Read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for Free Online Page A

take care of me.
    MARGARET:
    Yes, I do. Two people in the same boat have got to take care of each other. At least
     you want money to buy more Echo Spring when this supply is exhausted, or will you be
     satisfied with a ten-cent beer?
    Mae an’ Gooper are plannin’ to freeze us out of Big
     Daddy's estate because you drink and I'm childless. But we can defeat
     that plan. We're going to defeat that
     plan!
    Brick, y'know, I've been so God damn
     disgustingly poor all my life!— That's the truth, Brick!
    BRICK:
    I'm not sayin’ it isn't.
    MARGARET:
    Always had to suck up to people I couldn't stand because they had money and I
     was poor as Job's turkey. You don'tknow what
     that's like. Well, I'll tell you, it's like you would feel a
     thousand miles away from Echo Spring!—And had to get back to it on that broken ankle . . . without a crutch!
    That's how it feels to be as poor as Job's turkey and have
     to suck up to relatives that you hated because they had money and all you had was a
     bunch of hand-me-down clothes and a few old moldy
     three-per-cent government bonds. My daddy loved his liquor, he fell in
     love with his liquor the way you've fallen in love with Echo
     Spring!—And my poor Mama, having to maintain some semblance of social
     position, to keep appearances up, on an income of one hundred and fifty dollars a
     month on those old government bonds!
    When I came out, the year that I made my debut, I had just two evening
     dresses! One Mother made me from a pattern in Vogue, the other a hand-me-down from a snotty rich cousin
     I hated!
    —The dress that I married you in was my grandmother's
     weddin’ gown . . . .
    So that's why I'm like a cat on a hot tin roof!
    [ Brick is still on the gallery. Someone
     below calls up to him in a warm Negro voice, “Hiya, Mistuh Brick, how yuh
     feelin'?” Brick raises his liquor glass as if that answered
     the question.]
    MARGARET:
    You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it. You've
     got to be old with money because to be old without it is
     just too awful, you've got to be one or the other, either young or with money, you
     can't be old and without it.—That's
     the truth, Brick . . . .
    [ Brick whistles softly,
     vaguely. ]

    Well, now I'm dressed, I'm all dressed, there's nothing else for
     me to do.
    [ Forlornly, almost
     fearfully. ]
    I'm dressed, all dressed, nothing else for me to do . . . .
    [ She moves about restlessly, aimlessly, and
     speaks, as if to herself. ]
    I know when I made my mistake.—What am I—?
     Oh! —my bracelets . . . .
    [ She starts working a collection of
     bracelets over her hands onto her wrists, about six on each, as she
     talks. ]
    I've thought a whole lot about it and now I know when I made my
     mistake. Yes, I made my mistake when I told you the truth about that thing with
     Skipper. Never should have confessed it, a fatal error, tellin’ you about
     that thing with Skipper.
    BRICK:
    Maggie, shut up about Skipper. I mean it, Maggie; you got to shut up about
     Skipper.
    MARGARET:
    You ought to understand that Skipper and I—
    BRICK:
    You don't think I'm serious, Maggie? You're fooled by the
     faet that I am saying this quiet? Look, Maggie. What you're doing is a
     dangerous thing to do.
     You're—you're—you're—foolin’ with
     something that—nobody ought to fool with.
    MARGARET:
    This time I'm going to finish what I have to say to you. Skipper and I made
     love, if love you could call it, because it made both of us feel a little bit closer
     to you. You see, youson of a bitch, you asked too much of
     people, of me, of him, of all the unlucky poor damned sons of bitches that happen to
     love you, and there was a whole pack of them, yes, there was a pack of them besides
     me and Skipper, you asked too goddam much of people that loved you,
     you-superior creature!—you godlike being! And so we made
     love to each other to dream it was you, both of us! Yes, yes, yes!
     Truth, truth! What's so awful about