Life is one large construction of lies, selfish agendas, and illusions.

Lies have a major presence throughout the play. The children lie to Big Daddy about his cancer; Brick lies about his true relationship with Skipper; Mae and Gooper lie to appeal to Big Daddy; Maggie lies about being pregnant; Big Daddy lies about loving Big Mama.

  • All of the characters seem to rely on lies; especially Big Daddy and Brick. Brick feels lied to about everything, about life in general.
    • 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.... (Williams II.109)


  • The lies that each character feels is impressed upon them become part of their characters. For example, Brick feels lied to about the opportunities and positivity of life, and in turn he feels like he must lie about himself – about his sexuality, about his supposedly positive marriage with Maggie. Brick finally breaks the web of lies when he tells Big Daddy the truth about his terminal cancer; this occurs when Brick feels so imposed upon by outside and social pressures and he can no longer accept the lies that construct his life and the lives of others.
  • Maggie has lied about her past to get to the social class she is in today. She understands that she and Brick must lie about their rocky marriage in order to secure Big Daddy’s affection and thus secure the estate as inheritance. Maggie is unwilling to let go of her lies that she sees as necessary to have the life she want; this is the secret and selfish agenda she holds.
    • Margaret: “You have to fool them. They have to fool themselves” (Williams I.52).
  • Mae and Gooper have a secret agenda to secure the estate as inheritance for themselves; they selfish attempt to win Big Daddy’s favor and secure the rights to the estate as quickly as possible. Their plan is unsuccessful however, and they fail at using their lies to gain personal gain.

Intentionally avoiding conflict through silence only augments the problem’s power and ultimately causes more tension to fester between people. 

Many of the characters attempt to avoid discussing the truth as a means to avoid conflict:

  • Maggie, Brick, Mae, and Gooper lie to Big Daddy about his cancer in order to allow him to celebrate his last birthday happily; their silence only causes greater emotional distress and anger when the truth is realized.
  • Maggie and Brick avoid talking about Skipper, but this only causes more tension in their relationship. Maggie feels like she must discuss the relationship between Brick and Skipper and that it can’t be ignored any longer in order to dissolve the tension between them. Their silence on the subject has enabled the tension to magnify and become more hysterical.
    • Maggie: “Laws of silence don’t work. … silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silences, become malignant.” (Williams I.32)

The inability but desire to conform to social pressures leads to internal struggles that can harm oneself and others.

Brick has attempted to comply with society’s standards his entire life: a professional football star, a beautiful woman for a wife, a 28,000 acre plantation as an inheritance. However, Brick’s possible homosexual relationship with his good friend Skipper is the barrier that prevents him from being able to fit into society. Maggie and Big Daddy blatantly hint that Brick and Skipper were homosexual lovers, but Brick continually attempts to deny these hints in order to be accepted by society. Brick is unable to be happy with himself, and he turns to alcohol as a source of desensitization from the social standards he cannot please.

This alcoholic abuse hurts himself and isolates him from the rest of his family; this in turn hurts Maggie, who wants him to love her as she loves him, as well as his own parents. Both Big Daddy and Big Mama comment on losing Brick to alcohol and feeling distant from him.

    • Big Daddy: "Why do you drink? Why are you throwing your life away, boy, like somethin' disgusting you picked up on the street?" (Williams II.106)