Many people prefer to live in a state of conformism in relation to their lives and not question about the things that bother them. That happens because the truth sometimes can be hard to be bore. Even though, we can assume that there are the ones who seek the true in order to find answers that can satisfy themselves. However, it is possible to say that there are individuals that present a contradictory behavior in relation to the truth that leads them to avoid and quest it. This kind of attitude can be found in literature. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, written by Tennessee Williams and the poem Prospective Immigrants Please Note, written by Adrienne Rich, are examples of literary works in which a conflicting quest for truth can be observed.

On both of these texts the desire to know the truth is accompanied by a contradictory feeling of not finding it out. On William’s play, this fact can be seen in the character Maggie, who is married to Brick. As the author shows, their relationship is disturbed by a possible homosexual affair that happened in the past between Brick, Maggie’s husband, and Skipper, his death close friend. As a result of the doubt that she has in relation to the veracity of this possibility, she seeks the truth about her husband’s homosexuality in a contradictory way. This contradiction is shown through the behavior that she adopts in order to discover the truth. That is because, at the same time that she wants to know what the truth is, she seems to fear it because this reality would put her in contact with a reality that she was not willing to learn. On Rich’s poem, this quest for the truth is also characterized by contradiction. This feeling can be observed by the doubt that the lyric I expresses when he/she wonders if he/she should or not pass through a door. In this sense, we can understand this door as a symbol that represents the boundary that separates the comfortable situation of ignoring the truth and the difficulties that facing it may bring.

On Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the unrevealed truth about Brick’s possible homosexual experience with Skipper is an issue that disturbs Maggie and directly affects her relationship with her husband. For that reason, she is constantly reminding Brick about Skipper:

Why I remember when we double-dated at college, Gladys Fitgerald and I and you and Skipper, it was more like a date between you and Skipper. Gladys and I were just short of tagging along as if was necessary to chaperone you! – to make a good public impression.(41)

This attitude can be seen as a way that Maggie found to force Brick to talk about his dead friend. In this sense, this insistence in mentioning him in her talks can be considered an attempt to make Brick reveal the truth about what was behind his relationship with Skipper. That is because by bringing his name to scene; Maggie could listen to Brick’s replies to her comments, in which she could find traces of what she wanted to know. In this fashion, it is possible to say that this strategy adopted by Maggie aims at having evidences that would lead her to the facts that she wanted to know.

Filled with this desire of knowing the truth Maggie constantly tries to instigate Brick to tell her what happened between Skipper and him. Nevertheless, this desire is accompanied of a fear of discovering this truth. That is because what she was looking for did not correspond to the information that she wanted to listen. As a consequence of this confusing feeling, Maggie is never direct in her questionings in relation to her husband’s homosexually. An example of that is when she puts her married wife position on the same level as her husband’s possible love affair: “Skipper is dead! I’m alive! Maggie the cat is alive” (43). In this moment it is possible to say that Maggie assumes that Skipper is the reason that is preventing her husband to notice her and to desire her as a husband would normally do. However, she does not say it directly. On the contrary, she says in a general way. Based on this fact, we can say that at the same time that Maggie instigates Brick in order to make him give a sign to her that would clear her doubts; she is not able to go straight to the point. This attitude happens due to the fact that at the bottom she does not really wanted to know the truth about what had gone on between her husband and Skipper.

Besides mentioning Skipper in order to give Brick opportunities to reveal the truth, Maggie also uses her power of feminine seduction in order to have some attention from her husband:

Other men still want me. My face looks strained, sometimes, but I’ve kept my figure as well as you’ve kept yours, and men admire it. I still turn heads on the street. (34)

This desire for attention is a result of the constant rejection that Maggie suffers from her husband. In addition to a need of being seen as a woman, we can assume that Maggie tries to provoke the male instinct in her man. In other words, as an attractive woman, she tries to cause a possible sexual desire that Brick might have for the female gender. In this sense, it is possible to say that Maggie is trying to have a positioning of her husband in relation to the female that is there in front of him and is offering herself to him. Nonetheless, Brick does not assume a positioning in relation to his wife when she gives him opportunities to do so. He, on the contrary of Maggie’s expectations, adopts a neutral behavior in relation to her. This neutrality is characterized by the fact that he does not say that she is not attractive nor says the opposite. In other words, Brick has a impartial position in relation to what he feels about his wife. This impartiality enhances the uncertainty that Maggie has in relation to his real feelings toward the opposite gender.

