Mendasculinity: Keeping Up Male Appearances with Big Daddy, Goober, and Brick Anonymous 12th Grade

The men of the Pollitt family suffer a great deal throughout Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, but they would rather die than let anyone know of their pains. This disastrous trait was established in them as children, by the men who raised them, teaching the characters, as most in the society and age Williams writes of were taught, that they must save face, must present themselves to society as men of steel, men of strength, men who could not be touched. This concept of hypermasculinity forces Brick, Gooper, and Big Daddy to never ask for help, never let those who love them know of their feelings, their desires, or their ailments. Hypermasculinity forces the men of the play to not accept their pain, and consequently self medicate in order to be free of their hurt. Through the use of alcohol, reckless obedience, and a combination of denial and morphine, the men of this tale find ways to numb themselves to the realities they live in, they, out of necessity, fall into the act of mendacity.

The most obvious form of self medication is seen in the use of alcohol by Brick. The sound of ice being dropped into a glass is a near constant soundtrack to the play, the smell of Echo Springs wafts through every page. Brick becomes...