The Symbolism of “A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”:In a Literal Since
...in roof” comes into play. If he were to accept his homosexual feelings and kick her out, he would be plunging into the unknown. Brick would be opening himself up to criticism and be without the familiarity of his wife, or possibly he still loves her (if he ever loved her at all considering during his conversation with his father he stated that he was made to marry her and referred to their lovemaking as “two cats humping on a fence post”(1106)). Staying on the “tin roof” will mean curtain ruin because Brick obviously is not happy and is attempting to drink himself to death. He looks upon his wife with distain and border-line hatred as we see in the opening scene, so the flames on the house are rising to the point at which he can not control his expressions or physical outbursts. It is ironic that even in conversation with his wife he tries to persuade her to “jump off” the roof if she is not happy with the situation yet in the end he is content to stay on the fiery building because he makes no decision regarding his long lost relationship with his wife. Brick’s relationship with his father is also comparable to the symbolism of “a cat on a hot tin roof”. The best example of this is during their main conversation between Brick and his father in act 2. Big Daddy has a tolerance for homosexuality. He speaks affectionately of Ochello, who gave him his opportunities in life. But his tolerance is not shared by Brick, who is horrified when he gets the idea that his father thinks he may be homosexual. Brick is heavily influenced by how society regards homosexuality. As a handsome pro-football player and TV sports announcer, Brick has lived for years on the approval and high regard of society. He cannot bear the scorn that would result from being branded a homosexual. He refers to homosexuals as “fairies,” “dirty old men” and “queers,” insisting that his friendship with Skipper was “deep, deep friendship . . . clean and decent” (p. 1105), nothing to do with sex at all. Skipper’s fear of what others might think is in contrast to Big Daddy, who says he has “lived with too much space around me to be infected by ideas of other people” (p. 1105). In a since, his father is giving Brick a small safety net if he wishes to jump off of the roof, because Brick’s father sees that something is killing his son. Brick rejects this idea that he could be gay and is mortified that his father would think that the all-American boy could ever be a homosexual. If in fact Brick is not gay he has reason to be pissed-off. Brick shows that he is still too afraid to jump off when he says, “Don’t you know how people feel about things like that? How disgusted they are by things like that?”(1104). Notice how he does not deny the fact that he and Skipper, his “friend”, ever engaged an anything that would be considered homosexual. At this point if he was not gay it would have been helpful to say so. Instead Brick just explains how awful a sin it is to be homosexual and that it’s not accepted and he is outraged at the concept. Even when Brick’s father is on his deathbed telling Brick that he would be accepted and he wouldn’t have to go on killing himself over it, Brick is content to allow the flames of silent denial to consume him. The most epic battle is Brick coming to understand his own feelings. On the one hand he can stay in denial about his homosexual feelings and continue to be miserable and always run into situations were his suppressed feeling will need to be controlled. He never denies that he might be gay, he just constantly dances around the question and pretends not to hear reason. Any time the subject comes up Brick becomes infuriated. All signs point toward the fact that Brick is gay, his wife sees it as well...