Streetcar named desire critical theories

Question 1

Marxist theory

Answer 1

Plot, characters, themes of Streetcar express the socioeconomic conditions and struggles of 1940’s America

Question 2

physcoanalytic theory

Answer 2

‘collective unconscious’ Stanley and Blanche as polarised female and male forces, drawn to one another but failing to understand one another

Examines William’s homosexuality and guilt and how the play embodies the psychic drives of Eros (Sex and Love) and Thanatos (Death) aka death and cemetries, Blanche takes refuge in promiscuity from her fear of death