Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Summary | Act 1 Summary

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a three-act play showcasing the turbulent lives of the Pollitt family, led by Big Daddy Pollitt. The family lives on a Southern plantation in Mississippi in the mid-1950s. The plot revolves around the two main characters, Brick Pollitt and his wife, Margaret, informally called Maggie. Maggie is the play's namesake, which is attributed to her high spirits and perseverance.

The play opens in Brick and Maggie's bedroom, which also serves as a sitting room in the Pollitt plantation. Maggie enters the room in a huff because she needs to change her dress, which was soiled by a buttered biscuit thrown by one of Gooper's children. Gooper is Brick's brother and is married to Mae. Gooper and Mae's family includes five children with the sixth on the way.

Brick is in the shower and cannot hear Maggie, so he asks her to repeat herself. With increasing agitation, Maggie yells to Brick once more and calls Gooper and Mae's children little no-neck monsters. Maggie says that she would love to wring the necks of the obnoxious children, if only they had any. To Maggie, the children are fat little heads sitting on fat little bodies with no connection in between.

As Maggie undresses, she continues to relate the events of dinner that night, which Brick missed. Brick has recently broken his ankle, which keeps him nearly immobile in the upstairs bedroom. It is Maggie's opinion that Gooper and Mae intend to be named the primary beneficiaries in Big Daddy's will. They have foregone their normal summer hiatus to the Great Smoky Mountains in favor of staying at the plantation in order to endear themselves and their children to the patriarch.

Big Daddy can barely tolerate Gooper and Mae's brood, favoring his younger son Brick. Brick does not have children, which is a situation that Maggie is more than anxious to remedy. Brick emerges from the shower and stands on his good foot while drying his hair with a towel. Maggie tries to get Brick to understand the urgency of the inheritance situation, given the unfortunate news that Big Daddy is dying of cancer. This is new information to Brick, who has not yet heard this report.

Brick has also missed the dinner conversation, which included a discussion of admitting Brick to the Rainbow Hill treatment center for alcoholics, as well as Brick and Maggie's childlessness.

According to Maggie, Brick has done nothing to alter the views of the family with his irresponsible behavior of excessive drinking, quitting his job and most recently his injury from trying to jump hurdles at the high school football field a few nights before. Brick essentially ignores Maggie's voice, but she persists and tells Brick that he is the one with the advantage in the family because Big Daddy dotes on him. It doesn't hurt that Big Daddy finds Maggie very attractive. Brick finds this vulgar, but Maggie is encouraged because his attraction to her is another positive factor weighing in their favor.

As Maggie talks, she moves to her dressing table but doesn't see Brick staring at her. Maggie continues to say that Gooper thinks that he is more socially advanced because of his marriage to Mae, who came from a prominent family in Memphis. According to Maggie, Mae's family lost all their money but knew how to social climb, which was their only redeeming skill. Suddenly Maggie catches Brick's gaze in her mirror and asks what he is thinking of when he looks at her in that way. It startles Maggie, but Brick denies that his look had any meaning.

Maggie's admission of loneliness does not faze, Brick who casually asks his wife if she would prefer to live alone. Maggie is indignant and intends to stay in her currently unfulfilling marriage until it returns to its former state of satisfaction. An intensely sensual creature, Maggie hopes to kindle a new spark in Brick and suggests that she give him an alcohol rub to relieve his discomfort in the summer heat.

Brick refuses the attention and Maggie wonders out loud why Brick cannot lose his good looks as most drinking men do. If Brick were to become unattractive, Maggie might be able to endure her state of sexual deprivation with a bit more grace.

Maggie tells Brick that he was a wonderful lover, probably attributable to his cool detachment. Probing further, Maggie asks Brick if he was thinking about Skipper, his college football buddy, as he was looking at her in the mirror. Brick is outraged and stands awkwardly to make his way to the bar in the room and accidentally drops his crutch. Brick asks Maggie to pick up the crutch, but she would prefer that Brick lean on her. He refuses the offer and demands the crutch.

Maggie asks Brick to hold off on his drinking until after Big Daddy's birthday party that evening. Brick was unaware of the birthday celebration and bristles at the thought of a family celebration. He even refuses to sign the card to accompany his gift to Big Daddy. Maggie persists about the signature, which makes Brick explode and remind Maggie of the terms under which he agreed to continue living with her. Maggie replies that they do not live together; she and Brick simply occupy the same cage.

The couple is interrupted by Mae, who is carrying a bow from an archery set and demands that it be locked up to eliminate the possibility that one of her children might be injured. The bow is an award Brick won as part of a competition and Maggie challenges Mae to train her children properly to not touch other people's things. Mae launches into a description of her children's entertainment for Big Daddy at the upcoming dinner, but fortunately for Brick and Maggie, she leaves when called by someone downstairs.

