The Bed Symbol Analysis

One of the main features of the set, the bed reminds the audience of all the sexual tension and marital strife that exists throughout the play. As Big Mama says, the rocks of Margaret and Brick’s marriage lie in that bed. Margaret sleeps there alone at night, as Brick avoids the area and stays on the couch. The very last struggle at the end of Act III takes place around the bed, as Margaret snatches Brick’s pillow up from the couch and places it on her territory, the bed. Additionally, Margaret and Brick are staying in the bedroom of the previous plantation owners, Jack Straw and Peter Ochello, and the ghost of the relationship between those two men hints at the homosexual tension Brick tries so hard to avoid and deny throughout the play.