This neutral behavior adopted by Brick in relation to the attempts of his wife to discover the truth is not the only attitude that suggests the idea of his homosexuality on the play. That is because this reality in shown throughout Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in several ways. Nonetheless, we can state that this fact is never clearly shown on the William’s work. Instead of showing evidences of this potential truth, he prefers to show a doubtful behavior of Brick. In this line, Alan Sinfield (1994) affirms that “latent homosexuality is the question around Brick and Skipper in William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (45). This latency is presented through the inkling that shows a strong tendency for homosexuality on Brick’s attitudes. This tendency is latent on the play, that is, all the facts that lead us to believe on that true can be seen on it. These facts are shown through the description of Brick and Skipper’s close friendship that raise the question of latent homosexuality. Through these latent signals, the reader or the audience (when the play is performed) has the opportunity to choose the truth that they want to believe based on these attitudes. This possibility of drawing conclusions in relation to Brick’s possible homosexuality is doable because on the play there is this space that can be used by the public or readers to make inference in relation to his sexual past experiences. Nevertheless, the situations shown on the play can be considered a way of showing a hidden homosexuality.

In this sense, we can say that these situations corroborate with the idea of latent homosexuality. This latency is shown through traces that give us the idea that Brick might be queer (as the term adopted by Sinfield). One of the traces given on the play in relation to this homosexuality is the fact that Brick does not maintain sexual intercourses with Maggie, his wife. On the passage below she expresses her feelings concerning this situation:

If I thought you would never, never, never make love to me again – I would go downstairs to the kitchen and pick out the longest and sharpest knife I could find and stick it straight into my heart, I swear that I would! But one thing I don’t have is this charm of defeated, my hat is still in the ring, and I am determines to win! (19)

As this passage indicates Maggie is not willing to give up her marriage and is trying to have her role of a wife played in its full form. As we can see she has a hope that her husband will want her as a woman again. However, seduce him can be considered an arduous task, as she is a woman who is married to a potential homosexual man. As a consequence, this man does not give her any response in relation to her attempts of having her wishes fulfilled.

Besides this avoidance of sex with his wife, another aspect that suggests Brick’s homosexuality, as the true sexuality in his desire is the way in which he describes his relationship with Skipper: “Normal? No! – It was too rare to be normal, any true thing between two people is too rare to be normal” (94). In relation to these lines, we can say that this description is another hint given on the play concerning this “not normal” relationship between Brick and Skipper. This expression, suggests a lot of hidden meanings. It is possible to say that, because homosexuality used to be seen as something unacceptable and consequently “not normal”. In this sense, Sinfield (1994) highlights that this is another provocation made by William on the play (45) in relation to Brick’s homosexuality.

This traces that make the reader believe as true the fact that Brick was really homosexual is increased by closeness that he had with Skipper, which is shown in his words:

Oh, once in a while he put his hand on my shoulder and I’d put mine on his, oh, maybe even, when we were touring the country in pro-football an’ shared hotel rooms we’d reach across the space between the two beds and shake hands to say good night, yeah, one or two times we – (94)

As this passage indicates, there are traces of Brick’s possible homosexuality in his speech when he talks about Skipper to his father. As we can notice, the sentence is incomplete, that is, Brick does not conclude what he was going to say. This blank on his speech is the space that we, readers, have to take our own conclusion concerning Brick and Skipper’s relationship. In other words, we can say that the things that they did together are not shown in a clear way, which gives us the possibility to bridge this gap. Based on all these uncertain traces in relation to Brick’s homosexuality given on the play, Maggie is not able to have an answer for her quest for the truth. However, this is not an entirely negative situation, because as long as she does not know the truth, she will continue to live in a situation of hope in relation to Brick’s heterosexuality. Nonetheless, as soon as she finds out what she is looking for she will have to face an undesired reality. Because of that, her quest for the truth is done in a contradictory way. In order words, she wants to find out the true, but at the same time, she is afraid of what may come after the fulfillment of her wish.

