On hot tin land: homosexuality and property in Tennessee William´s Cat on a hot tin roof (1955)

This article aims to analyze the representation of homosexuality in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a hot tin roof (1955) with the purpose of demonstrating that the play goes beyond merely dramatizing subjective processes related to the sexuality of the characters Brick and Skipper, but rather constructs them in direct relation to the economic and social structures in which they are both embedded. Drawing on the interpretation that attributes to the figures of Straw and Ochello the “metaphysical origin” of the plantation, as suggested by Bibler (2002), we seek to examine Skipper’s suicide and Brick’s ensuing alcoholism as formal devices capable of constructing a critique of the socio-historical structures of the American South, where the prevailing social norm restricted the free expression of homosexuality.