Scene 6

• "But honey, you know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone in the world, has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or she'll be lost" Blanche


  Blanche is painting her picture of innocence and caution. Her facade is important to her because of the "old-fashioned" ideals she was raised with.
• "I guess it is just that I have - old-fashioned ideals!" Blanche?


  Rolling her eyes - shows she doesn't believe in these ideals and is tired of depicting them. Blanche carries virility in her true self - asks to play poker, approaching the young man being outspoken and bold - attributed to masculine energy.
• "He hates me. Or why would he insult me? Of course there is sucha thing as hostility of - perhaps in some perverse kind of way he - No! To think of it makes me.... [She makes a gesture of revulsion] - Blanche


  Blanche insists Stanley feels a strong emotion towards her. She calls it hate but also considers it could be something perverse. This reflects her considering that Stanley is attracted to her but she is also repulsed by it.
• "When I was sixteen, I made the discovery - love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned on a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me" - Blanche


  Compares her love for Allan as a "blinding light" something that unpleasantly strikes one's eyes leaving them unable to see for a moment. This metaphor is important because the blinding light held her back from seeing Allan's sexuality.