, has to jump off - or in her case leave Brick- before she gets hurt too much). And then there is Gooper and Mae, who Big Daddy kind of hates, specifically because they have a bunch of annoying kids who are always either being obnoxious or showing off to Big Daddy. In the end, the plantation is still being fought over, but Maggie hopes to take the lead by claiming pregnancy, redeeming her and Brick from their recent failures (Brick’s drinking, unemployment, and general public humiliation).
The play was well done and very clever. However, it seems to fall short (if only to myself) because it wasn’t exciting enough. Not to say that it was boring; plays can’t be as boring as books because there’s always something happening, always someone talking in plays, and so there isn’t any time for the author to clog things up with ramblings (which happens too often in books). It’s just... The play was one (albeit dramatic) night of what usually was pretty run-of-the-mill, mundane things. That doesn’t bring it down too much though. Four and a half stars.
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amazing. There is, of course, the metaphor of the roof (and the cat upon it) that adds to the story (figurative language is almost always a plus), but it doesn’t affect the story’s standing nearly as much.The play takes place at a plantation on the delta of the Mississippi River. The plantation is “the most fertile land west of the Nile,” and all of it is owned by a very rich man, known only as Big Daddy. The day that the play takes place on is Big Daddy’s birthday. All of his family is there, but they aren’t there only for his birthday. They are there also because Big Daddy is dying of cancer (though he doesn’t know it), and want to take the land before the other sibling gets it. There are two pairs of contenders. There’s Brick and Maggie, who Big Daddy likes more, but who don’t have any kids because of their loveless marriage (giving rise to the metaphor - “Maggie the Cat” is trapped in this loveless marriage - the hot tin roof - and, like an actual cat on an actual tin roof, has to jump off - or in her case leave Brick- before she gets hurt too much). And then there is Gooper and Mae, who Big Daddy kind of hates, specifically because they have a bunch of annoying kids who are always either being obnoxious or showing off to Big Daddy. In the end, the plantation is still being fought over, but Maggie hopes to take the lead by claiming pregnancy, redeeming her and Brick from their recent failures (Brick’s drinking, unemployment, and general public humiliation).
The play was well done and very clever. However, it seems to fall short (if only to myself) because it wasn’t exciting enough. Not to say that it was boring; plays can’t be as boring as books because there’s always something happening, always someone talking in plays, and so there isn’t any time for the author to clog things up with ramblings (which happens too often in books). It’s just... The play was one (albeit dramatic) night of what usually was pretty run-of-the-mill, mundane things. That doesn’t bring it down too much though. Four and a half stars.
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LibraryThing member bookworm12
A southern family gathers to celebrate its patriarch Big Daddy’s birthday. His two sons are as different as can be. The elder, Gooper, is married to a nauseating woman and has five obnoxious kids with another on the way. The younger, Brick, is an alcoholic struggling with a horrible depression.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for its deft portrayal of a family full of secrets. Contempt, greed, adultery, etc. the story is ripe with issues. Williams has a wonderful talented for capturing the fissure in relationships and people’s psyches. Brick is horrible to Maggie, talking to her with utter contempt. His treatment of his wife is a learned behavior. His father, Big Daddy, has treated his own wife with disdain for forty years. In his own words…
“All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone, but she can’t admit to herself that she makes me sick.”
Maggie the Cat’s loneliness is palpable. I’ve never encountered a character so isolated and trapped in her own life. Her husband Brick is so broken, whether it’s because of his feelings for his dead friend Skipper or his guilt over Skipper’s death or both. We know that Skipper loved Brick, but we don’t know whether Brick felt the same, only that he was so bothered by Skipper’s confession that he hung up on him.
BOTTOM LINE: The play is an enthralling portrait of loneliness. You can't look away.
**The edition I read had two versions of the third act. The first was the ending as Williams originally imagined it. The second was a rewrite that Elia Kazan encouraged Williams to do. Both are interesting, the major change is the absence or presence of Big Daddy.
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ love doesn’t love you.”
The 1958 film version makes a few major changes, notably the absence of any reference to homosexuality. It completely leaves out the bits about the former owners of the plantation. It makes Brick and Skipper’s relationship into a dependant friendship, but never touches on the issue of homosexuality. It stars Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor; she is particularly mesmerizing as Maggie.
