"Echo Spring": Reflecting the Gaze of Narcissus in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

"Echo Spring": Reflecting the Gaze of Narcissus in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof GEORGE W . CRAN DELL In Cai on a Hot Tin Roo/, no less than in other works such as Batlle a/Angels (Orpheus Descending), The Glass Menagerie. A SfI"CCt<:ar Named Desire. Sweet Bird of YOUlh , The Night of the Iguana, and The Two-Character Pia.\'. Tennessee Williams draws upon mythological analogues to illuminate characters and to underscore thematic parallels. Myles Raymond Hurd points out. for example, that the idealized friendship between Achilles and Patroclus in Homer's Iliad conceals a possible homosexual relationship that sheds light on the "equally ambiguous" relationship between Brick and Skipper in Cat Oil a Hot Tin Roof' On the other hand, Robert Hethmon suggests that the idealistic Brick more nearly resembles Hippolytus, someone who, like Brick. enjoys "the company of other young men, and the delights of athletic contests.'" Surprisingly , however, these and other critics have neglected to consider the similarities between Brick and Narcissus, the mythological fi gure whose name now denotes a psychological disorder, the kind of illness particularl y appealing to Tennessee Williams, whose plays have often been noted for their psychological realism. The similarities between Brick and Narcissus in Cat on a Hot Till Roof arc suggested not only by Brick's favorite alcoholic bevemge. Echo Spring. hUI also by the pattern of Brick's self-destructive behavior. Like the "beautiful" Narcissus.' Brick is a handsome young man, beloved by both "boys and girls" (i.e., Skipper and Maggie),- who spurns the love of others only to "[fall] in love with Echo Spring,'" seeing there the reflected image of his (fanner) self. Unable, however, to possess the object of his desire (neither Skipper nor his own idealized image of himself), Brick, like Narcissus, pines away from unrequited love, seeming to prefer death to life without his beloved. Although death ul timately claims the life of Narcissus and threatens to take Brick's life as well, Ovid offers the hopeful possibility that Narcissus has been miracu- . lously transformed into a beautiful flower. Williams likewise suggests the Modem Drama, 42 (Fall 1999) 427 GEORGE W. CRANDELL possibility (at least in the "Broadway version" of his play)6 that Brick has experienced a remarkable recovery, undergoing, like Narcissus, a miraculous metamorphosis. As this comparison reveals, the celebrated Brick Pollitt bears more than a superficial resemblance to Narcissus, just as his personality traits and behaviors exhibit more than a coincidental likeness to the characteristic features of "narcissistic personality disorder" as described in the literature of psychology. To understand Brick's narcissistic personality and behavior is to understand Brick's alienation not as an existential condition but as an analyzable and treatable disorder. To understand Brick's narcissism is also to see Brick not as a peripheral player in Cat all a Hot Till Roo/but as the figurative focus in Williams 's "self-centered" drama. Brick is the "self' around whom the action revolves and in relation to whom each of the other characters is defined. Brick's importance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is underscored by Williams in a stage direction that points to Brick's significance not as an isolated individual, but in·relationship to others, all of whom endure a "common crisis": The bird rhat I hope to catch ill the net ofthis play is not the sollllion ofone man's psychological prohlem. J' m trying to catch the true quality ofexperience in a group ofpeople, that cloudy.jlickeriflg, evanescent - fiercely charged! - interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud ofa common crisis. ( I 14) The "common crisis" to which Williams refers is both greater than any "one man's psychological problem" and more encompassing than the limited circle of his most intimate acquaintances_ In Cat on a Hot Tin Rooj, the Pollitt family , in which Brick commands the center of attention, is for Williams a microcosm of American culture as it is, or as it will become in the future_ In this larger context, Brick's narcissism anticipates, if it does not already reflect, what Christopher Lasch later describes as "the culture of narcissism," a society characterized by self-interested individuals, people largely indifferent to the past, the future, the needs of others, and a culture - in its pursuit of immediate gratification - unwittingly intent upon self-destruction.7 What Williams describes realistically in tenns of a narcissistic personality is at the same time a prophetic image of an American cultural phenomenon emerging in the post· war decades and becoming widely apparent by the mid-I97os. In anticipating this future, Williams resembles "the great