Hollywood Melodrama Textual Analysis - Essay Example

Brick’s character is enigmatic and every movement, gesture or line that comes from him may give a clue as to what is making him “passive-aggressive”. He holds the audience desperate to understand him. Brick is a former athlete who tried to relive his glory days one time, when at three o’ clock in the morning, he tried to jump hurdles imagining a wild crowd cheering him on. Being drunk, he lost his balance and injured his ankle rendering him disabled. “The image of masculinity is a dominant one in sports, and it is one that privileges men who do not show feelings of vulnerability and where the only emotion valued is one of toughness and competitiveness” (Trujillo, 1991).

Stereotypically, from his “masculine” athletic background, this injury is assumed to affect Brick’s masculinity. Going against stereotype, quadriplegic men in wheelchairs participate in a sport called “Quad Rugby” or “Murderball”, borrowing rules from able-bodied rugby, basketball and hockey. Its players also proudly display their masculinity as well, claiming that they play rough and tumble, and ready to take a spill for a loose ball (Buchanan, 2002; Gitonio, 2002). That is a far cry from the attitude presented by Brick.

Brick’s injury, “a wound in his otherwise intact masculinity, is also a figure for his castration, the unmanning implied in homosexual desire.” (http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/cat) The term ‘impaired masculinity’ describes Brick at the outset with his good ol’ reliable crutch by his side. The crutch, it itself represents disability. It limits Brick’s movements and capacity to do the things he used to before his accident. Being cold and indifferent to the advances of his wife is a defence mechanism that covers up his utter shame of his physical limits.

That includes his physical marital obligations. The audience is led to think that turning away from his wife at her