Critics

• Skiba M. 2008 on Blanche's character

  "At first glance Blanche seems superficial, on account of the importance she attributes to her looks and former social status, however, her behavior is symptomatic fo society itself"
• Williams


  "I write about the south because I think the war between romanticism and hostility is sharp"
• Williams on Stella


  "I think her natural passivity is one of the things that makes her acceptence of Stanley acceptable. She naturally 'gives in', accepts, lets things slide, she does not make much of an effort"
• Bloom H on Stella


  "Like many battered women, Stella is genuinely in love with her husband. She puts up with his abuse because she doesn't want to lose him, and because she feels helpless to change the way he treets her"
• Pagan N


  "Williams has repeatedly claimed, 'I am Blanche Dubois' and has identified with her, particularly in terms of a shared hysteria. Also like Blanche, Williams had a tendency to lie. One example of this is Williams's and Blanche's shared propensity to mislead people concerning their age"
• Kolin P C - censorship changes in the film

  "Among he most significant were eliminating any reference to homosexuality, getting rid of, or considerably weakening, the rape, outlawing any erotic behaviour in either Clanche's conduct (nymphomania) or Stanley's lovemaking with his wife, and punishing Stanley for raping Blanche by having Stella leave him."
• Galloway


  Blanche 'has her own desires, that draw her to Stanley, like a moth to a light, a light she voids, even hates, yet yearns for
• Williams on the play as a whole

  "The play is about the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate by teh savage and brutal forces of modern society."
• William Hawkins


  "Stanley is an 'honest animal who needs no motivation for anything he does other than he wants to do it at that particular time'"
• Louis Kronenberger


  Blanche is 'the most demonically driven kind of liar - the one who lies to the world because she must lie to herself
• John Chapman


  Blanche 'shuns the reality of what she is and takes gallant and desperate refuge in a magical life she has invented for herself
• bloom


  Stanley 'cannot be blamed for protecting his marriage against the force that would destroy it
• Fang


  "That (Shep Huntleigh" never shows up and gives the substantial aid to Blanche may suggest that if women place their hope and fortune on men, their oppressed and subordinate status can never be changed"
• Susan Spector


  The 1947 performance 'left audiences feeling that a madwoman had entered an alien world and, after shaking that world, had been successfully exorcised
• Duerre


  (Blanche) "attempts to maintain her past luxurious life by holding onto and creating new desires rather than adjusting to her reality"
• Fang - Blanche's dependence on men


  "Sorrowfully, when Blanche is stuck in trouble, men are always the ones to whom she resorts"
• Costa


  "Williams play depicts a weak and unadjusted masculinity"
• Lart


  "Stanley is an agent of Blanche's destruction"
• Onyett


  Blanche has become a social outcast because she refuses to conform to conventional moral values
• Onyett (Blanche)


  Stanley strips Blanche of her psychological, sexual and cultural identity
• Judith Thomspon

  "The play's romance .........


  "the play's romance is wholly illusory; her descent however is not"
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Blanche, illusion, madness, desire
• Judith J Thompson

  "The memories of ........

  "The memories of the past she attempts to escape or transcend, Stanley, the realist pursues the corrupt facts of her stories"
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Blanche, Stanley, past + present, illusion
• Judith Thompson

  "Mitch not only ..... Blanche of her ............


  Mitch not only strips Blanche of her youth, refinement and virginal innocence.. but all her illusions, hopes and dreams of magically trascending the past
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Mitch, Blanche, illusion, past/ present
• "the master of ..........

  Leonard Quirino


  The master of games in Streetcar is Stanley Kowalksi
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Stanley, masculinity
• Gilbert and Gulbar accuse Stanley of using his


  Penis as a pistol with which to shoot women into submission
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Stanley, Stella, Blanche, dominance, gender
• Kathleen Margarent Lant

  "Stella must ...........


  Stella must keep Stanley happy to preserve the economic and emotional security she has achieved as his women
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Stella, gender
• Arthur Miller

  "The struggle of the tragic hero is that of the..........

  the individual attempting to gain his rightful place in osciety.. ready to lay down his life if need be to secure one thing... his sense of personal dignity
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Blanche, illusion, tragedy
• Donald Pease

  "the act ......

  the act of fleeing becomes the act of reliving the past
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Past + Present

  Blanche
• Carla McDonough

  Mitch is the only male character that "does not fall ............


  does not fall into the stereotypes of either weak homosexuality or brutual heterosexuality yet Mitch cannot break the sexual code upheld and policed by Stanley
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Mitch, Stanley, masculinity
• Simon Bubb

  "Stanley's assertiveness ...........

  Stanley's assertiveness depends on his ability to crush the opposition and his relationship with Stella
• What theme could it be linked to?

  Stanley, Stella, brutality