Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Summary (Part 1)

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  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (part 1)
    • Setting
      • Brick and Maggie's Bedroom
        • "gently and poetically haunted by a relationship that must have involved uncommon tenderness"
      • Pollitt "Plantation home in the Mississippi Delta"
      • Big Daddy's Birthday
    • Maggie is constantly filling the silence and flaunting her looks whilst Brick only replies with the bare minimum of effort and doesn't hide his indifference. Stage directions: "without interest" "wryly" "absently" "dreamily" "cooly" "indifferently"
      • It is obvious that Maggie and Brick are in a incompatible relationship that is doing more harm than good
        • Maggie is trying to rekindle the relationship but Brick has given up completely
    • Brick and Maggie discuss Big Daddy's cancer
    • Briefly bring up Skipper (Brick used to play sports with him and they had a rumoured relationship)
    • Brick has broken his ankle jumping hurdles last night drunk, Gooper and Mae want to send him to rainbow hill (alcoholic rehabilitaion) so they can get Big Daddy's inheritance
      • Brick began heavily drinking after Skipper's death
    • Key Quotes
      • "you keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you" - Brick
        • "They're impossible conditions" - Maggie
      • "A crack in the wall? - of composure" - Maggie
      • "we occupy the same cage" - Maggie
      • "Maggie, honey, if you had children of your own you'd know how funny that is" - Mae
      • "Take a love!" - Brick
      • "I hate locked doors in a house" - Big Mama
      • "some single men stop drinking when they git married and others start!" - Big Mama
      • (points at the bed) "when a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there!" - Big Mama
      • "Fair or not fair... do you make Brick happy in bed?" - Big Mama
        • "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" "Why don't you ask if he makes me happy in bed?" "it works both ways!"
      • "for the first time a realisation of Big Daddy's doom seems to penetrate Brick's consciousness" - stage direction
      • "you can be young without money but you can't be old without it" - Maggie
      • "You're just jealous because you can't have babies!" - Dixie
      • "how in hell on earth do you imagine - that you're going to have a child by a man that can't stand you?" - Brick
    • Mae enters after possible eavesdropping outside to scold Maggie on leaving her archery set around
      • Big Mama comes in to tell Brick about the 'good' news about B.D
    • large theme of unjust. Big Mama is older than Maggie and knows how society works and that women have the purpose of satisfying their husband's, she possibly knows it is unfair but also knows that women can't win

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