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His wife Maggie is beautiful, but is cracking under the strain of trying to hold her marriage together. Their complicated relationship seems irrevocably broken, though we don’t know why at first. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for its deft portrayal of a family full of secrets. Contempt, greed, adultery, etc. the story is ripe with issues. Williams has a wonderful talented for capturing the fissure in relationships and people’s psyches. Brick is horrible to Maggie, talking to her with utter contempt. His treatment of his wife is a learned behavior. His father, Big Daddy, has treated his own wife with disdain for forty years. In his own words…
“All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone, but she can’t admit to herself that she makes me sick.”
Maggie the Cat’s loneliness is palpable. I’ve never encountered a character so isolated and trapped in her own life. Her husband Brick is so broken, whether it’s because of his feelings for his dead friend Skipper or his guilt over Skipper’s death or both. We know that Skipper loved Brick, but we don’t know whether Brick felt the same, only that he was so bothered by Skipper’s confession that he hung up on him.
BOTTOM LINE: The play is an enthralling portrait of loneliness. You can't look away.
**The edition I read had two versions of the third act. The first was the ending as Williams originally imagined it. The second was a rewrite that Elia Kazan encouraged Williams to do. Both are interesting, the major change is the absence or presence of Big Daddy.
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ love doesn’t love you.”
The 1958 film version makes a few major changes, notably the absence of any reference to homosexuality. It completely leaves out the bits about the former owners of the plantation. It makes Brick and Skipper’s relationship into a dependant friendship, but never touches on the issue of homosexuality. It stars Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor; she is particularly mesmerizing as Maggie.
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LibraryThing member jaevans45
One of my favorites of Williams. As I read I felt the emotions of the characters.
LibraryThing member ccampeaux
This book was not the interesting to me. It couldn't keep me wanting to read, I would get bored with it easily.
LibraryThing member varwenea
“What is the smell in this room? Don’t you notice it, Brick? Don’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?”
In a “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Tennessee Williams shows us the darker side of a Southern family – lies, cover-ups, desires, frustrations, lovelessness,
Originally staged in New York in 1955, this Pulitzer Prize winning play unveiled a new reality that was unprecedented in the era of “I Love Lucy”. (My book is the 1974 version where Act III was completely rewritten plus other heavy revisions.) This play was notably named for Margaret who finds herself in a loveless marriage, but not willing to leave it either. “I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.” Replies her uncaring husband, Brick, “Then jump off the roof…” and “Take a lover!” Yikes.
Some quotes:
The book has this preface from Dylan Thomas – there’s a lot of raging alright…:
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”
On loneliness – so sad..:
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ love doesn’t love you…”
A broken marriage – Geez, why do they bother to stay together…:
Brick: “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. You keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.”
Margaret [out before she knows it]: “I’m not living with you. We occupy the same cage.”
On life that has lost its luster:
“…My only point, the only point that I’m making, is life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is – all – over.”
On post war Europe:
“… That Europe is nothin’ on earth but a great big auction, that’s all it is, that bunch of old worn-out place, it’s just a big fire-sale, the whole fuckin’ thing…”
On death:
“—the human animal is a beast that dies and if he’s got money he buys and buys and buys and I think the reason he buys everything he can buy is that in the back of his mind he has the crazy hope that one of his purchases will be life everlasting! -- Which it never can be…”
And
“Ignorance – of mortality – is a comfort. A man don’t have that comfort, he’s the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is…”
In a “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Tennessee Williams shows us the darker side of a Southern family – lies, cover-ups, desires, frustrations, lovelessness,
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illness, greed, sex, childlessness, sibling rivalry, hints of homosexuality, alcoholism, and regret. One leads to another, and no one is happy or satisfied. It’s a rather miserable family who simply don’t like each other. This play spans only a few hours’ time where all these themes come to a head, and the cards are revealed. Yet, it doesn’t feel rushed. Bravo. Originally staged in New York in 1955, this Pulitzer Prize winning play unveiled a new reality that was unprecedented in the era of “I Love Lucy”. (My book is the 1974 version where Act III was completely rewritten plus other heavy revisions.) This play was notably named for Margaret who finds herself in a loveless marriage, but not willing to leave it either. “I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.” Replies her uncaring husband, Brick, “Then jump off the roof…” and “Take a lover!” Yikes.
