Read Online Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams - Free Book Online

Daddy.
    BIG DADDY:
    Crap . . . I wonder what gives them both that look?
    BRICK:
    Well. They're sittin’ in the middle of a big piece of land, Big Daddy,
     twenty-eight thousand acres is a pretty big piece of land and so
     they're squaring off on it, each determined to knock off a bigger piece of it
     than the other whenever you let it go.
    BIG DADDY:
    I got a surprise for those women. I'm not gonna let it go for a long time yet
     if that's what they're waiting for.
    BRICK:
    That's right, Big Daddy. You just sit tight and let them scratch each
     other's eyes out . . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    You bet your life I'm going to sit tight on it and let those sons of bitches
     scratch their eyes out, ha ha ha. . . .
    But Gooper's wife's a good breeder, you got to admit
     she's fertile. Hell, at supper tonight she had them all at the table and they
     had to put a couple of extra leafs in the table to make room for them, she's
     got five head of them, now, and another one's comin’.
    BRICK:
    Yep, number six is comin’ . . . .
    BIG DADDY:
    Brick, you know, I swear to God, I don't know the way it happens?

    BRICK:
    The way what happens, Big Daddy?
    BIG DADDY:
    You git you a piece of land, by hook or crook, an’ things start growin’
     on it, things accumulate on it, and the first thing you know it's completely
     out of hand, completely out of hand!
    BRICK:
    Well, they say nature hates a vacuum, Big Daddy.
    BIG DADDY:
    That's what they say, but sometimes I think that a vacuum is a hell of a lot
     better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.
    Is someone out there by that door?
    BRICK:
    Yep.
    BIG DADDY:
    Who?
    [ He has lowered his
     voice. ]
    BRICK:
    Someone int'rested in what we say to each other.
    BIG DADDY:
    Gooper?——GOOPER!
    [ After a discreet pause, Mae appears in the
     gallery door. ]
    MAE:
    Did you call Gooper, Big Daddy?
    BIG DADDY:
    Aw, it was you.

    MAE:
    Do you want Gooper, Big Daddy?
    BIG DADDY:
    No, and I don't want you. I want some privacy here, while I'm having a
     confidential talk with my son Brick. Now it's too hot in here to dose them
     doors, but if I have to close those rotten doors in order to have a private talk with
     my son Brick, just let me know and I'll close ‘em. Because I hate
     eavesdroppers, I don't like any kind of sneakin’ an’
     spyin’.
    MAE:
    Why, Big Daddy—
    BIG DADDY:
    You stood on the wrong side of the moon, it threw your shadow!
    MAE:
    I was just—
    BIG DADDY:
    You was just nothing but spyin’ an’ you know it!
    MAE [ begins to
     sniff and sob ]:
    Oh, Big Daddy, you're so unkind for some reason to those that really love
     you!
    BIG DADDY:
    Shut up, shut up, shut up! I'm going to move you and Gooper out of that
     room next to this! It's none of your goddam business what goes on in
     here at night between Brick an’ Maggie. You listen at night like a couple of
     rotten peekhole spies and go and give a report on what you hear to Big Mama
     an’ she comes to me and says they say such and such and so and so about what
     they heard goin’ on between Brick an’ Maggie, and Jesus, it makes me
     sick. I'm goin’ to move you an’ Gooperout
     of that room, I can't stand sneakin’ an’ spyin’, it
     makes me sick . . . .
    [ Mae throws back her head and rolls her eyes
     heavenward and extends her arms as if invoking God's pity for this unjust martyrdom; then she presses a handkerchief to her nose and
     flies from the room with a loud swish of skirts. ]
    BRICK [ now at
     the liquor cabinet ]:
    They listen, do they?
    BIG DADDY:
    Yeah. They listen and give reports to Big Mama on what goes on in here between you
     and Maggie. They say that—
    [ He stops as if
     embarrassed .]
    —You won't sleep with her, that you sleep on the sofa. Is
     that true or not true? If you don't like Maggie, get rid of
     Maggie!—What are you doin’ there now?
    BRICK:
    Fresh'nin’ up my drink.
    BIG DADDY:
    Son, you know you got a real liquor problem?
    BRICK:
    Yes, sir, yes, I know.
    BIG DADDY:
    Is that