A05 Flashcards
Lauren Seigles view on gender
Williams uses Blanche to reflect his misogyny “using her victimisation as a stab at womanhood”
Kathryn Seidel-Lee’s view on class
“Taught to see herself as a beautiful object, the belle accentuates only her appearance”
Critic Gazolla’s view on madness/insanity
The characters are always in conflict due to “their ability or lack of ability to accept or adapt to the historical process”
Mary Ann Corrigan’s view on madness/insanity
“The external events of the play, while actually occurring, serve as a metaphor for Blanche’s internal conflict”
Samuel Tapp on gender
“Just as Blanche can be viewed as a victim of the southern myth, it could be argued that Stanley is as much as a victim of masculine ideology that rewards and heroicises direct brutal honesty and as such dehumanises him.”
Harold Clerman on Blanche and gender
‘Blanche is a delicate and sensitive woman pushed into
insanity by a brutish environment presided over by chief ape-man Stanley
Kowalski.’
Williams on class
The play is about the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate by the savage and brutal forces of modern society
Langlands view on the southern belle
‘The Southern belle is both a sex obiect
and a woman on a pedestal
Tolan and class
“Old America and Blanche seem perfect yet both have hidden secrets.”
Elia Kazan and class
‘Blanche is an emblem of a dying civilisation’
Gillian Anderson and sexuality
“…sexuality was their currency. Blanche uses it to the nth degree but it is also Stella’s currency.”
Philip Kolin and sexuality
“Streetcar is a play of sexual
politics…nymphomania, homosexuality, polysemous desire”
Marc Robinson and sexuality
“Blanche belongs to a long line of Williams’ heroines who think that their sexuality is a curse”
