Maggie is essentially a good person who loves her husband despite the obvious challenge it is for her to get any sort of reciprocation of feelings. However because of this, the real Maggie, the pleasant Maggie, does not appear too often and we are presented with a woman that has:

"gone through this - hideous! - transformation, become - hard!"

This side of Maggie is bitter and frustrated with Brick and the state of their relationship; she is lonely but loves him too much to leave;

"Living with someone you love can be lonelier - than living entirely alone! - If the one that y' love doesn't love you..."

She is continuously battling with Brick to regain his love, utterly determined to have her way;

"one thing I don't have is the charm of the defeated,

my hat is still in the ring, and I am determined to win!"

The idea that she is like a "cat on a hot tin roof" highlights various traits of her charac

"[a little girl, Dixie bursts into the room, wearing an Indian war bonnet and firing a cap pistol at Maggie and shouting 'Bang, bang, bang!']"

"All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone. But she can't admit to herself that she makes me sick"

On the outside it seems that the family are very worried but Big Mama may have been the only one worried about Big Daddy himself - the rest of them seem to have other things on their mind, like the inheritance. As already mentioned, the inheritance has been the cause of most of the confrontations amongst the family, initiated mainly by Mae and Gooper. They are so desperate to have their hands on all of the money that they even try to trick Big Mama into signing everything over to them in a "dummy trusteeship" by telling her it is "just a preliminary outline" when of course it isn't. We already know that Maggie is onto their plan but equally Big Mama is also on the ball and will have none of it;

Maggie; "you see? - they gloat over us being childless...I've been to a doctor in Memphis, a - a gynaecologist...there's no reason why we can't have a child whenever we want one. And this is my time by the calendar to conceive"

Brick; "...how in hell do you imagine - that you're going to have a child by a man that can't stand you?"

Lastly the fact that it is a birthday party means that there is an air of forced happiness amongst the characters when really, even Big Daddy himself, doesn't really feel happy at all. The underlying tension is obvious and Williams is very successful at making this so.

"Maggie shut up about skipper. I mean it, Maggie; you got to shut up about Skipper."

Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can...."

it is at this point that Gooper's problem is revealed, he has been harbouring such bitter feelings about his relationship with Big Daddy compared with that of Big Daddy and Brick. This is something that he seems to have had to bear for most of his life;

Some common words found in the essay are:
Brick Brick, Brick Maggie, Daddy Brick, Skipper Maggie, Tennessee Williams, Daddy Wipe, Brick God, Mae Gooper, That's Maggie, Mama Daddy, hot tin, tin roof, hot tin roof, laws silence, daddy brick, tin roof', cat hot tin, cat hot, utterly determined, god damn, laws silence don't, charm defeated, maggie shut skipper, 'hot tin roof', maggie shut,
Approximate Word count = 2239
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)