Some quotes:
The book has this preface from Dylan Thomas – there’s a lot of raging alright…:
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”
On loneliness – so sad..:
“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ love doesn’t love you…”
A broken marriage – Geez, why do they bother to stay together…:
Brick: “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. You keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.”
Margaret [out before she knows it]: “I’m not living with you. We occupy the same cage.”
On life that has lost its luster:
“…My only point, the only point that I’m making, is life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is – all – over.”
On post war Europe:
“… That Europe is nothin’ on earth but a great big auction, that’s all it is, that bunch of old worn-out place, it’s just a big fire-sale, the whole fuckin’ thing…”
On death:
“—the human animal is a beast that dies and if he’s got money he buys and buys and buys and I think the reason he buys everything he can buy is that in the back of his mind he has the crazy hope that one of his purchases will be life everlasting! -- Which it never can be…”
And
“Ignorance – of mortality – is a comfort. A man don’t have that comfort, he’s the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is…”
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LibraryThing member dandelionroots
Three act play staged over the course of a single day in a bed/sitting room of a Mississippi plantation in the '50s. Big Daddy is sick and his two sons with their wives/children have returned to celebrate his birthday/ensure their interests are upheld. Presents two versions of Act III, the original
"Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early - almost before you're half-acquainted with life - you meet with the other." (Big Mama)
"Always lived with too much space around me to be infected by ideas of other people." (Big Daddy)
"I have to hear that little click in my head that makes me peaceful. It's just a mechanical thing, something like a switch clicking off in my head, turning the hot light off and the cool night on. Usually I hear it sooner than this, sometimes as early as noon, but today it's dilatory. I just haven't got the right level of alcohol in my bloodstream yet!" (Brick)
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is by far superior - the altered version caters to pansy audiences and their need for rosier endings. The tempo of the dialogue is remarkable, draws you forcibly onward - setting it down mid-act was impossible. Also, I had no idea Paul Newman was so dreamy - the image on his pasta sauce jar doesn't do him justice."Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early - almost before you're half-acquainted with life - you meet with the other." (Big Mama)
"Always lived with too much space around me to be infected by ideas of other people." (Big Daddy)
"I have to hear that little click in my head that makes me peaceful. It's just a mechanical thing, something like a switch clicking off in my head, turning the hot light off and the cool night on. Usually I hear it sooner than this, sometimes as early as noon, but today it's dilatory. I just haven't got the right level of alcohol in my bloodstream yet!" (Brick)
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LibraryThing member sriddell
An American classic play. Tennessee Williams was a prolific playwrite and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of his best.
All the characters are fatally flawed, and Williams shows us how human and frail they each are. I started out disliking all of them, but over the course of the play a few of them
The version I read (listened to) had two alternate 3rd acts, along with William's description of how each version came to be. The first version was Williams' original vision. But after conferring with his long-time director Elia Kazen, Williams rewrote the 3rd act to 1) give Big Daddy a 3rd act appearance and 2) to show Maggie in a more flattering light.
The 2nd version is the one that was performed on Broadway, and I think is the version included in the several movies. And definitely the version I preferred myself.
All the characters are fatally flawed, and Williams shows us how human and frail they each are. I started out disliking all of them, but over the course of the play a few of them
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started to grow on me.The version I read (listened to) had two alternate 3rd acts, along with William's description of how each version came to be. The first version was Williams' original vision. But after conferring with his long-time director Elia Kazen, Williams rewrote the 3rd act to 1) give Big Daddy a 3rd act appearance and 2) to show Maggie in a more flattering light.
The 2nd version is the one that was performed on Broadway, and I think is the version included in the several movies. And definitely the version I preferred myself.
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LibraryThing member djh_1962
This is a wonderful play to simply read, tense, dramatic and poetic. I have never seen it in the theatre but know the Richard Brooks film to which drastic and somewhat dramatically unsatisfying Nathum Tate type changes were made. I hadn't though realised that Williams made significant (different,
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less drastic) changes to Act 3 for the New York production at the behest of Kazan. This edition has both versions of Act 3. The later version is unquestionably inferior in every way and you get a clear sense that Willams knows that from the essays included. Fascinating. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0451171128 / 9780451171122
Physical description
192 p.; 4.32 inches
Pages
192