The characterisation of Margaret in Tennessee Williams's cat on hot tin roof : a cognitive stylistic study

Abstract EN

This study investigates the characterisation of Margaret from Cat on Hot Tin Roof (1955) by Tennessee Williams.

Characterisation is a process in which fictional characters are fleshed out by the author.

Margaret is one of Williams's most memorable characters.

Going through the process of characterisation attracts attention to how readers come to admire Margaret and how they infer some of her traits that are not directly mentioned in the play.

Checking out the linguistic choices made by Margaret in the dialogue can explain all of her traits.

In the end, the whole process of building up her personality comes to light.

This study is guided by Jonathan Culpeper's (2014) model to characterisation in which he emphasises the importance of background knowledge that comes to the process of reading.

The model has two sides to it: the knowledge that comes to the text by the readers and the information that the text possesses.

The analysis of this character is filtered through speech acts theory, conversation analysis, Grice's maxims, impoliteness strategies, self and other presentation and finally cognitive categorisation.

In the end, a lot can be inferred from her language which shows how rich she is as a dramatic character.