Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams Page A

out there.
    BIG DADDY [ fiercely ]:
    Keep out, Gooper!
    GOOPER:
    ‘Scuse me!
    [ Big Daddy slams the doors after
     Gooper. ]
    BIG DADDY:
    Who's been lying to you, has Margaret been lying to you, has your wife been
     lying to you about something, Brick?
    BRICK:
    Not her. That wouldn't matter.
    BIG DADDY:
    Then who's been lying to you, and what about?
    BRICK:
    No one single person and no one lie . . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    Then what, what then, for Christ's sake?
    BRICK:
    —The whole, the whole—thing . . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    Why are you rubbing your head? You got a headache?

    BRICK:
    No, I'm tryin’ to—
    BIG DADDY:
    —Concentrate, but you can't because your brain's all soaked with
     liquor, is that the trouble? Wet brain!
    [ He snatches the glass from Brick's
     hand. ]
    What do you know about this mendacity thing? Hell! I could
     write a book on it! Don't you know that? I could write a book
     on it and still not cover the subject? Well, I could, I could write a goddam
     book on it and still not cover the subject anywhere near
     enough!!—Think of all the lies I got to put up
     with!—Pretenses! Ain't that
     mendacity? Having to pretend stuff you don't think or feel or have any
     idea of? Having for instance to act like I care for Big Mama!—I
     haven't been able to stand the sight, sound, or smell of that woman for forty
     years now!—even when I laid her!—regular as a piston . . . .
    Pretend to love that son of a bitch of a Gooper and his wife Mae and
     those five same screechers out there like parrots in a jungle? Jesus!
     Can't stand to look at ‘em!
    Church!—it bores the bejesus out of me but I
     go!—I go an’ sit there and listen to the fool
     preacher!
    Clubs!—Elks! Masons! Rotary! —crap!
    [ A spasm of pain makes him clutch his belly.
     He sinks into a chair and his voice is softer and hoarser. ]
    You I do like
     for some reason, did always have some kind of real feeling
     for—affection—respect—yes, always . . . .
    You and being a success as a planter is all I ever had any devotion to
     in my whole life!—and that's the truth . . . .

    I don't know why, but it is!
    I've lived with
     mendacity!—Why can't you live with
     it? Hell, you got to live with it, there's
     nothing else to live with
     except mendacity, is there?
    BRICK:
    Yes, sir. Yes, sir there is something else that you can live with!
    BIG DADDY:
    What?
    BRICK [ lifting
     his glass ]:
    This!—Liquor . . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    That's not living, that's dodging away from life.
    BRICK:
    I want to dodge away from it.
    BIG DADDY:
    Then why don't you kill yourself, man?
    BRICK:
    I like to drink. . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    Oh, God, I can't talk to you . . . .
    BRICK:
    I'm sorry, Big Daddy.
    BIG DADDY:
    Not as sorry as I am. I'll tell you something. A little while back when I
     thought my number was up—
    [ This speech should have torrential pace and
     fury. ]

    —before I found out it was just this—spastic—colon.
     I thought about you. Should I or should I not, if the jig was up, give you this
     place when I go—since I bate Gooper an’ Mae an’ know that they
     hate me, and since all five same monkeys are little Maes an’
     Goopers.—And I thought, No!—Then I thought, Yes!
     —I couldn't make up my mind. I hate Gooper and his five same monkeys
     and that bitch Mae! Why should I turn over twenty—eight thousand acres
     of the richest land this side of the valley Nile to not my kind?—But
     why in hell, on the other hand, Brick, should I subsidize a goddam fool on the
     bottle?—Liked or not liked, well, maybe even—loved!— Why should I do
     that?—Subsidize worthless behavior? Rot?
     Corruption?
    BRICK [ smiling ]:
    I understand.
    BIG DADDY:
    Well, if you do, you're smarter than I am, God damn it, because I don't
     understand. And this I will tell you frankly. I didn't make up my mind at all
     on that question and still to this day I ain't made out no
     will!—Well, now I don't have to.
     The pressure is gone. I can just wait and see if you