artist" characterized by psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut as someone who "is ahead of his time in focusing on the nuclear psychological problems of his era."g In the narcissistic personality, Williams discovers what Kohut describes as the subject matter of "the great modem artists": "it is the crumbling, decomposing, fragmenting, enfeebled self ... that the great artists of the day describe ... and that they try to heal."9 Williams's depiction of the narcissistic Brick Pollitt thus provides, in addition to a fascinating case study, a prognosis for the future of American society. The Gaze of Narcissus in Cat 011 a Hot Tin Roof 429 Brick's narcissism in Cat on a Hot Tin Roo/serves as a metaphor for a complex of symptoms, characteristic of the society as a whole, that threatens the health and psychic well-being of the American people. Recognizing what Lasch describes as a fundamental shift in the cultural climate from the religious to the therapeutic," Williams, in his dramatic work, frequently depicts a group of people in conflict, the result of a psychological crisis experienced by one of the group members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Alma Winemiller in Summer and Smoke, and, of course, Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Till Roof are all illustrative examples. Williams also typically envisions the solution to the crisis in terms of recovery or cure. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brick's alcoholism is a symptom that masks his underlying personality disorder but nevertheless signals to Maggie and others that Brick is in need of treatment. Optimistically hoping that Brick will recover himself, and thus avoid the social stigma attached to institutionalization for-alcoholism or mental illness, Maggie threatens Brick with the prospect of confinement at Rainbow Hill, a "[p]lace [...J famous for treatin' alcoholics ant'] dope fiends" (2 1). Brick, on the other hand, prefers to believe that alcohol provides the only therapy he needs. When the percentage of alcohol in his bloodstream reaches precisely the right level, he experiences what he describes as a "click in [his] head" that results in a "peaceful" feeling (98). Anxiety-ridden and longing for peace, Brick is a dramatic prefiguration of Lasch's "psychological man," one of the defining figures of twentieth-century American culture: "Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the 'psychological man' of the twentieth century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind." For Lasch, psychological man is virlually synonymous with the "new narcissist," someone who is constantly searching for meaning in life, always seeking the approbation of others, and, like the mythical Narcissus, perpetually living "in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire."II Attempts to define the psychological nature of the narcissistic personality began as early as the late nineteenth century, when "Havelock Ellis first attached a psychological sense to the word narcissism in 1898 in reference to autoeroticism."" Since then, Sigmund Freud, Heinz Kohut, Otto F. Kemberg, Christopher Lasch, and many others have contributed significantly to the ongoing discussion of narcissism. Despite conflicting opinions among the ' leading thinkers, the American Psychiatric Association in 1987 reached consensus on nine general "diagnostic criteria" for the identification of narcissistic personality disorder, any five of which are sufficient to indicate the disorder. 13 From among this group, at least six of the criteria are relevant to the relationships dramatized in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as well as to the relationship between the artist, Tennessee Williams, and his audience. They include (I) "a grandiose sense of self-importance"; (2) a preoccupation "with 430 GEORGE W. CRANDELL fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love" (emphasis added); (3) a desire for "constant auention and admiration"; (4) "feelings of rage, shame, or humiliation" in response to criticism; and (5) a "Iaek of empathy: [the] inability to recognize and experience how others fccl."q Invoking the image of Narcissus and casting Brick Pollitt in the role of his mythological counterpart, Tennessee Williams obviously invites a comparison between Brick and Narcissus. At a more implicit level, Williams suggests that the specific symptoms of Brick's narcissism, which we recognize in the diagnostic criteria codified by the American Psychialric Association, motivate the psychological crisis that significantly alters Brick's relationships with his wife, his father, and his closest friend, a crisis that ultimately determines the outcome of the conflict dramatized in Cat on a Hot Till Roof Brick's "sense of self-importance" and unique status in the Polliu family, a first symptom of his narcissistic personality, is confirmed by reports from the