In Western Culture societies, individuals are constantly submitted to the conventional structures determined by ruling classes. In this sense, the role of women in patriarchal cultures can be considered one of the most studied topics concerning the relations between individual and society. They focus especially on the submission of woman to the social patterns established by male-centered values. That is because societies characterized by male ideals have attributed a rigid role to women that standardizes it as a domestic function. In this context, we can observe different political positionings in relation to the role of the female individual in society. Firstly, there are those who question the established values and costumes in order to break the social status quo, which is seen, in some cases, as a way of maintaining false appearances and illusions in society. Secondly, there are individuals that are absolutely passive and apathetic in relation to their reality as they are conditioned and lead by the social structures. Consequently, it is possible to say that in society these two types of individual exert different ways of interacting with the social values and costumes, as they make use of contrasting political positionings.

As a social product, literary texts expose different situations in which individuals are obliged to deal with the social conventional structures. These works are relevant because they show how people have dealt with values, ideologies or patterns of behavior in society. In this sense, Antonio Candido claims that literature can be determined by aspects related to social structures and its implications (30). According to him,

They determine, in any case, the four moments of the production, because: a) the artist, lead by the impulse of an inner need, conducts it according to the patterns of his/her epoch; b) [he/she] chooses certain topics; c) [he/she] uses certain forms and d) the resultant synthesis acts upon the environment . (30)

In this sense, it is possible to state that all these aspects can be seen in plays in which characters have to deal with oppressive social structures. They also can be exposed in poetic texts in which the lyric I exerts his/her point of view concerning the rigid roles attributed to men and women in society. By facing the social structures, literary texts, whether a play or poem, are able to show different political positionings exerted by men and women. In this sense, Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Adrienne Rich’s Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law can be understood as works that explore these different points of view. In both works, we can assume that individuals are interacting in society through political positionings. That is because some of these individuals can exert an attitude of acceptance or rupture in relation to the conventional moulds. To this effect, we can take for granted that Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the lyric I in Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law assume different political positions by facing their reality. In this context, they are submitted to an oppressive social structure as both of them are women who live in a society characterized by male ideals. Nevertheless, Maggie is a woman who seems to accept her condition of a mere wife in society, whereas the lyric I is another one that tries to break the social status quo.

Firstly, we can contrast the situation in which Margaret (Maggie) and the lyric I are exposed in the play and in the poem. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it is possible to say that Maggie is absolutely apathetic in relation to her female reduced condition. She is an attractive woman who keeps a relationship based on appearances with her husband Brick, who does not express any affection for her, as the narrator notes: “A tone of politely feigned interest, indifference, or worse, is characteristic of his speech with Margaret” (17). Moreover, Maggie and Brick live in constant tension, as we can see below:

MARGARET:
You’ve got to!
BRICK:
I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. You keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.
MARGARET [out before she knows it]:
I’m not living with you. We occupy the same cage. (35)

Due to this unpleasant circumstance, Maggie is taken by a feeling of discomfort as she perceives that her marriage with Brick is actually a falsehood. For that reason, the impression that we have when we read Williams’ play is that Maggie is a prisoner of the circumstances as she seems to be incapable of getting out unhurt of her marriage. In this sense, we can suggest that the reality around her is determined by the acquiescence of woman in a patriarchal society. She, in her turn, seems to be aware that women are expected to play the role of a wife. That is because at the same time that Maggie states that she “feel(s) all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof!” (40), she also does not do anything in order to escape from her social function. Therefore, it is possible to say that Maggie exerts an attitude of conformism concerning her condition.

In this sense, we can say that Maggie’s political positioning is totally contrasting in relation to the lyric I of Rich’s poem Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law. In this poem, the lyric I, which can be understood as a female voice, exposes her restless mind in relation to the role attributed to woman in society:

You, once a belle in Shreveport, / with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud, / still have your dresses copied from that time, / and play a Chopin prelude / called by Cortot: "Delicious recollections / float like perfume through the memory”. / Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, / heavy with useless experience, rich / with suspicion, rumor, fantasy, / crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge / of mere fact. In the prime of your life. / Nervy, glowering, your daughter / wipes the teaspoons, grows another way. (09)

As these verses point out, the lyric I initially talks about a woman “with henna-colored hair / skin like a peachbud” (09) in a process of mental transformation. She claims: “Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, / heavy with useless experience…” (09). In this passage, we can suggest that the image of a moldered wedding-cake symbolizes the deconstruction of the marriage as social ritual imposed to women. Moreover, as the lyric I notes, it only brings “useless experience” (09). To this effect, these words can be seen as an alert concerning woman’s inconsistent thought, which is determined by patriarchal societies. As it is possible to see, the lyric I’s speech aims at making women aware of their cultural role transmitted by societies. She claims: “a thinking woman sleeps with monsters. / The beak that grips her, she becomes… (09)” As we can observe, these verses enunciate the transformation of the woman condition. According to Albert Gelpi in his analysis of Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law,

This thinking woman paraphrases Baudelaire, parodies Horace to register the pressures that make mind moulder. The shock of the imagery is due not only to its violence (each of the passages refers to cutting edge) but to an accuracy so unsparing that the imagination reacts psychosomatically: muscles tighten and nerves twinge. The ten sections of “Snapshots” comprise an album of woman as “daughter-in-law”, bound into the set of roles which men have established and which female acquiescence has re-enforced. (286)

As we can perceive in Gelpi’s comment, the lyric I explores the female role with the purpose of revealing the truth concerning the woman condition. By doing it she permits other women to see clearly their reduced reality in which they are seen as inferior beings. Therefore, we can assume that the lyric I exerts a political positioning that struggles with the social status quo instead of accepting the values and costumes which are determined by male ideals.

