critics

• class/race 


  'the barriers existing between blacks and whites and of the utter inability of either side to remove them' - Mary True 1929
• alienation


  'Irene is becoming increasingly fragmented and alienated from herself, embodying writer and reader, defendant and advocate, prosecutor and judge.' - Jonathan little 1992
• security 


  'Irene, the ordinary woman, afraid of life, wrapped in home, child, husband, gone berserker when these latter are threatened' - Alice Dunbiar-Nelson 1929
• power


  'Irene dismisses her. After all, Gertrude looks like the butcher's wife she is; her feelings could not matter' - Cheryll Awall 1986
• appearance v reality


  'it is essential to ascertain precisely who is the tragic heroine' - Claudia Tate 1980