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.