Cat on a Hot Tin Roof1958

Brick:
That's what you hated. Bein' shut out.

Maggie:
Not by the crowds, baby. By you, by the man I worshipped. That's why I hated Skipper.

Brick:
You hated him so much that you got him drunk and went to bed with him.

Big Daddy:
[After a long pause] Well, is that true?

Maggie:
Oh Big Daddy, you don't think I ravished a football hero?

Brick:
Skipper was drunk.

Maggie:
So were you most of the time. I don't seem to make out so well with you.

Brick:
Are you? Are you trying to say that nothing happened between you and Skipper?

Maggie:
You know what happened!

Brick:
I don't know what happened. I don't know, Maggie. Now I wasn't there. I couldn't play that Sunday. I wasn't in Chicago. I was in the hospital...

Maggie:
But Skipper played. Oh, he played all right. Played his first professional game without Brick...Without you, Skipper was nothin'. Outside - big, tough, confident. Inside - pure jelly. You saw the game on TV. You saw what happened.

Brick:
But I didn't see what happened in Skipper's hotel room. That little episode was not on TV. Go ahead, tell Big Daddy why you were in Skipper's room.

Maggie:
He was sick, sick with drink and he wouldn't come out. He busted some furniture and the hotel manager said to stop him before he called the police. So I went to his room. I scratched on his door and begged him to let me in. He was half-crazy, violent and screamin' one minute and weak and cryin' the next. And all the time, scared stiff about you. So I said to him, maybe it was time we forgot about football. Maybe he ought to get a job and let me and Brick alone. I thought he'd hit me. He walked toward me with a funny sort of smile on his face. Then he did the strangest thing. He kissed me. That was the first time he'd ever touched me. And then I knew what I was gonna do. I'd get rid of Skipper. I'd show Brick that their deep true friendship was a big lie. I'd prove it by showin' that Skipper would make love to the wife of his best friend. He didn't need any coaxin'. He was more than willin'. He even seemed to have the same idea. [pause] I was tryin' to win back my husband. It didn't matter how. I would have done anythin' - even that. At the last second, I-I got panicky. Supposin' I lost you instead. Supposin' you'd hate me instead of Skipper. So I ran. Nothin' happened. I've tried to tell him a hundred times but he won't let me. Nothin' happened.

Brick:
Hallelujah - Saint Maggie! (He raises his drinking glass)

Maggie:
I wanted to get rid of Skipper but not if it meant losin' you. (To Big Daddy) He (Brick) blames me for Skipper's death. Maybe I got rid of Skipper. Skipper went out anyway. I didn't get rid of him at all. Isn't it an awful joke, honey? I lost you anyway.