A Feminist Reading of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Abstract

The present article aims to study Williams’ play from a feminist perspective, focusing on the life of its female protagonist – Maggie. It endeavors to reveal why Maggie, the cat, is virtually the most vulnerable character of the play, despite her beauty, intelligence, and resoluteness. The central questions of the research are: Why Maggie is the weakest link in the three couples of the family including herself and Brick, Mae and Gooper, and Big Mama and Big Daddy? To what extent does Maggie manage to perform the tasks assigned to her by the male-dominated capitalist society? What does she do to get over the sense of ‘otherness’ and rejection? Adopting a feminist critical standpoint, the researcher concentrates on the relation among Maggie and the other members of the family, her husband in particular, and tries to disclose the power structure as well as the source of power in the family. Concepts such as family background, gender, performativity, victimization, illusion, and male-chauvinism are deemed significant. The present research shows that if a woman cannot live up to the expectations and performances set by dominant males, she is considered a misfit and a liability, even though she is white, married, middle-class, and intelligent. Everyone blames Maggie for not bearing a child or for the estranged relation between her and her husband, although everyone knows (or at least suspects) that Brick is impotent and a homosexual day-dreamer. Surprisingly, Brick’s homosexuality and alcoholism are attributed to Maggie’s alleged frigidity and lack of womanly affection. It implies that in the eyes of the family members, and the society as a whole, Maggie fails to perform her tasks as a responsible, caring, and child-bearing wife