The Pollitt Love Languages

A unique story of love (or lack thereof), family, and mendacity, Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" leaves many things left unsaid.  Although the story is full of [mainly] women talking non-stop, is anything real being said?  Both Big Mama and Maggie can both yap their lives away, but their husbands pay them little attention, and it seems as though talking is simply a way for the two women to fill the emptiness that is so apparent in their relationships.  Talking, therefore, could be seen as the only thing left for the Pollitt women to do, as they both seem to have given up everything else to have a family with their significant others.  Maggie, for instance, who has married up in society, struggles throughout the play to keep her marriage alive.

What, then, does marriage signify?  Success?  Power?  Certainly not happiness.  And yet, everyone in the story creates lies and attempts to cover up the unhappiness that they feel.  Brick uses alcohol, Big Daddy uses material goods, and even Gooper can hide behind his financial and familial stability.  Further, the Pollitt men eventually reach a breaking point, telling their wives to shut up and giving them the freedom to find other men.  Despite these obvious, verbal gifts of independence, the women pretend as if they are either joking or are appalled and refuse altogether.

The 1958 film adaptation with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman takes a firm stance on Brick, showing him as heterosexual and simply being deprived of love from his family, specifically his father.  This position is possibly a result having of big stars in a Hollywood movie, thus needing to take the safer route in order to succeed.  Big Daddy is shown to be a materialistic husband and father; his way of showing love to his family.  Brick and Big Daddy have a big blowout in the basement about the definition of love.  Big Daddy believes he is showing love through what he will leave behind -- much of his energy has been spent trying to make sure  that his family can live comfortably, without worrying about money.  Brick, on the other hand, believes that love from his father should be about time, conversing, and getting to know each other.  I think both Big Daddy and Brick are correct in their understandings of love languages (although Big Daddy's materialism is portrayed in an extreme way by Brick), but it does not seem that they ever come to understand each other; that they are stubborn, in a sense, and will not give into the other person's definition of what love is.

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New York: Penguin, 1955. Print.