Bittersweet Desire in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

In Anne Carson’s, “Eros the Bittersweet,” she describes eros as bittersweet, an experience simultaneously consisting of both pleasure and pain. According to Carson, eros or desire can be illustrated by the paradox of love and hate. She writes, “Whether apprehended as a dilemma of sensation, action or value, eros prints as the same contradictory fact: love and hate converge within erotic desire” (Carson 9). Carson later suggests that in Greek, the word eros signifies “want” or “lack.” Essentially then, eros is the constant desire for something we are lacking, something we can not have. As Carson argues, “The lover wants what he does not have. It is by definition impossible for him to have what he wants if, as soon as it is had, it is no longer wanting…desire can only be for what is lacking, not at hand, not present, not in one’s possession nor in one’s being…” (Carson 10). In other words, eros is the desire for what we can not have. Once we obtain what we want however, we lose that desire.
For example, in Tennessee Williams’ play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” eros can be recognized when observing the complex relationship between Margaret and Brick. Margaret is devoted to Brick. She strongly desires him even though he shows complete disinterest in her. In Act One, Margaret speaks to Brick, “You were a wonderful lover…Such a wonderful person to go to bed with, and I think mostly because you were really indifferent to it. Isn’t that right? Never had any anxiety about it, did it naturally, easily, slowly, with absolute confidence and perfect calm, more like opening a door for a lady or seating her at a table than giving expression to any longing for her. Your indifference made you wonderful at lovemaking-strange?- but true…” (Williams 18). In this passage, it seems that Brick’s lack of romantic passion and disinterest in Margaret actually caused her to desire him more. Essentially, she longed for what she could not have: the love that Brick was unwilling to give.