Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a realist drama, but it can also be further classified as a family drama, a tragedy, and a work influenced by the themes of the Southern Gothic. The tensions between family members and in-laws, most notably between Big Daddy and Brick, are characteristic of the family drama. At the same time, the work is a tragedy because of the lies, secrets, and deaths that permeate it. One of the more tragic scenes in the work is when Big Mama finds out the truth about Big Daddy's cancer in Act 3. 

BIG MAMA [terrified, rising]: Is there? Something? Something that I? Don't--Know? 

[In these few words, this startled, very soft, question, Big Mama reviews the history of her forty-five years with Big Daddy, her great, almost embarrassingly true-hearted and simple-minded devotion to Big Daddy, who must have had something Brick has, who made himself loved so much by the "simple expedient" of not living enough to disturb his charming detachment, also once coupled, like Brick's, with virile beauty.]

Cite this Quote