Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" Quiz

Answer: Her love for Brick

Ultimately, Maggie is trapped by her love for her husband, Brick. Although she is held, somewhat, by the knowledge that she must play along with their "happy" marriage in order to gain a slice of Big Daddy's inheritance, it is actually her love for her husband and not money, that is her main motivation for staying.

Answer: Big Daddy

Act Two of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" results in a birthday party for Big Daddy. Throughout the act the audience is gradually fed information on this occasion, which ends up being quite an uncomfortable affair, as Big Daddy doesn't seem to want to celebrate. All he seems intent on doing is finding out what is wrong with Brick, who is his favourite son.

Answer: Alcohol

Brick and Big Daddy are alike in many ways. Both are honest and forthright men, locked in unhappy marriages, seeking an escape, which Brick does through liquor. During Act Two, Big Daddy reveals the rarely revealed "parent" within him. His only concern is for his son's welfare:

"If you don't like Maggie, get rid of Maggie."

He offers blunt, but reasonable advice, but as this scene progresses, Big Daddy realises the extent of Brick's alcoholism, when Brick mentions the need for the "click" he gets in his head.

Answer: Monster of fertility

Brick's brother, Gooper, and his wife Mae, have five children, with a sixth on the way. When Maggie enters the stage, she complains fiercely about these 'no-necked monsters', and continues to whine and joke about her poor nieces and nephews throughout the entire play.

Answer: Big Daddy

Big Daddy is a powerful figure, and extremely dominant and demanding. He is forever in the characters' thoughts, and does not seem to approve of his grandchildren either, commenting to Gooper that he should 'put them pigs at a trough in the kitchen'.

Answer: True

Brick frequently tortures Maggie emotionally. Indeed his honesty is painfully blunt, and this is often the reason for conflict:
Brick: "You could leave me Maggie."
Maggie: "Don't want to and will not."
Here we see how Brick's indifference turns the knife within Maggie. She is helpless, unable to leave Brick, as she loves him, and yet she is unhappy with their situation. She is indeed, like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Answer: His friendship with Skipper

Regardless of Brick's dominance at the start of the play, it is Maggie who emerges as the "trapper", by the end of Act One. Having known Brick for a number of years, Maggie possesses an insight into his personal life. She knows that Brick had homosexual feelings for his friend Skipper,(who is now dead), and she uses this knowledge to torment him, by saying that she thinks 'it was noble'.

This causes Brick, who is unable to stand the intensity of the topic, to respond violently, turning to 'face her, half lifting his crutch'.

Answer: Rainbow Hill

Brick does indeed appear to be an alcoholic, and Maggie isn't the only character to have noticed, hence the reason 'so many allusions have been made to Rainbow Hill lately'.

Answer: Flynn

While Maggie was 'born poor, raised poor', and 'expected to die poor', Mae, as a member of the Flynn family, is described as having nothing 'in this world except money'. Because of this, Maggie tries to use her poverty to justify her desire for Big Daddy's money, claiming that she deserves it more than Mae does.

Answer: Big Daddy

At his introduction in Act Two, Big Daddy's first words, 'crap', emphasise his lack of fear and forthright attitude. But, as he engages in conversation with his son Brick, his earlier comment contrasts greatly with his revelation that he 'thought the old man of bones' had finally claimed him. His earlier confidence has now diminished, and in its place is uncertainty.