The Struggle for survival in Tennessee Williams's "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"

Abstract

Abstract:

Tennessee Williams is one of the most influential American modern dramatists. His dramatic oeuvres are still disputable from many different viewpoints because of the issues they tackled. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1955) is one on Williams's master pieces beside his "A Streetcar Named Desire", "The Glass Menagerie" and "The Night of the Iguana" which are considered representative and pioneering oeuvres in the American drama. The sense of inner struggle among his characters underlies most of his dramas

This wok is a domestic one in which we witness the atrocious face of the American materialism and capitalism (the most influential doctrines spread then). The play hovers above a dilapidated family. The family is composed of the parents and two sons each with his wife. The father is suffering from cancer but his sons hide this fact from their bed-ridden father till the end when Brick overtly reveals the conceived truth. This father does not trust his elder son (the canting and lying Gooper) who has five children on the contrary he prefers his younger son Brick though not without infallibilities.

The two sons target to satisfy their father that each of them has the ability to prosper and flourish the inheriting properties. On the other hand, they try to mar the reputation and the good characteristics of each other. The sons are guided by their wives who desire to gain the lion's share of their father in law's wealth.  So, the sons and their wives aim to persuade the father that they are the best and the fittest to keep his wealth in a safe hand through their canting and lying deportments and ploys except his addicted son who is indifferent to the temptations of his age. They are in a destructive warfare to gain the largest amount of the wealth.

The researcher is going to highlight the positive sides and derides ugly and bad ones in each of the characters reaching his aim which is to determine who the most faithful, the most honest person and the fittest to live as a trusted person is through the critics' viewpoints which strengthen his opinions.  The researcher finally judges these characters through suitable analyses for each of them then he decides how the loyal and honest people are hard to be found so they deserve to be regarded the fittest to survive. Reaching his conclusion where the researcher uncovers that honest people are the fittest to improve and flourish the society and wealth. So, Brick is the fittest of these characters