This narrative traces the legacy of homosociality and misogyny as well as the cultural transition from frontier ideals of freedom, self-reliance, and individualism to Cold War imperatives of consumption and conformity. Particularly, the “Notes for the Designer” and offstage presence of Jack Straw and Peter Ochello Big Daddy’s meditations on his hobo past the relationship between Brick and Big Daddy and their troubled marriages Maggie’s assumption of power in act 3: all are part of a subtle yet persistent historical narrative.
I contend that Williams’s Cat can be fruitfully read as a parable of the changing American dream and its effects on masculinity, which in turn affects the structure of the family and the lives of women. Given recent critical interest in the play’s McCarthy-era context and its complex treatment of homosexuality, the time seems right to reexamine Tennessee Williams’s use of history to discuss gender and inheritance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Generations of Discontent in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Claire Nicolay
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