Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The other Pollitts enter Brick and Maggie’s bedroom with Big Daddy in the lead. Gooper enters with Reverend Tooker, who is talking nonstop about church donations and improvements. Big Daddy asks if Reverend Tooker is expecting someone else to die soon and leave the church more money, and the Reverend awkwardly laughs off the question. Mae bursts in with the family doctor, Doc Baugh, talking about which shots her children have had. As everyone talks over one another, Maggie asks Brick to put on music. However, he is detached, so she puts on music herself. Big Daddy immediately commands her to turn it off. In the following silence, Big Mama rushes in, asking for Brick. Big Daddy, who often makes jokes at his wife’s expense, calls for the music to be turned back on, and everyone laughs.

Big Mama makes her way to Brick and asks him to put his glass down. He complies by draining his drink before giving her the glass, causing another round of laughter. Big Mama fusses over him, while he continues to be indifferent. Big Daddy watches her with “a steady grimace of chronic annoyance” (1183). She sits, then calls to the Reverend to help her up.