Streetcar Critics

• Dusebury - 'reality is unbearable for Blanche so she slips into insanity'
• Kazan - 'Blanche is dangerous. She is destructive... A phoney, corrupt, sick, destructive woman'
• Templeton - 'Blanche is just as responsible for her fall as the Old South is for its own demise'
• Tapp - 'Blanche is a victim of the mythology of the Southern Belle'
• Tenesee Williams - 'I have only one major theme for my work, which is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non conformist individual'
• Williams - 'we are all savages at heart'
• Galloway - 'The play has no clear victor, everyone loses something'
• Bigsby - 'Blanche tells the lies necessary for survival'
• Bottoms - 'Where he cannot dominate sexually Stanley uses force'
• Kinder - 'Stanley's language is blunt,' 'Blanche's language is quite ornate'
• Kronenberger - Blanche is 'the most demonically driven kind of liar - the one who lies to the world because she must lie to herself'
• Bloom - Stanley 'cannot be blamed for protecting his marriage against the force that would destroy it'
• Barned - 'tragic destiny' (Blanche)
• Marxist Lens - Ongoing tension between Blanche and Stanley representative of the antagonism between different social strata. Stanley symbolises the rise of the Proletariat/New working man whereas Blanche is an emblem of the declining Bourgeoisie/aristocracy.
• 'Darwinian Tragedy' - Social Darwinism applies. Whereas Stella adapts to new working class life with Stanley. Blanche fails to evolve, ultimately leading to her tragic fate.
• Roderick - 'Blanche intrudes on the sacred marriage of Stanley and Stella'
• Roderick - Blanche 'infests those around her' with her manipulative behaviour
• Bray - Blanche's 'psychological death at the end of the play must be seen as a victory for the oppressors and the new order they represent'