Dean Shackelford, The Tth That Mt Be Told: Gay Subjectivy, Homophobia, and Social History "Cat on a Hot T Roof", The Tennsee Williams Annual Review, No. 1 (1998), pp. 103-118
Contents:
WAS BRICK GAY THE HOT ROOF?
He is a homosexual reprentg the homosexuals of the neteen fifti, so he also reprents the social victims that the homosexuals of the time were. The play ncentrat on the plight of Brick whose life and difficulti symbolize the crisis of the mid-century homosexual culture. His paradoxil suatn, and his abily to speak out and to live a normal life, is supposed to 'expose' the problem of the liv of homosexuals of the time, rather than illtrate or suggt a solutn.
Brick's nflict wh the expectatn, attu and opprsn of the fay and social environment are all ed by his homosexual orientatn; and th, every other theme n be and should be related to the theme of homosexualy, or at least, the risg homosexual orientatn Brick that fac a fatal blow, stroyg all his life and prospects of happs. In a general view, this central theme of homosexualy has to do wh the crisis of the homosexual mory culture the mid-twentieth century Ameri.
Brick uld have been a fully homosexual personaly, if he was not too sensive about his social image. He married Maggie a hurry jt to prove that he was not the homosexual that people thought him to be: but even jt after his marriage, he seems to have been rather very passive his heterosexual relatnship wh Maggie. Maggie mentns that he was slow, different and lm his sexual terurse, and though she says she like that sort of sex, we doubt that he was passive and different bee of the haner of his homosexual relatn and yearng for Skipper.