Maggie asks Brick to please dress in the shantung suit she has laid out for him, but the cast on his leg prevents Brick from wearing the trousers so he opts for a pair of white silk pajamas. Maggie cannot stand Brick's indifference for one more minute and pleads with him, wondering how long his lack of affection will continue.

Brick chastises Maggie for her recent behavior and for her voice, which always sounds frantic. Maggie attributes her demeanor to the restlessness of a cat on a hot tin roof. Brick tells her to jump off the roof and take a lover, but Maggie cannot imagine the possibility of being with any other man but Brick.

The no-neck monsters are still performing downstairs, so Maggie slams and locks the bedroom door and pulls the drapes closed for more privacy. Brick rebukes Maggie's advances and reminds her that she had agreed to his conditions, but Maggie cannot live like this anymore. Suddenly Big Mama, Brick's mother, is at the door demanding to know why it is locked. Brick stumbles as quickly as possible to hide in the bathroom. Unable to enter the room, Big Mama uses the veranda and enters via one of those doors.

Big Mama is overjoyed with the news that Big Daddy's disease is not cancer, but only a spastic colon. When she heard such good news, Big Mama fell to her knees and shows them the bruises to prove it. A phone call for Big Mama interrupts her conversation and she speaks to Miss Sally, Big Daddy's sister, to tell her the good news of Big Daddy's diagnosis.

Big Mama wants to talk to Brick, who will not leave the bathroom. She then turns her lecture to Maggie and blames her daughter-in-law for the demise of her marriage to Brick. According to Big Mama, Maggie is the source of Brick's drinking and unfulfilled sexual intimacy. Maggie's outraged response is cut short when Big Mama leaves to say goodbye to dinner guests downstairs.

Brick emerges from the bathroom and Maggie assures her husband that their sex life will return just as quickly as it disappeared, that someday soon Brick will again see her in the same way that other men do. Maggie even shares some information about opportunities for sexual encounters, which she has turned down due to decency and the fact that she wants not one piece of information that could harm her in the event that Brick should one day want to divorce. Brick encourages Maggie again to take a lover but Maggie tells him that she will remain on her hot tin roof for as long as it takes to get Brick back in love with her.

Big Mama's news about Big Daddy's health is in conflict with what Maggie had told Brick earlier and Maggie says that the doctor intends to tell Big Mama the truth about the cancer after Big Daddy goes to bed tonight. Big Daddy is not aware of his terminal illness and the family intends to keep it that way.

According to Maggie, the fact that this is Big Daddy's last birthday will be a double cause for celebration for Gooper and Mae because they will be that much closer to the inheritance they feel should go to them instead of the alcoholic Brick and childless Maggie. Maggie turns introspective for a few moments and admits her genuine fondness for Big Daddy in spite of his coarse demeanor. Big Daddy makes no pretense about who he is, still a Mississippi boy who once worked as an overseer on this very plantation, until he got the chance to buy it himself from the owners, Jack Straw and Peter Ochello.

Maggie is a realist, though and admits that it takes money to support an alcoholic husband in the style to which he has become accustomed. Maggie grew up very poor and has no intention of living that way for the rest of her life. This is another reason she is a cat on a hot tin roof. According to Maggie, you can be young without money but you cannot be old without it.

As Maggie adds her jewelry to her ensemble, she muses out loud about the moment that Brick must have lost interest in her. Maggie's mistake was in telling Brick about her one night encounter with Skipper. According to Maggie, she and Skipper clung to each other because it made them feel closer to Brick, so they made love. Brick does not want to hear this, but Maggie persists and tells Brick that she understands about the love between Brick and Skipper-that it was pure and not inappropriate like so many people had thought.

Maggie reveals the details of her encounter with Skipper. She told him to stop loving Brick or to at least tell Brick that he needed to let Skipper admit his love for him. That's when Skipper slapped Maggie and disappeared back to his own hotel room. From that point on, Skipper lived stoned on drugs and alcohol. Brick is outraged and tries to hit Maggie with his crutch but misses every time.

Maggie is not trying to condone her own behavior, but she wants Brick to acknowledge that at least she is a person who tells the truth and that she is still very much alive while Skipper is dead. The confrontation is interrupted by Dixie, one of Gooper's little girls, who wonders why Brick and Maggie are fighting. Maggie screams at the girl to leave and Dixie fires a cap gun at Maggie before declaring that she is just jealous because of not being able to have babies.

Maggie's mortification at the hands of one of the no-necked monsters turns softens her and she tells Brick that she has seen a gynecologist and is perfectly capable of having children. She says that in fact, today is a perfect day for Maggie to conceive, a fact which does not stir Brick in the slightest. Brick asks Maggie how she intends to conceive a child with a man who does not love her and she admits that that is a situation she will have to resolve.