This same confusing quest for the truth seen in the play analyzed above is shown on the poem Prospective Immigrants Please Note. This poem expresses an idea of indecision in relation to a certain attitude that can or not be taken. This idea is expressed by the presence of a door, which can be seen as the passage for discovering something unknown. We can see that there is the option of discovering the truth or keep denying it. The following verses show this possibility of choice:

Either you will
Go through this door
Or you will not go through

As the poem continues, the Lyric I assumes that there would be risks to pass through this door:

If you go through
There is always the risk
Of remembering your name.

These risks can be seen as the discomfort that truth can bring to the ones that discover it. That is because this so much desired truth can be associated with unpleasant things. In this sense, people usually do not want to be exposed to it because sometimes it can be too cruel. Moreover living in lies seems to be easier. That is because we can choose on what we want to believe. Truth, on the contrary has only one side, and if it is faced becomes part of life, that is, it is constantly remembered.

It is possible to say that the quest for the truth can be accompanied by many doubts. This uncertainty is a consequence of the fear that people feel when they have contact with what is unknown. The presence of doubts in this quest can be read on the third stanza “Things look at you doubly” (v. VII). In this sense, we can assume that the quest for the truth can be considered an attitude that touch many internal fears that are intrinsic to human beings. Although there is this fear in relation to the truth, the search for it is a necessary task in our lives. The lyric I, in this sense, points out that “we must look back, and let them happen.(v. VIII and IX)

Although the lyric I suggests that the truth must be known, it also understands the fact that not searching for it can be a more comfortable option:

If you do not go through
It is possible
To live worthily

This life that is worthy living does not have the conflicts that the truth can bring. On the end of the poem the lyric I remind us that the truth makes no promises. That means that we can not assume that it will be better than a reality based on falsehood.

In this sense, we can understand Maggie and the lyric I’s attitude in relation to questing the truth. Their cautious behavior is a consequence of their fear in relation to finding out something that will not correspond to their wishes. In this sense, we can say that this fear make them adopt a very contradictory behavior. This contradiction is shown through the conflicting way they deal with the possibility of discovering the truth and suffer with a not pleasant reality.

Either you will
Go through this door
Or you will not go through

If you go through
There is always the risk
Of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly
And you must look back
And let them happen.

If you do not go through
It is possible
To live worthily

To maintain your attitudes
To hold your position
To die bravely

But much will blind you,
Much will evade you,
At what cost who knows?

The door itself
Makes no promises.
It is only a door

Reference:

Rich, Adrienne. Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose: Poems, Prose and Reviews and Criticism. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company. 1993.
Sinfield, Alan. Cultural Politics – Queer reading. University of Pensilvanis Press. London. 1994 .

Death is a constant thematic in literature. In some works, it is related to a certain feeling of nonconformism or unfitness in society. This circumstance leads the literary character to death or to commit suicide. In this sense, death can be understood in two ways. Firstly, it can be seen as an exit as the individual is not able to accept and fit in the social reality. That is because he/she has a perception of reality that goes beyond the social patterns. Secondly, it can be understood as a punishment to the individuals, since the society can not deal with people who do not play a role in accordance with the established patterns. Their incapacity of following the social conventions is the crime by which they are punished. From this point of view, death in literature seems to be the resolution of a conflict between society and individual. We can observe this fact in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of the Denmark, by William Shakespeare and in Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Death can be seen as the only solution for Hamlet, the unhappy son of the dead king, and for Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I veteran who becomes insane due to the effects of the war. In both cases, it is possible to perceive a nonconformism or unfitness feeling in relation to reality.

On Hamlet, nonconformism and unfitness stem from two events that are not narrated in the beginning of the play. They correspond to death of his father, the king of Denmark, and the marriage of Hamlet’s mother Gertrude to his uncle Claudius, the brother of the dead king:

God! / How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, / Seem to me all the uses of this world! […] But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: / So excellent a king; that was, to this, / Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother / That he might not beteem the winds of heaven / Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! / Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, / As if increase of appetite had grown / By what it fed on: and yet, within a month – / Let me not think on't – Frailty, thy name is woman! – / A little month, or ere those shoes were old / With which she follow'd my poor father's body, / Like Niobe, all tears: – why she, even she – / God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn'd longer – married with my uncle, / My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules: within a month: / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! / It is not nor it cannot come to good. (30-31)

As known, the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius seems to follow the natural order in that social system as nobody, excluding Hamlet, questions this event. For the disillusioned prince, this fact reveals how people are corrupt and the society is degrading. According to Barbara Heliodora, Shakespeare’s play in particular is a “masterly investigation about the human condition in society” (66). That is because it reveals how an individual is conditioned to accept certain values and patterns established by a group or by the whole society. In Hamlet’s case the fact that the prince does not consider the marriage of his mother with his uncle an acceptable event can be considered the fount of his inadequacy. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (48), as one of the officers notes.

