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American Literature: Drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams ( 1911 – 1983)

American Literature: Drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams ( 1911 – 1983) . Introduction Written 1955; Broadway debut 1956 i. Plot Centres around Big Daddy’s birthday party Big Daddy dying Pollitt family vying to inherit large estate. What the play is about Ambiguous

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American Literature: Drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams ( 1911 – 1983)

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  1. American Literature: DramaCat on a Hot Tin RoofTennessee Williams (1911 – 1983)

  2. Introduction • Written 1955; Broadway debut 1956 • i.Plot • Centres around Big Daddy’s birthday party • Big Daddy dying • Pollitt family vying to inherit large estate

  3. What the play is about • Ambiguous • Homosexual relationship • Troubled marriage • Communication difficulties • Family squabbles over inheritance

  4. iii. Relevance for today?

  5. iv. Context of the South • Mississippi Delta

  6. Noble past? • Conservative values

  7. Patriarchal family • Family hierarchy • Father = head of family • Mother subordinate to father • Child-rearing conforms to gender roles

  8. Microcosm vs. macrocosm • Microcosm = family • Macrocosm = society • Family reflects US society • Time of big social change

  9. 2. Dramatic Form • Realistic dramatic form • Stage – proscenium arch • Set • Time • Furniture • Lighting

  10. ii. Non-realist dimension iii. Patterns of movement on the stage • Crossing and counter-crossing • Facilitates theme of entrapment and imprisonment

  11. 3. Writer on Communication • Artist’s need to communicate truth “People who are shocked by the truth, aren’t deserving of the truth. And the truth is something one has to deserve.” Tennessee Williams (www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7L8EIdFmj4) • No absolute truth • Play communicates: - Human truths and emotions - American society and its values - Personal concerns – Williams’ homosexuality

  12. 4. Characters and central concerns of the play

  13. i. Big Daddy Powerful patriarch Needs successor Terminally ill • Self-made • Coarse • Sexual entitlement • Tolerant?/ sympathetic

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