Teaching Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has an emotional pull students can't resist

Emma Drury

speaks English teachers about the challenges and rewards of teaching Tennessee Williams dark, challenging game, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Alex Quigley, English subject leader, Huntington School, York

decided to teach Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams, very different groups in terms of the ability of their GCSE English literature because, like most teenagers in the UK for TODAY 'Today These days, my students were completely immersed in American culture: dreams, glamor and lies. Other commodities such as English literature, Of Mice and Men and Death of a Salesman, were universally popular study so dark Williams family disintegration, lies and illicit sex were sure to touch a nerve. As a demonstration of Jeremy Kyle in the classroom, always causes debate chat, emotional qualified prospects and opens a window on a world very recognizable, which never fails to hook students.

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cat told me he worked for the courses listed, both based on the theme of lies. Obviously, the game also gives me the opportunity to speak fertile theatrical and listening. In our modern era, when students from each class are affected by family breakdown and divorce, the main themes of lies, deception and family taboos illicit sex and power, really hit home with force emotional.

The taboo nature of homosexuality potential brick has been that I went with some initial fear. With a diverse group of children, more interested in rugby and makeup, respectively, showed first cat. I approached openly about homosexuality honest (unlike Williams) - cue palpable discomfort with my children. The alpha male of the group, who loves rugby Jack hates school, has been particularly reluctant. In a few weeks, Jack led the debate, arguing vehemently brick and encourage him to continue his feelings for Skipper. At the completion of brick arches was to leave his wife Maggie harpy and find a good man, Alan Carr maniac

work offers many opportunities for discussion and nuanced drama. Jeremy said group discussion, and relentlessly funny, Kyle style discussions on the game as a metaphor for American capitalism cancer, the book offers rich material for teens to get their teeth. Since I got sick of the history of Big Daddy of child prostitution to be bothered by annoying interruptions Momma House before being irretrievably broken brick sad, students have always been emotionally involved in the work and Learning large emotional investment is pure gold.

students love the realism of the work. I've had moments where students were unruly cancer patient desperate reveal Big Daddy. Any work that inspired a student to shout: "Why did not you say that you have a bloody cancer - say" with such vehemence that anyone would think that the game is happening in your area, you need to succeed. The ambiguous ending that leaves everyone guessing, with requests for a sequel to "answers". Any teacher will tell you that students read a series called then the work has done the work.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof offers teachers and students a piece richly complex and deeply moral drama that speaks directly to today's teens with a simple eloquence and certainly one strong blow emotional punching.

Capstick Sophie and Jess Grant, professor of English and head of English, The Crest Academies, Brent

teach Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to year 13 students for their A-level English literature course, and not as an isolated text, but a 3000 study comparing word to be compared to a display element Williams with Atonement by Ian McEwan and Othello by William Shakespeare. Not easy for 17 or 18 years.

However, we ensure that we start from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, because it is very accessible and the plot and themes seem to be universal, animated characters as Maggie the Cat and Big Daddy and General themes of human weakness and vice seems to transcend time and unite even the most disparate classes and reassure students more likely to A2. One of our students this year said that even Tennessee Williams reveals his weakness as a playwright at the end of the room where it has two terminals (one initially expected and it rewrites the request of director Elia Kazan as the beginning of game 1955).

• Symbolism in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is so rich that students are able to reach more sophisticated levels of analysis, regardless of past performance: Brick crutch, Maggie the cat and cancer Big Daddy is essential to the public's perception of the family in symbolic play and disillusionment with the American dream Williams. When you can get your teeth into symbols and images, our students tend to approach the text and its layers of meaning with enthusiasm. For example, a recent class discussion on the importance of the use of symbolism Williams led to the conclusion that most of the class symbols in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are intangible, which reinforces the themes of deception and illusion and encourages the conceptualization of a basic word level.
• One of the biggest challenges we face in teaching students' work was feelings of depression and frustration during the reading and analysis of work (not helped by having read simultaneously Atonement). The three texts that we studied does not offer much hope. Williams, in particular, suggests that behind the illusion of unity success, wealth and family intoxicating, the harsh reality is that life is just not that size. One of our students, Zahra, suggested that everyone in life has its "crutches" brick are just more obvious than the other characters, which encourages the viewer to wonder if they were their own.

Ultimately, students are faced with the ends of the three texts. Othello is not as much a classic tragedy of Shakespeare. But the atonement is probably one of the most frustrating final chapters of any novel I've read and even Cat on a Hot Tin Roof not get close or allow their central characters to make peace a way that the students have never met before. This, however, is the joy of teaching these texts, the texts are easy and fun, no worries. They make demands of the reader, face reader expectations of a traditional or new work and thus ensure that our students grow as A2 critical, independent readers who are able to draw their own conclusions about the texts they study.

Resources
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the Guardian Teacher Network:

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