Hamlet’s feeling of nonconformism and unfitness in relation to the events that have happened in the kingdom of Denmark is similar to Septimus Warren Smith’s feelings in relation to the English society. As we know, Septimus was a young man from a working class:

Lodging off the Euston Road, there were experiences, again experiences, such as change a face in two years from a pink innocent oval to a face lean, contracted, hostile. But of all this what could the most observant of friends have said except what a gardener says when he opens the conservatory door in the morning and finds a new blossom on his plant: — It has flowered; flowered from vanity, ambition, idealism, passion, loneliness, courage, laziness, the usual seeds, which all muddled up (in a room off the Euston Road), made him shy, and stammering, made him anxious to improve himself, made him fall in love with Miss Isabel Pole, lecturing in the Waterloo Road upon Shakespeare. (94)

In the first place, we can take for granted that Septimus used to be an idealist man. For that reason, he “was one of the first to volunteer” (95) to join up in the English armed forces in order to combat in the Great War. In this sense, Septimus embraces an attitude in accordance with what was expected by the English society:

He went to France to save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare’s plays and Miss Isabel Pole in a green dress walking in a square. There in the trenches the change which Mr. Brewer desired when he advised football was produced instantly; he developed manliness; he was promoted; he drew the attention, indeed the affection of his officer, Evans by name. (95-97)

As this passage indicates, Septimus initially uses his male condition in order to ascend socially and become an active member in society. That is because he assumed his role by accepting to join up in the army and fight for his country. However, as Ann Ronchetti claims, “he is overwhelmed by the events of his young life, which dissipate his creative focus and ultimately destroy him” (52). Septimus becomes a war veteran whose deliriums identify him as a segregated individual socially as he does not fit in the established social group.

In both stories — Hamlet and Septimus’ —, it is possible to perceive a rupture with the social order as they move towards death. As a result, they feel unconformed and unfitted in relation to reality. The prince of Denmark, in his turn, reaches an understanding about the things that goes beyond the social reality:

To be, or not to be: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them? / To die: to sleep; / No more; and by a sleep to say we end / The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation / Devoutly to be wish'd. […] For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, / The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, / The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, / The insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes, / When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin? (81)

For Hamlet, the social life becomes unbearable as soon as he acquires consciousness of its corruption and degradation. In this sense, we may affirm that Septimus shares Hamlet’s desolate vision concerning the English society. This vision increases especially after Septimus has changed his perception towards life because of his experience in the Great War. He “had fought; he was brave; he was not Septimus now” (27), his wife notes. Thus, Septimus’ perception of society does not permit that he fits into the reality:

One cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot perpetuate suffering, or increase the breed of these lustful animals, who have no lasting emotions, but only whims and vanities, eddying them now this way, now that. […] For the truth is (let her ignore it) that human beings have neither kindness, nor faith, nor charity beyond what serves to increase the pleasure of the moment. (99)

Due to the fact that the young man has a critical vision concerning his society, he is considered an ill man. In fact, Septimus is totally sceptic and disillusioned in relation to people and life. Therefore, the society sees Septimus as an insane person whose thoughts are disconnected from the bourgeois reality that he abominates so much. In this sense, although Septimus is a sensitive man who feels empty in relation to life, he is condemned to death by “human nature” because “he did not feel” (101) due to the fact that his vision did not fit into the established patterns of society.