other characters. He is, for example, according to his sister-in-law, Mae, a··beautiful athlete," ( '5' ), having achieved fame first as a professional football Slar and then as a sports announcer. Attesting also 10 Brick's physical attractiveness . Maggie describes him as a "superior creature!" and a "godlike being!" (56). In his study of pathological narcissism, Quo F. Kernberg notes that the family histories of narcissistic patients often "reveal that each patient possessed some inherent quality which could have objectively aroused the envy or admiration of others."" As the baby boy in the family, Brick has, since his birth. been the favorite of both Big Mama and Big Daddy and a source of resentment to his older brother, Gooper. As Gooper confesses, "I've resented Big Daddy's partiality to Brick ever since Brick was born" (152). Whenever Gooper and Mae are in the company of Brick, their tonc of voice rcllects their animosity and jealousy. In the third act, when Brick "enters from [he gallery," they announce his entrance with mocking irony, first Mae:··Behold the conquering hero comes!" and then Gooper: "The fabulous Brick Pollitt'" (152). As Kernberg adds, narcissistic children "often occupy a pivotal point in their family structure, such as being the only child, ... or the one who is supposed to fulfill the family aspirations.",6 While Brick is not the only chiIt! in the Polliu family, Big Mama nevertheless refers to Brick as her "only so,," (142). Likewise, Big Daddy shows a preference for Brick by suggesting thm he. and he alone, stands to inherit his sizable estate. Brick's own sense of sel f-importance is illustrated by an ironic deference towards members of his family while he remains the focus of attention. When, for example, Brick arrives on the scene in Act Three, he mockingly defers to Maggie, allowing her to enter the room before him; he then serves himself a drink - before a\l of the others - consciously aware that he has always been first in importance:' Brid. slIIi/es and hO\1· 's sligluly, making a hllr/esque gesture ofgallantry for Maggie IV pass he/ore him imo the rOOIll. Theil he JlOhbles 0 11 his crutch directly to the The Gaze of Narcissus in Cat on a Hot Tin Roo/ 431 liquor cabinet and tliere is abso/we silence, with everybody looking at Brick as everybody has always looked at Brick when he spoke or moved or appeared. One by one he drops ice cubes in his glass, then suddenly, bill not quickly , looks hack over his shollider with a I-wy. charming smile, and says: "J'm sorry! Anyone else?" (136) Although Brick contributes little to the family dialogue, he nevertheless commands the attention of his family members and exercises control over their hopes for the future. Principally by refusing to cooperate, Brick manipulates both Maggie and Big Daddy and is able to frustrate their plans. By refusing to sleep with his wife, for example, Brick makes it impossible for Maggie to bear his child. At the same time, by rejecting Maggie's appeals, he also frustrates his father's desire to leave his estate to Brick. Unless Brick chooses to cooperate by refonning his behavior and producing an heir, Big Daddy cannot, with good conscience, bequeath to Brick and Maggie his property and his legacy. In relation to the narcissistic personality, all other family members assume a role secondary in importance. At the same lime, they mirror onc aspect of Brick's narcissistic personality by insisting that Brick take notice of them and give heed to the special nature of their problems. Brick's fantasy of ideal love, a second characterislic symptom linking him with narcissistic personality disorder, is something that he holds on to even as others, on a more realistic plane. go about the business of living. Describing Brick's relationship with Skipper, Maggie remarks that "[iJt was one of those beautiful, ideal things they tell about in the Greek legends," but she also reminds Brick that "life has gOl to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is - all - over" (57). Following the death of his beloved friend, Brick clings tenaciously to the memory of what he and Skipper once shared: "One man has one great good thing in his life. One great good true thing which is true! - I had friendship with Skipper" (58). Even if Brick's ideal of friendship conceals an unacknowledged homosexual desire, it is unlikely, considering the moral climate of the day as well as Brick's narcissistic personality, that he would admit to anything other than what is socially acceptable. As Kemberg remarks, "[nJareissistic patients characteristically adapt themselves 10 Ihe moral demands of their environment because they are afraid of the attacks to which they would be subjected if they do not conform, and because this submission seems to be the price they have to pay for glory and admiration."