Tennessee Williams is known for his contributions to Southern Gothic literature. Southern Gothic, often associated with writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, is a literary genre that uses gothic elements to explore the complexities of the post-war American South, including grotesque or macabre imagery and supernatural elements. Prior to the Civil War, the Antebellum South was known for its booming agricultural industry, including sprawling cotton plantations made wealthy by the unpaid labor of enslaved people. After the Civil War and emancipation, the South’s economy largely collapsed, leaving the region plagued by poverty, racism, sexism, and violence, with many formerly prestigious white families clinging to a past of perceived glory. Southern Gothic literature destabilizes the idealized vision of the American South and uses gothic elements to uncover its real social issues. 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof contains many elements of Southern Gothic literature, including themes of family dysfunction and decay as well as grotesque imagery, like the portrayal of Mae as “monstrous” for her fertility. The Pollitts’ plantation represents the glamor of the Old South, and their inability to choose an heir demonstrates the decay of this glamor. Brick’s alcoholism and Gooper’s greed suggest the Pollitt estate will fall into further decay, reflecting the larger downfall of the American South.