Truth In Tennessee William's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is play about truthfulness, centering on the family’s deception of Big Daddy and his cancer; however, Brick’s struggle with truth remains the largest struggle within the play. After pleading for real, honest conversation and no more mendacity, Big Daddy forces Brick to acknowledge that his disgust, which he has blamed on their family and the lies that he as believed for so long, has nothing to do with the people around him but with himself. Brick’s hatred for pointless conversation and mendacity stems from a deeply rooted hatred for himself and the fact that he is a mendacious person who often leads pointless conversation. Brick struggles with the lies that have surrounded his friendship with Skipper. After Big Daddy comes back from the hospital and finds Brick to be an …show more content…
Brick responds that he drinks to calm his “disgust” with the “lying and liars,” but Big Daddy does not understand because he has dealt with mendacity throughout his life (Williams 107, 109). Logically, Big Daddy first believes that Maggie must be the liar so he questions Brick on her honesty but he responds that “that wouldn’t matter” (109). Why would Maggie lying not matter to Brick? The answer is that Maggie is not the person with whom Brick is disgusted. Her lies do not disgust him; he goes on to say that it is “no one single person and no one lie” that disgusts him but “the whole thing” (109-110). The “whole thing” that Brick struggles with all stems back to his friendship with Skipper. Brick’s struggles with truth are very different than Big Daddy’s and do not trace simply back to one person because Brick has