!?To illustrate. Brick's conventional morality is reflected in his shocked response to his father's more tolerant attitude toward homosexuality: "Don't you know how people/eel about things like that? How, how disgusted they are by things like that?" (I t9). Brick's ideal of friendship, as this homophobic tirade indicates, incorporales a view of homosexuality that condemns it as morally wrong; thus, to characterize Brick merely as an example of frustrated homosexual desire or merely as an idealist may be to over-simplify the complexity of his character. 432 GEORGE W. CRANDELL Although critics have generally considered Brick's idealism and his (alleged) homosexuality as adequate to explain his character, each of these traits is subsumed by the broader classification of his personality as narcissistic. As it turns out, Brick's narcissistic personality disorder affects not only relationships within the family but also his interactions with people outside that circle, including the narcissist's choice of love-objects. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams shrouds the relationship between Brick and Skipper in mystery, writing in a stage direction that "{sl ome mystery should be left in the revelation ofcharacter in a play,just as a great deal ofmystery is always left in the revelation ofcharacter in life" ([ [4- [ 5). Critics attempting to define this relationship more unambiguously have suggested, on the one hand, that Brick is faithful to an ideal of friendship or, on the other hand, that he refuses to acknowledge his own homosexual desire for Skipper.·8 In fact, these two aspecLS of Brick's personality may be conjoined by considering Brick's nar-·cissistic disorder. Since Freud's earliest writing on the subject, homosexuality and narcissism have been inextricably linked. Characterizing homosexuals, Freud writes that "[tJhey are plainly seeking themselves as a love-object, and are exhibiting a type of object-choice which must be termed 'narcissistic.''''9 Although Freud would subsequently modify his thinking about the relationship between homosexuality and narcissism, later psychiatrists have followed his lead in trying [0 define their relationship. Kernberg, for example, writes that in "the most severe type of' homosexuality, "the homosexual partner is 'loved' as an extension of the patient's own pathological grandiose self, and hence we find the relation, not from self to object, nor from object to self, but from (pathological grandiose) self to self.,,20 Of course, only in the last decades of the twentieth century have physicians and psychiatrists challenged the view that homosexuality is a kind of illness. According to Vern and Bonnie Bullough, it was not until 1974. for example, that "the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the category of pathological illness."" However , in the context of prevailing views of homosexuality at the time Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was first performed in t955, what Williams depicts as a possible homosexual relationship between Brick and Skipper can be interpreted as a pathological manifestation of Brick's narcissistic self-love. To the extent that Skipper reflects what Brick "himself is ... what he himself was, ... [or) what he himself would like to be," he is someone that Brick may love, just a! the narcissist also loves himself.22 Brick's desire for "constant attention and admiration," a third symptom of his narcissistic personality disorder, suggests not only [hal Brick depends upon others to supply his want of self-esteem but also that he desires, despite some outward appearances to the contrary, contact with others.13 His "oneman track mee[," "stag[ed)" on the high school athletic field the night before the action of the play begins, succeeds in attracting attention to Brick, espe- The Gaze of Narcissus in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 433 cially after he falls and breaks his ankle while attempting to jump the high hurdles (22). By the next morning, Brick is the subject of a "human interest story" that appears in the Clarksdale Register (22). Within the Pollitt family, he is either the object of sympathy because of his "crippled" condition (70) or the object of ridicule because of his senseless behavior. In any case, he is once again the object of attention. "Because the narcissist has so few inner resources," Lasch explains, "he looks to others to validate his sense of self. He needs to be admired for his beauty, charm, celebrity, or power - attributes that usually fade with time."'4 Brick's return to the athletic stadium, itself a symbol of his former glory, is an attempt to relive in fantasy the celebrity he once enjoyed as an athlete. In contrast with Brick's career as a professional football star, his job as a sportscaster fails to provide him with the "[s)elf-confirming attention from others" that is "one of [the narcissist's) most compelling needs."" Instead of finding satisfaction in the broadcasting booth, Brick (the observer rather