Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.