AMERICAN SOUTHERN

MORAL VALUES
AND CENSORSHIP
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Miguel Ángel Córdoba Romero

Anglo-American Literature LM I
Academic Year 22-23
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 02 03
CONTEXT BIG DADDY BRICK
Embodiment of Southern Failure against American
Historical, social and
values and American morality and traditional
moral background
Dream values

04 05
CENSORSHIP IN THE CENSORSHIP IN
UNITED STATES SPAIN
Kazan’s play and Brooks’ Antonio de Cabo’s
movie adaptation
01
CONTEXT
Historical, social and moral
background
 • Conformity to traditional values

• Conservative trend

• Stronger gender roles

Southern Code of Honour

Reputable Strong Patriarch Violent
Homosexuality?

Alcoholism?

No children?
NO!

Obscenity?
 02
BIG DADDY
Embodiment of Southern values
and American Dream
 ARCHETYPE OF A TRADITIONAL,
CONSERVATIVE, SOUTHERN, PATRIARCH

REPUTABLE BIG FAMILY PATRIARCHAL DOMINION USE OF VIOLENCE

& INCOME
 03
BRICK
Failure against American
morality
 A FAILURE TO EXPECTED MORALITY

ALCOHOLIC HOMOSEXUAL LACK OF INTEREST NO DESCENDANCE

RUMOURS
 04
CENSORSHIP
(USA)
Kazan’s play and Brooks’
movie
“CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF” IN BROADWAY
1955
Kazan asked for a different third act:

• A more sympathetic Maggie

• A more present Big Daddy
• A ‘reformed’ Brick in the end

Whereas, in
Great Britain…
“CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF” IN HOLLYWOOD
1958
Supression of immoral elements in an
attempt to:

• “not lower the moral standards of

those who see the movie”

• “avoid the sympathy of the

audience being thrown to crime,
wrongdoing, evil or sin”
MODIFICATIONS
COMPLETE CHANGE OF SENSE
Change of focus in the starting scene:
Brick’s drunkness instead of bedroom

Mentions to homosexuality are

suppressed: the call was instead about The ending:
Maggie cheating on him with Skipper Brick’s
apparent
‘reformation’
which
does not
Seduction is not as present: Brick is occur in
not having a shower or wearing the play
appealing pyjamas.
 05
CENSORSHIP
(SPAIN)
Antonio de Cabo’s play
THE “CENSORSHIP SECTION” OF 1939
Censorship in newspapers, plays and
movies by civil and ecclesiastic
censurers

Objective: intervene in the education of

the Spanish people & protect the ‘good
customs’ established by the Sixth
Commandment

1) Approved
2) Approved with removals
3) Approved for general rehearsal
4) Approved for limited number of
performances
5) Approved for under-14
6) BANNED
ANTONIO DE CABO’S ADAPTATION
1958
Reviewed by: Father Avelino Esteban
Romero

• No moral basis in the plot

• Modern, crude, cruel theatre where only
bad elements of life are portrayed
• Hate in the family and ‘unclear’
relationship with an absent character
• Against the moral sense of family life

BANNED
ANTONIO DE CABO’S SECOND ATTEMPT!
1958
Instead, using the film script

• ‘Mendacity’ acquires more central role

(Maggie’s cheating, mainly)
• Maggie can finally get her husband
back
• Brick undergoes transformation
• Disapproval of Brick and Skipper’s
implicit affair (‘morbid’)

Approved for over-18!

 “This movie will set the
industry back 50 years. Go
home!”

— TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Issues, 9(1), 43-54.

2. Shackelford, D. (1998). “The Truth That Must Be Told: Gay Subjectivity, Homophobia, and Social History in “Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof“”. The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, (1), 103-118.

3. Bibler, M. P. (2002). “A Tenderness which was Uncommon: Homosexuality, Narrative, and the Southern
Plantation in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. The Mississippi Quarterly, 55(3), 381-400.

4. Berdusan, J. V. (2018). “La censura teatral a Espanya durant el franquisme. El cas de la traducció de La gata sobre
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5. Patterson, O. (1984). “The Code of Honor in the Old South”. Reviews in American History, 12(1), 24-30.

6. Humlová, M. (2011). Taboo Topics in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire [Bachelor’s thesis].
University of Pardubice.