than the observed) envies the performers on the field, who remind him of his former, younger self. In a conversation with Big Daddy, Brick reveals not only his disenchantment with sportscasting and his reason for quitting, but also his realization that time has defeated him, has removed him from the spotlight of attention: Sit in abox watching a game I can't play? Describing what Ican't do while players do it? Sweating out their disgustand confusion in contests I'm not fit for? Drinkin' a coke, half bourbon, so I can stand it? That's no goddam good any morc, no help - time just outran me, Big Daddy - got there first ... (I 13) In the fading light of his brilliant athletic career, and dissatisfied with both wife and job, Brick resembles the aging narcissist described by Lasch: "Unable to achieve satisfying sublimations in the form of love and work, he finds that he has little to sustain him when youth passes him by.",6 In addition to exhibitions of the dramatic kind, Brick stages more subtle appeals for sympathy and attention by consuming alcohol at an alarming rate. For Brick, drinking is one kind of social activity that allows him to remain in close physical proximity with others (for the benefit of their attention) while keeping himself emotionally distant. As when he showers and leaves the bathroom door "half open" (17), his drinking expresses the narcissist's "deep- ' rooted needs for empathic responsiveness and for a sense of connection with others."27 Brick's indifference to others and his enraged response to perceived criticism resembles a fourth symptom that also describes the narcissistic personality disorder.'8 Williams notes in one stage direction that "[a] tone afpolitely feigned interest, masking indifference, or worse, is characteristic offBrick's] . speech with Margaret" (17). In other stage directions, Williams uses synony- 434 GEORGE W. CRANDELL mous words or phrases to describe Brick's indifference. Sometimes he is "unengaged" (65), other times he is "aloof' (68), but almost always, "[h]e has the additional charm ofthat cool air ofdetachment that people have who have given up the struggle" (19). Brick's indifference is further dramatized by his refusal or inability to listen . Maggie repeatedly asks Brick ifhe is listening to her, finally (near the end of the first act) delivering this exasperated outcry: "Are you listening to me? Are you? Are you LISTENING TO ME!" (62). His mother also has to ask, "Can you hear me, son?" (44), while Big Daddy, too, has to implore Brick to "listen to [himJ" (84). Underlying Brick's hearing problem is a lack of empathy for others. Like the narcissistic personality, Brick simply doesn't care about anyone else's feelings but his own. "[IJt's hard for me," he says, "to understand how anybody could care if he lived or died or was dying or cared about anything" (127). Focusing exclusively on his own problem, Brick's narcissistic gaze prevents him from seeing a point of view other than his own. As a result, he acts indifferently toward others, with the result that he damages his interpersonal relationships, Brick's rage, like his indifference to others, is another manifestation of his narcissistic personality. In the course of the play, Brick frequently responds with rage to Maggie and Big Daddy, and in each instance, the motivation for the feeling can be traced backward in time to his failed relationship with Skipper . Early in the first act of the play, for example, when Brick accidentally drops his crutch and Maggie offers to help him, saying, "Lean on my shoulder ," Brick replies: "[ don't want to lean on your shoulder, I want my crutch!" (32). In a stage direction immediately following, Williams writes that "[t]his is spoken like sudden lightning" (32). To most observers, Brick's response is extreme, especially considering the circumstances, but his behavior is fairly typical of the narcissistic personality. As Heinz Kohut observes, what is "remarkable" about the narcissist's response is "the intensity of the upset" in contrast with "the content of the precipitating occurrence."29 Prior to Brick's outburst, Maggie had broached the topic of Brick's relationship with Skipper, chiding Brick for his silence: When something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting adoor and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not faCing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thingjus( magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant.... (31) As Maggie's diagnosis suggests, Brick's problem and the rage that it motivates originate when his relationship with Skipper changes. When Skipper fails to conform to Brick's fantasy of ideal friendship by confessing his homosexual desire to Brick on the telephone, Brick's own secure heterosexual self- The Gaze of Narcissus in Cat 011 a Hut Till Roo! 435 image is challenged. Consequently, Brick suffers a narcissistic injury of the type "that