Search for Conjugal Bliss in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Abstract

The conjugal life of Maggie and Brick is on the verge of collapse because the former
is heterosexual and the latter is homosexual but Maggie leaves no stone unturned to
save such a life. She has to fight on two fronts. Firstly, she has to restore the broken
masculinity of Brick into wholeness. She revitalizes Brick’s passive and latent
physicality with her aggressive sexuality. She tries to arouse his sexual jealousy by
mentioning how other men show sensual desire for her. Secondly, her childlessness
marginalizes her in the worst way. She passes through endless envy when she
compares her childlessness with the five children of her sister-in-law and becomes
catty whenever she faces them. It is true that she tells a lie about her pregnancy
because she knows that truth will not work in the world she lives. Moreover, her love
for her husband is so potent that she succeeds in convincing him to turn the lie into
a reality. Maggie is blunt in her love and hatred. She is a strange mixture of kindness
and cruelty. In this way she not only outwits all those ready to destroy her marital
bliss but also rejuvenates the paralyzed sexuality of her husband with her aggressive
sexuality. So love is a force with which Maggie faces her predicament and emerges
stronger, happier and better off than before.