Streetcar Critic Quotes

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John Mason
(Blanche) "Pathetic pretensions to gentility even when she is a known prostitute in the little town which she was brought up"

(Blanche) "her love of the refined when her life is devoted to coarseness"
1 of 16
Judith Thompson
Blanche's "fall" follows a common pattern which begins with mythically elevated expectations, followed inevitable disillusionment and the physical corruption of the soul's transcendent dreams
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Leonard Berkman "The Tragic Fall of Blanche DuBois"
Stella despite her genuine feelings for Blanche must condescend to Blanche and must flatter her or lie to her in order to be able to get along with her.
There is tragic irony... in that Mitch's response to Blanche's initial tackling of truth encourages Bl
3 of 16
Shirley Galloway "Last Stop: "Blanche's Breakdown"
Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love.
Everyone loses something...gives the plays its tragic cast
"(Blanche) has her own desires that draw her to Stanley, like a moth
4 of 16
Samuel Tapp "Gendered Language and Cultural Identity In A Streetcar Named Desire"
"Blanche and Stanley both manipulate language and are both manipulated by language"
"Blanche DuBois is a victim of the mythology of the "southern belle"
Stanley is as much a victim of masculine ideology (like the Napoleonic Code) that rewards and esteems
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Nancy Tischner "Tennessee Williams: "Rebellious Puritan"
Williams did not see Blanche as a Medea or Electra. Her quality is pathetic softness, not tragic strength.
Apparently Williams wants the audience to believe that Stella is wrong in loving Stanley but right in living with him.
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Jacqueline O'Connor on the Patriarchy and Commitment of Females"
By coming to New Orleans and placing herself at the mercy of her relatives, admitting she has lost Belle Reve Blanche becomes economically vulnerable to Stanley.
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Kathleen Margaret Lant "A Streetcar Named Misogyny"
Williams does consider Blanche guilty for not saving her husband from his homosexuality and for not showing more womanly support and compassion for the young man.
Believes that the end of the play "dehumanizes Blanche undercuts her tragic situation and re
8 of 16
Nicola Onyett
Blanche has become a social outcast because she refuses to conform to conventional moral values. In cruelly unveiling the truth about her scandalous past, Stanley strips of her psychological sexual and cultural identity
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Eliza Kazan
Blanche is dangerous she is destructive Blanche was an unstable woman who had entered and threatened the security of a different world, and who was finally cast out allowing that world to survive
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Harold Clurman
Blanche is a delicate and sensitive women pushed into insanity by a brutish environment presided by chief ape man Stanley Kowalski
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Tennessee Williams
one major theme for my work for my work is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual
We are all savages at heart
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Foster Kirsch
He sees Williams view of Stanley and Blanche as ambivalent. He believes they are "locked in a deadly sex battle" but are still a "solid match" for each other
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Eric Bentley
He views the play as a clash of "species" - links to Darwinism
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Miscellaneous Critical Views
Stanley's marriage is destabilised by Blanche's arrival and only when he gets rid of her is peace re-established
Blanche craves "Magic" because the bright truth about post war USA is too harsh to bear.
The brutal clash between the blue-collar worker and t
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Miscallaneous Critical Views
Stella's decision to stay with the father of her child and allow her sister to be commited to a mental hospital may symbolise the shifting social structures of the new USA.
Enraged and threatened by the old fashioned southern values Blanche embodies Stanl
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Blanche's "fall" follows a common pattern which begins with mythically elevated expectations, followed inevitable disillusionment and the physical corruption of the soul's transcendent dreams

Back

Judith Thompson

Card 3

Front

Stella despite her genuine feelings for Blanche must condescend to Blanche and must flatter her or lie to her in order to be able to get along with her.
There is tragic irony... in that Mitch's response to Blanche's initial tackling of truth encourages Bl

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love.
Everyone loses something...gives the plays its tragic cast
"(Blanche) has her own desires that draw her to Stanley, like a moth

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

"Blanche and Stanley both manipulate language and are both manipulated by language"
"Blanche DuBois is a victim of the mythology of the "southern belle"
Stanley is as much a victim of masculine ideology (like the Napoleonic Code) that rewards and esteems

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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