Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Objectives:
• To understand the features of a tragedy.
• To predict what you think that ‘Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof’ will be about.
Features of a tragedy
Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering
that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or
pleasure in the viewing. The audience need to feel a
release of psychological tension and therefore must feel
a sense of emotional connection to the characters.
Features:
• Tragic flaw of protagonist contrasts with their generally
noble character
• Often a critical point in the play where the flaw is
exposed and the downfall begins
• Follow the three unities
• Usually ends in death
The three unities
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities or three unities
are rules for drama derived from a passage in Aristotle's
Poetics. In their neoclassical form they are as follows:
• The unity of action: a play should have one main action
that it follows, with no or few subplots.
• The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical
space and should not attempt to compress geography,
nor should the stage represent more than one place.
• The unity of time: the action in a play should take place
over no more than 24 hours.
Paired task
• Based on this knowledge, what do you think
will happen in the modern tragedy ‘Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof’?
• Plan out a story board or bullet points,
predicting what you think will happen.