Maggie, on the contrary, does not question her condition as a wife even before a reality that constantly seems to bother her. That is because Maggie’s self-perception is determined by a lack of self-esteem, as we can observe in the narrator’s comment:

[She is alone, completely alone, and she feels it. She draws in, hunches her shoulders, raises her arms with fists clenched, shuts her eyes tight as a child to be stabbed with a vaccination needle. When she opens her eyes again, what she sees is the long oval mirror and she rushes straight to it, stares into with a grimace and says: “Who are you?” — Then she crouches a little and answers herself in a different voice which is high, thin, mocking: “I am Maggie the Cat!” — Straightens quickly as bathroom door opens a little and Bricks calls out to her.] (49)

In this passage, Maggie curiously makes an analogy between her and a cat. The image of a cat is essential to understand Maggie’s condition as cats are considered domestic animals. Moreover, somehow or other, they are beings that need to be domesticated. For that reason, it is possible to say that Maggie is aware of her role as a wife by exerting her point of view concerning her situation:

BRICK:
Maggie, I wouldn’t divorce you for being unfaithful or anything else. Don’t you know that? Hell. I’d be relieved to know that you’d found yourself a lover.
MARGARET:
Well, I’m taking no chances. No, I’d rather stay on this hot tin roof.
BRICK:
A hot tin roof’s ‘n uncomfo’table place t’ stay on…
[He starts to whistle softly.]
MARGARET [through his whistle]:
Yeah, but I can stay on it just as long as I have to.
BRICK:
You could leave me, Maggie.
MARGARET:
Don’t want to and will not! […] (51-52)

As we can observe, this passage shows how Maggie manifests her pre-disposition to accept her role as a wife. Besides, it is evident that she reveals a preoccupation in maintaining it even when she has to face her failing marriage. In this sense, Paul J. Hurley observes that Maggie’s attitude stems from a point of view determined by social values which are originated in a “society that is false, lying, hypocritical and mendacious” (51). In other words, a society that disguises behind illusions and false appearances.

In Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law, on the contrary, the lyric I stares at reality because, as Gelpi notes, “to be is to see; I am eye. Poetry functions as the vehicle for seeing and for fixing one comes to see. It is the camera with lens and focus, and poems are snapshots” (286). To this effect, we can assume that the lyric I exposes and explores the various dimension of woman's life inflicted with male exploitation:

Poised, trembling and unsatisfied, before / an unlocked door, that cage of cages, / tell us, you bird, you tragical machine — / is this fertillisante douleur? Pinned down / by love, for you the only natural action, / are you edged more keen / to prise the secrets of the vault? has Nature shown / her household books to you, daughter-in-law, / that her sons never saw? (11)

As we can observe, each moment in woman’s social life must be exposed entirely. That is because women have to be conscious of their ‘inferior’ condition which was imposed by society in order to criticize it. This idea corroborates that the lyric I’s attitude aims at making women aware of their “powers of perception”, as Gelpi characterizes it. Therefore, the lyric I talks about a woman who begins to perceive her identity:

Well, / she's long about her coming, who must be / more merciless to herself than history. Her mind full to the wind, I see her plunge / breasted and glancing through the currents, / taking the light upon her / at least as beautiful as any boy / or helicopter, / poised, still coming, / her fine blades making the air wince / but her cargo / no promise then: / delivered / palpable / ours. (12-13)

In the end of the poem, the lyric I transmits her wistful voice concerning the idea of a new social reality in which women do not have an inferior position. These verses show the powers of woman who overcomes the obstacles and resistances: “I see her plunge / breasted and glancing through the currents, / taking the light upon her” (12). Therefore, we can assume that the lyric I keeps her promise as her words are “delivered” and “palpable” (13).

Unlike the lyric I in Rich’s poem, Maggie does not only accept her submissive role in society, but she is also aware of the ways that a woman can use her body in order to take advantages. One of these evidences is related to the fact that Maggie understands that she has to look as a pretty object in order to be able to call male attention:

MARGARET:
… I’m confident of it. That’s what I’m keeping myself attractive for. For the time when you’ll see me again like other men see me. Yes, like other men see me. They still see me, Brick, and they like what they see. Uh-huh. Some of them would give their —
Look, Brick! (50)

One of the reasons that makes Maggie keep herself attractive can be the fact that she seems to consider it as a condition to maintain her marriage. However, Brick does not have any desire for her. Therefore, Maggie makes use of another artifice, as we can see:

MARGARET:
Announcement of life beginning! A child is coming, sired by Brick, and out of Maggie the Cat! I have Brick’s child in my body, an’ that’s my birthday present to Big Daddy on this birthday! (167)

The announcement of her pregnancy can be seen as another evidence of Maggie’s positioning in face of reality, as this fact seems to be an artifice to maintain her marriage protected by false appearances. That is, the image of a complete family.

As we have seen, Maggie and the lyric I have political positioning absolutely contrasting. Maggie is a wife who lives a marriage that is characterized by falsehood. However, the lyric I explores the searching of a female conscience as a way of vindicating a condition of equality in society, that is, to be “as beautiful as any boy” (12). Therefore, we can assume that they have extremely different attitudes by facing their reality as women. Maggie follows blindly the stereotype of a woman that seems to be satisfied with her social condition as a wife. The lyric I, on the contrary, questions the role imposed to woman by society at the same time that she presents, “through images of resistance and achievement”, as Gelpi characterizes it, a new perspective of the female conscience in a society that is idealized and governed by men.