Scene 1

• "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields!" - Blanche


  Allegorically expresses Blanche's journey though life. The streetcar named "Desire" introduces theme of sexuality and points to its relevance in Blanche's past. Reference to "Cemeteries" illustrates the losses she has endured. "Elysian Fields" named after the Greek mythological land of the dead suggests ambiguous afterlife for Blanche in its utopian diversity.
• "She showed me a picture of your home-place, the plantation. A great big place with white columns" - Eunice


  Understand that the Dubois' wealth was built on slavery. Links the fall of Blanche and her family to the fall of the Old South and the exploitative nature of the bourgeois way of life.
• "What are you doing in a place like this?" - Blanche


  An expression of Blanche's inability to understand Stella's decision to leave the past behind and embrace progression. Burdened with classism, implies Blanche's fear of poverty, expressed through her discomfort in her setting.
• "You are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!" - Blanche


  Example of Blanche's desperation to cling onto the past, and the extent to which this has been a personal struggle for her.
• "Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes" - Stage Direction


  Key to Stanley's character, stage directions throughout use animalistic lexicon to imply his primal masculine sexuality and force.