threaten[s] the cohesion of the self."]O According to Kohut, it is '·an injury to the self' that is primarily responsible for motivating narcissistic or destructive rageY Following Skipper's telephone confession, to which Brick responds by hanging up on him, Brick not only suffers the loss of a love-object but also experiences shame and, as Big Daddy later points out, "disgust with [him]self' ( ' 24). As the American Psychiatric Association notes, ··feelings of rage, shame, or humiliation" are evidence of narcissistic personality disorderY With each reminder of the emotionally painful cpisode with Skippcr, Brick experiences a renewed sense of shame. The narcissistic personality typically "respond[s] to a potentially shame-provoking situation" in onc of two ways: "either with shamefaced withdrawal (night) or with narcissistic rage (fighl)."3J With both Maggie and Big Daddy, Brick's typical response is ragc. When Maggie, for example, brings up the subject of Ski pper a third ,ime in Act One, Brick angrily threatensher with hiscrutch: "Maggie, you want me to hit you with this crutch? Don 't you know I could kill you wi,h this crutch?" (57). Moments later. as Williams notes in a stage direction, ·'Brick STrikes a[ her with [the] aweh, a blow that shatters the /!emlike lamp (I ll the tahle" (59). Brick's violent expression of rage is motivated first by a sense of injury to his self and secondly by a desire for revenge. Kohut remarks that ·'It lhe need for revenge, for righting a wrong, for undoing a hurt" is a characteristic feature of narcissistic rageY When Big Daddy also brings up 'he subjec, of Skipper, suggesting to Brick that his "disgust with mendacity is disgust with Ihimlselr' ( ' 24), Brick likewise exacts his revenge upon Big Daddy. "fWJitllUw knowillg that he has made [the] decision," Brick proceeds to tell his father that he is dying of cancer, a choice motivated by revenge: "On/y this could even fhe score between them: one inadm issihle fhing;11 relllrn j(Jr allUlher" ( J:! I). According to the American Psychiatric Association, the narcissistic person· ality also "takes advantage of others" and suffers from a '·Iack of empathy:'" Exhibiting both of these characteristics (a fifth and sixth symptom from the APA's list of nine), Brick takes advantage of Maggie's feelings by refusing to sleep with her and shows a lack of empathy for Big Daddy by revealing the truth about his fatal condition. fn an earli er edition of the DiagnosTic and S[a· tistiea! Manual of Mental Disorders. these criteria were grouped with two other "disturbances in interpersonal relationships": (I ) expecting "special favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities" and (:!) experiencing "relationships that characteristically alternate between the extremes of over· idealization and devaluation."36 Only the last of these items is not a separate criterion in the revised 1987 list of diagnostic criteria, but it, too, usefully par· allels the way Brick values and then devalues his relationship with Skipper. Brick's lack of empathy, his manipulation of others, and his widely fluctuating emotional responses all indicate a severe disturbance of normal interpcr· GEORGE W. CRANDELL sonal relationships. To this list of five symptoms Lasch would add that the typical narcissist has little concern for what happens in the future.37 Instead, the narcissist focuses on the present moment, indulging in gratifying his or her immediate desires. Brick's lack of interest in the future is reflected by his reluctance to father a child. As Lasch explains, the narcissist "takes no interest in the future and does nothing to provide himself with the traditional consolations of old age, the most important of which is the belief that future generations will in some sense carry on his life's work." Instead, Brick looks backward to a more glorious time in his own self-history, to a period when he was young and the center of attention. As Lasch explains, narcissists "wish for eternal youth, for the same reason they no longer care to reproduce themselves."38 Apart from contributing to a realistic depiction of the narcissistic personality , the symptoms that characterize Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof serve an important signifying function. As Jacques Lacan explains, the symptom is "a metaphor in which flesh or function is taken as a signifying element ." For the analyst, to diagnose the symptom is to gain access to what is "inaccessible to the conscious subject," often a "sexual trauma" in the patient's history of desire.: \9 In the case of Brick, self-reflection does not lead to self-revelation. Limited by his narcissistic gaze, Brick is unable to see that his current state of melancholy stems not from the death of Skipper but from his rejection of Skipper's friendship and love. Brick's narcissistic symptoms thus take on their pathological aspect prior to Skipper's death and immediately