Compare the significance of isolation in two texts you have studied

As a result of being isolated, both Brick, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Frank, from Revolutionary Road, are profoundly damaged individuals, subsequently leading to self-hate and the misuse of their wives, emotionally and physically. When confronted about his “sodomy” by Big Daddy in Act Two, a patriarchal figure who Brick feels he must impress, transforms: “[Brick is transformed…a quiet mountain blew suddenly up in volcanic flame]”, here the juxtaposition of quiet versus volcanic eruption reflects Brick’s own bottled up anger and feelings of latent homosexuality, the imagery of fire connote passion and anger - Williams through this stage direction can ensure the actor fully understands his intentions and convey this to the audience - who, previously, would have been stunned to see a representation of homosexuality, but today are open to it. This “volcanic” flame foregrounds Big Daddy’s reaction to the revelation of his cancer, creating a dramatic irony about these impending revelations. Frank, on the other hand, is damaged and then takes this out on his wife, as April says early on in Part One: “you think I’ve forgotten the time you hit me…punching bag” - the flashback that Yates uses intensify scenes and shed light into a part of the Wheelers’ relationship that readers have not seen; the significance of this being in Part One is that early on readers are invited to question whether they were ever happy in the first place. In Part One, we see Frank’s own damage as beginning to affect April’s mental decline, that delineates in Part Two and Three. Expectations of the 1950s man were rigid and quite high due to the threats of bombs, leading men to overcompensate their control and lead to outbursts like this from the stress - Yates features this because hitting your wife would have been a taboo subject, not discussed and so to read this would be shocking to readers and a truth many women experienced in the 1950s.