Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Elia Kazan was wrong to ask Tennessee Williams to rewrite the third act of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. First, it significantly weakens Big Daddy's character when he returns to discuss elephants. Big Mama has already dealt with Gooper's proposal and does not require Big Daddy's assistance. He seems to provide little more than comic relief in this scene, and that is not what Williams constructed him to do. Big Daddy prods the other Pollitts; he uncovers the origins of Brick's alcoholism and his fortune reveals Gooper and Mae's avariciousness. Second, the news of Margaret's pregnancy is much more important when he is not there. The reader understands that this child allows Big Daddy to will his property to Brick. In Act II, he clearly says, "I hate Gooper and his five same monkeys and that bitch Mae! Why should I turn over twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest land this side of the valley Nile to not my kind?" An official announcement of his intentions is unnecessary. Finally, "I admire you, Maggie" is not something the tormented Brick would say. She betrayed him, and winning Brick's respect should take more than hiding his booze and lying to his parents. The Pollitts will not have a clichй "happily ever after" ending. Any attempt to give them one is ludicrous. Brick is an alcoholic, Gooper is invidious, Big Mama deludes herself, and Margaret is still a lying tramp. Conceiving a child is not going to make these problems go away.