Each one in their time and place, these literary works expose the inadequacy of the human being in society. It stems from the fact that some individuals seem to have an understanding of reality that goes beyond the boundaries established by social values and patterns. This is the case of Hamlet and Septimus whose lives are in conflict concerning reality. In relation to Shakespeare’s play, Arnold Hauser claims that the author “sees the world through the eyes of a rich man, whose mentality is liberal, sceptic and disillusioned” (421). To this effect, we can take for granted that Hamlet is an individual whose sceptic vision concerning the society is the fount of his nonconformism and disillusion. For that reason, he fights against the exploitation of society in relation to the individual:

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! / You would play upon me; you would seem to know / my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my / mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to / the top of my compass: and there is much music, / excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot / you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am / easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what / instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you / cannot play upon me. (97-98)

In the same way that Hamlet does not permit anybody to play upon him, as we can perceive, Septimus fights against the English society, which is represented by the figure of Dr. Holmes:

Human nature, in short, was on him — the repulsive brute, with the blood-red nostrils. Holmes was on him. Dr. Holmes came quite regularly every day. Once you stumble, Septimus wrote on the back of a postcard, human nature is on you. Holmes is on you. Their only chance was to escape, without letting Holmes know; to Italy — anywhere, anywhere, away from Dr. Holmes. (102)

Although Septimus is considered an insane man, he reveals to be aware of the manipulation of society towards men. To this effect, Paul Strathern claims that Woolf’s objective by writing Mrs. Dalloway exposes the extension of her ambition, which was to criticize society. (45) According to Woolf’s diary, she wished to criticize the social patterns of her epoch. She wrote: "I want to give life and death, sanity and insanity; I want to criticize the social system, and show it at work, at its most intense" (46). For sure, the narrator exposes in Mrs. Dalloway the conflict between individual and society by imprinting experiences and emotions on the inner of Septimus. That is because Septimus is not able to accept his reality since he feels unconformed and unfitted in relation to it.

As a final point, death is the solution for both cases. That is because Hamlet and Septimus go beyond the corrupted vision that society has about human relations. For that reason, they are suffocated by reality. That is, it is not possible to live in a world as they have experienced. In a battle for repairing the order of things, Hamlet witnesses the deaths of Ophelia, Gertrude and Claudius. However, it is not enough to modify his vision about the world. Hamlet will never fit into reality. Therefore, Shakespeare would not give another final to Hamlet since the prince of Denmark broke the vision conditioned by society.

O, I die, Horatio: / The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit, / I cannot live to hear the news from England; / But I do prophesy the election lights / On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; / So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, / Which have solicited. The rest is silence. (154)

Actually, before he is poisoned by Laertes’ sword, he was poisoned by reality. In the same way, we can say that Septimus feels poisoned by everything and everybody around him. This perception is the cause of his emptying. For that reason, filled by misunderstanding thoughts, he prefers to commit suicide rather than accept to live according to the abhorrent society that he is part of:

There remained only the window, the large Bloomsbury-lodging house window, the tiresome, the troublesome, and rather melodramatic business of opening the window and throwing himself out. It was their idea of tragedy, not his or Rezia’s (for she was with him). Holmes and Bradshaw like that sort of thing. (He sat on the sill.) But he would wait till the very last moment. He did not want to die. Life was good. The sun hot. Only human beings — what did THEY want? Coming down the staircase opposite an old man stopped and stared at him. Holmes was at the door. “I’ll give it you!” he cried, and flung himself vigorously, violently down on to Mrs. Filmer’s area railings. (164)

As these words indicate, death is the only solution to Septimus’ conflict since his way of understanding reality is totally opposite to the social values and beliefs.

All things considered, we can take for granted that some literary works expose how society punishes with death the one who commits the mistake of going beyond the conventional boundaries. On the other hand, they also show that death can be seen as the only exit for those who become aware of the corruption and degradation of the human relations in society:

How Shakespeare loathed humanity — the putting on of clothes, the getting of children, the sordidity of the mouth and the belly! This was now revealed to Septimus; the message hidden in the beauty of words. The secret signal which one generation passes, under disguise, to the next is loathing, hatred, despair. (98)

As we can see in Septimus’ comment, this perception seems to be related to a certain comprehension about human relations which can be seen through many literary works produced in different epochs. In other words, this strong awareness of life refers to “the secret signal” (98) that is possible to see in the life of Hamlet and Septimus that shows us the eternal conflict between individual and society and its consequences.

References:

Hauser, Arnold. História Social da Arte e da Literatura. São Paulo: Marins Fontes, 1998. Ronchetti, Ann. The Artist, Society & Sexuality in Virginia Woolf’s Novels. New York & London: Routledge, 2004.
Heliodoro, Barbara. Por que ler Shakespeare. São Paulo: Globo, 2008.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet: the Prince of Denmark. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.
Strathern, Paul. Virginia Woolf em 90 minutos. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2009.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1996.

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.