Minor Characters

• Minor characters tend to be more static than dynamic characters, acting as catalysts to further the plot or shed more light on the main characters.
• Allan Gray is an unseen, yet omnipresent character, the late husband of Blanche Dubois and a vital part of her back-story rather than a main, physical character in the play.
• Allan dies by suicide, shooting himself in the head after Blanche tells him she saw him having sex with an older man and is disgusted.
• Blanche searches for Allan Gray in all the young boys she beds, symbolized by the Young Man in the play.
• Williams employs Plastic Theatre, the use of props, sound and stage directions to relay obvious parallels with a character’s state of mind, to symbolize Allan’s omnipresence.
• Williams presents us with a gay boy who had masculine qualities as well.
• A larger section of society still associate homosexuality with effeminate men, something Williams subtly rejects.
• The boy was extremely good-looking.
• Blanche found out that the beautiful and talented young man she married was a degenerate.
• Allan is painted as a struggling homosexual who trusted and loved Blanche but did not get everything he needed from her.
• Stella tells us that when Blanche was young, very young, she married a boy who wrote poetry.
• Williams builds the tension and reveals only at the end of Blanche’s monologue that Allan broke away from her and killed himself because she rejected his sexuality.
• Allan is presented to us through Blanche’s eyes as a nervous and tender boy who was not effeminate in any way.
• Blanche didn't just love him but worshipped the ground he walked on! Adored him and thought him almost too fine to be human!
• The supply-man gave Stella the information that the boy she married was a degenerate.
• The Varsouviana Polka is the song that was playing when Allan killed himself and Blanche hears this sound in her head till a gunshot sounds whenever she is feeling stressed.
• The audience and Blanche are the only ones who hear this song while the other characters cannot, dramatic irony, it serves as a reminder of her past and deteriorating state of mind.
• Steve and Eunice's domestic abuse is a reflection of the relationship between Stanley and Stella.
• The thunder in Scene 5 symbolizes the sexual passion and gratification to follow.
• Stella and Eunice are physically close, unlike Stella and Blanche, who lacked physical intimacy.
• Blanche refers to Shep Huntleigh increasingly as the play progresses, symbolizing her loss of control on reality.
• The young man embodies Blanche's obsession with young boys, which in turn originates from her obsession with Allan Grey.
• Steve is a representation of the New America or the New South, while Stanley is a seasoned version of Stanley.
• Shep Huntleigh is a past suitor of Blanche, who she ran into a year before the play begins in Miami.
• Stanley's dialogue in Scene 8 is interrupted by Steve and Eunice to show what Stanley and Stella's marriage will revert to and to depict their wedded bliss.
• The more Stanley comes closer to destroying Blanche, the worse her mental stability becomes and this deterioration is reflected in her mentions of Shep Huntleigh.
• Stella's real sister is removed from her life, but Eunice steps in as the sister-figure she needs.
• Eunice plays a vital role at the end of the play, providing emotional support and helping to take care of the newborn child.
• The young man is a collector for the newspaper, he is stopped by Blanche who steals a kiss from him.
• It is situational irony, that an upbeat polka serves as a reminder of a grim suicide.
• In the first scene, Blanche says, "The boy--the boy died" and in the second scene, she speaks about love letters from a dead boy.
• Williams introduces desire as the opposite of death, using the incident of young soldiers staggering onto Blanche's lawn on Saturday nights to get drunk.
• Blanche's attitude and approach toward the young man reflect all her past affairs with young soldiers and boys, including the 17-year-old student in her school.
• The Mexican Woman foreshadows Blanche's future and acts as a trigger for Blanche's mental breakdown, revealing more about Blanche's past.
• In Scene 9, Blanche reflects on all the death she has witnessed in flashes of memory, almost like a stream of consciousness.
• In Scene 5, Blanche touches the young man's cheek lightly and smiles, then takes a large, gossamer scarf from the trunk and drapes it about her shoulders.
• The Freudian understanding of the sex drive and death drive as opposites is alluded to in Scene 9.
• The "blue piano" is heard throughout Scene 5 and the opening of Scene 6, symbolizing Blanche's past and her obsession with the past.
• Blanche cares not for the young man's consent and sends him off, stating she has been told that she cannot touch children.
• The Mexican flower-seller appears on Blanche's doorstep, saying "Flores para los Muertos," which translates to "Flowers for the dead," frightening Blanche and causing her to relive her grim past.