following the telephone conversation in which Skipper confesses his love to Brick. After that traumatic moment, Brick's desire, which had always been for a purely idealistic relationship, 'comes to an abrupt end with the knowledge that Skipper (and only Skipper, according to Maggie) "harbored even any unconscious desire for anything not perfectly pure" in the way of a relationship between the two men (58). Brick suffers not from grief, which dissipates with time, but from a more serious disorder of the self, one that threatens to resolve itself only in his death. In the original version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, before Tennessee Williams revised the third act and incorporated director Elia Kazan's suggested changes, Brick's projected fate is similar to that of Narcissus. In Ovid's story, although death comes to Narcissus, it provides no relief from his suffering: "[Elven in Hell," Ovid writes, "he found a pool to gaze inj Watching his image in the Stygian water."40 Similarly, the original Cat on a Hot Tin Roof concludes with no suggestion that Brick's condition has changed or will ever change. In the concluding scene, although Maggie vows, "we're going to make the lie true," meaning that she and Brick "are going to - have a child!" (165, 158), Brick remains opposed to the idea, asking Maggie: "how are you going to conceive a child by a man in love with-his liquor?" Persistent as always, Maggie makes a final appeal: "I do love you, Brick, I dO'" but Brick's The Gaze of Narcissus in Cal all a HOI Tin Roof 437 reply, "Wouldn 't it be funny if that was true?" again suggests a pessimistic outcome (164-66). In the revised "Broadway version" of Cal all a Hot Tin Roof, Williams offers an alternative reading of the Ovidian myth in which he exploits the optimistic possibilities suggested by the notion of melamorphosis and by the apparent transfonnation of Narcissus into a flowerY In the eyes of critics who see the change in Brick's character coming about too rapidly, the transformation seems to be, like that of Narcissus, simply miraculous.'2 Among the significant changes in the "Broadway version," the suddenly self-aware Brick Pollitt admits, for example, that he has "lied to [himjself' about his alcoholic condition.43 In contrast to the original version, in the "Broadway version" Brick is willing to commit himself to Rainbow Hill for treatment (Br Cal 172). No longer indifferent in the "Broadway version"'s third act, Brick defends Maggie against the accusations of Mae and Gooper, even though he knows Maggie is lying: "No, truth is something desperate, an ' she's got it" (Br Cal 2 I 2). In the concluding scene, Brick confesses, "I admire you, Maggie," suggesting a much more hopeful outcome than in the original third act. As if to confinn that Brick has recovered from his narcissistic personality disorder, Maggie reports, after destroying Brick's liquor supply, that "Echo Spring has gone dry" (Br Cal 2 I 4). Whether from the perspective of the American Psychiatric Association, Heinz Kohut, Otto F. Kernberg, or Christopher Lasch, Brick Pollitt displays many of the prominent features of the narcissistic personality. His unique position within the Pollitt family suggests that he also assumes the most prominent role in Colon a HOI Till Roof, eliciting the attention of each of the other characters (and the audience), taking advantage of those closest to him, and defining each of the other major players in relation to himself. Suffering from a narcissistic injury to his fundamental selC Brick takes out his revenge on everyone: he rejects Maggie's love and refuses to sleep with her; he informs Big Daddy of his impending death; as soon as Skipper fails to conform to Brick's ideal of friendship, Brick devalues and dismisses him. Significantly, Brick's narcissism helps to explain each of these relationships, just as it also helps to illuminate the relationship that Williams imagined between the playwright and his audience. For Williams, Narcissus ·also represents the anist, who must, necessarily. seek the attention of an audience. In the prefatory remarks that introduce Cat all a H OI Tin Roof, Williams relates the following "parable," which suggests that the artist's role is both "a demand for attention" and a challenge to "ris[e] above the singular to the plural concern": Ionce saw a group of liule girls on a Mississippi sidewalk. all dolled up in their mothers' and sisters' castoff finery. old raggedy ball gowns and plumed hats and high-heeled slippers, enacting a meeting of ladies in a parlor with a perfect mimicry GEORGE w. CRANDELL of polite Southern gush and simper. But one child was not satisfied with the attention paid her enraptured performance by the others, they were too involved in their own performances to suit her, so she stretched out her skinny arms and threw back her ski nny neck and shrieked 10 the deaf heavens and her equally oblivious pl