Throughout the course of the play, Brick's wife Maggie articulates a myriad of desires she wishes would come to fruition. When they do not, Maggie begins to fall to pieces, particularly because of Brick's frequent neglect and her unfortunate childlessness. Growing up Maggie was poor, and now that she has married into a family of wealth she does not want to risk losing it all, so she wants her beloved Brick to change his ways and stop being an alcoholic. Furthermore, she also wants Brick to look past his anger and see the truth about the situation involving the death of his friend Skipper.
At first Brick and Maggie were happy together; however, over time Maggie began to believe that Brick's friendship with his best friend Skipper was getting in the way of their marriage. Maggie had a suspicion that Skipper was secretly a homosexual and was in love with Brick. Finally she reached the pinnacle of her frustration and one day told Skipper to either stop loving her husband or confess it to him. That same night Skipper, determined to prove to Maggie and himself that he was not indeed a homosexual, went to Maggie's room and tried to make love to her, but he failed. He then went into a speedy decline and died. Once Brick heard about Skipper's death, he recalled a phone call he received from Skipper before he died and comes to the conclusion that his best friend's death was Maggie's fault. He then punished her by refusing to sleep with her and that's when things began to go downhill for Maggie.
Maggie's loneliness lays in her husband's failure to recognize her true desire: to have his child. His refusal to make her his desire and sleep with her has made her hard, nervous, and bitter, a desperate woman married to a man who does not want her. During Act I, Maggie changes her clothes, posing and staring at herself in the mirror, preparing for Brick's father's (Big Daddy) party. Maggie is always posing in the mirror.
