Streetcar Crit Flashcards
(16 cards)
Tennessee Williams
One major theme for my work is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual.
Nicola Onyett - clash in Stella
The brutal culture clash between the blue-collar worker and the aristocratic intellectual is located in their struggle over Stella.
Galloway - moth
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’
Richard Barned - fate
‘tragic destiny’
Costa - masculinity
‘Williams’ play depicts a weak and unadjusted masculinity’
Critics about morality
There are no clear cut lines of good verses evil’
Galloway - no one wins
‘The play has no clear victor, everyone loses something’
Critic about what the play is about
is a play about destruction not desire
Clurman - Blanche’s vulnerability
Blanche is a delicate and sensitive woman pushed into insanity … by chief ape man
McGlinn - Stella’s survival
Her refusal to accept Blanche’s story of the rape is a commitment to self preservation rather than love
Kazan - sexuality
all this scene contains is the longing every woman has, infact every person has
Modern review
His violence is only barely beneath the surface - until it’s not
Deckle - caught in a trap
the persistance of memory that … will not let them go on wiht their lives
Atkinson - Williams’ knowledge of people
whose knowledge of people is honest and thorough
critics - about stanley’s insecurity
his need to constantly remind others of his own authority shows his fear of losing control, which is a form of vulnerability
Stoppard - tragedy
The bad end unhappily; the good, unluckily.
