Is Brick Gay?
Brick is the most instrumental yet distant character in the play. Brick is an alcoholic and most times in the play, he is seen sipping on some “echo spring”. Brick seems to have turned to drinking to dull away the pain that he feels from the death of his friend Skipper. In Act two, Big Daddy confirms that Brick started drinking “when his friend Skipper died”. Brick also drinks so that he does not face reality. Brick himself says that he drinks until he hears “click in his head that makes me peaceful.” This peace is what separates him from the reality that his friend Skipper is dead.
The playwright, Tennessee Williams intentionally makes the idea of Brick’s homosexuality ambiguous. In the stage directions in Act Two, Williams says that “some mystery should be left in the revelation of character…” In fact, it is not until towards the end of Act One that the reader starts wondering about Brick’s relationship with Skipper. During her conversation with Brick, Margaret talks about how she should never have told Brick about “that thing with Skipper”. Margaret had a slept with Skipper to get Brick’s attention and prove that he was not gay. When Margaret mentions this, Brick becomes agitated and tells Maggie to “shut up about Skipper”. He gets really angry and tells Maggie that she is fooling with something that “nobody ought to fool with.” Maggie continues to talk about her one-night stand with Skipper. She even mentions one time when Skipper, Brick, Gladys Fitzgerald and her had gone out on a double date but Brick and Skipper ignored the girls making the occasion “more like a date between Brick and Skipper”. This is a huge red flag that Brick was interested in Skipper. It seems like they were more than friends. Maggie continues talking about Skipper and at one point Brick even “strikes at her with crutch….but shutters the gemlike lamp on the table. Brick is clearly outraged and does not wish to talk about his relationship with Skipper. Maybe there was more to the relationship than just an innocent friendship?
In Act Two, Big Daddy starts talking to Brick about his drinking and the conversation culminates in Big Daddy questioning Brick about his relationship with Skipper. When Big Daddy mentions that Brick started drinking after Skipper’s death, Brick gets defensive and asks Big Daddy what he is suggesting. It is natural for human beings to get defensive when they think that someone is about to find out the truth about a secret they had and Brick seems to be doing exactly that. Brick’s forehead becomes “sweat-beaded; his breath becomes more rapid and his voice hoarse.” Brick seems to be hiding something because anytime someone talks about his relationship with Skipper he gets infuriated. Brick’s love for Skipper is so immense that does not want to talk about it or be questioned about it.
Another thing that raises a red flag about Brick’s sexual orientation is his relationship with Maggie. Brick has no sexual desire for Maggie even though Maggie is always trying to seduce him and convince him to sleep with her. Maggie is indeed a very beautiful woman and in Act Two Big Daddy himself tells Brick “that woman of yours has better shape on her than Gooper’s”. In Act One, Maggie even says that she “suspects that Big Daddy harbors a little unconscious lech for her”. This shows that Maggie is quite pretty that even Big Daddy admires and lusts for her. It is shocking to the reader that Brick would not want to sleep with such a beautiful woman, his wife. In Act Three, Brick affirms his lack of interest in Maggie when Maggie tells him that she loves him and Brick replies “wouldn’t it be funny if that was true”. Throughout the play Maggie tries to seduce Brick but he seems more interested in his “Echo Spring”. Perhaps, Brick prefers men over women and resents Maggie for taking away his one and only love, Skipper.
Brick appears to be more gay than straight in the play. I have no doubt in my mind that he probably married Maggie to please Big Daddy and also to conform to society’s ‘rules’. I also feel like Tennessee Williams was probably trying to incorporate himself in the play by structuring Brick’s character the same way that artists like to incorporate themselves in their art.