Scene 1

• Scene Summary and Analysis

  The play opens with one of Williams’ lengthy, poetic stage directions. He describes the street scene ofElysian Fields, in a poor area ofNew Orleans. New Orleans is established as an excitingcontext, emblematic of a country in transience, in the midst of progression.Despite the mention of poverty, Williams focuses on thebeautyof the scene.This kind of balance between the grotesque and the lyrical sets the tone for the poetic urban lyricism at the heart of the play.He describes the“blue piano”that can be heard throughthe streets as a symbol for the spirit of the area. Thismusical motif, an example ofplastic theatre, recurs throughout the play, usually during moments of passion.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Williams associates the music at this point with“Negro entertainers”. He also makes a point of highlighting theracial diversityof the city within this initial paragraph, claiming that it’s a place“where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races”.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Stanley and Mitch enter the scene, having a casual conversation. They’re immediately visually coded as laid back,working classmen. Stanley carries a red stained package from the butchers,associating him from the start with a sense of primalism and animalism.He calls up to Stella, who comes out, and is introduced as“gentle”. Williams establishes immediately that Stella is“of a background obviously quite different from her husband’s”,introducing the theme of social class. He heaves the package at her, again establishing this sense of primalmasculinity.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  We are then introduced to Blanche. She comes around the corner carrying a valise, in apparent confusion and“shocked disbelief”at where her sister has ended up.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Eunice helps Blanche into Stella’s apartment. They have a brief conversation in the apartment, wherein Eunice tries to get to know Blanche. She has a friendly demeanor, asking Blanche about her career as aschoolteacher, but Blanche asks to be left alone. It’s worth noting yet another reference torace, with Eunice’s casual mention of “the Mexicans”, which she is clearly much more comfortable with than Blanche. Eunice mentions Belle Reve, calling it the plantation and making the audience aware of the implications of Blanche and Stella’s money. It is quickly established that it is old Southern money built on slavery.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Blanche is left visuallyuncomfortable, unsure what to do with herself in such an alien space. She spots a bottle of whiskey in the closet and takes ashot.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Stella arrives, and we see our first interaction between the two sisters, with Blanche’s anxiousramblingleaving Stella relativelyquiet. Blanche says that she’s going to look for some liquor. This is an important use of dramatic irony, as the audience is aware that Blanche knows where the liquor is, and has helped herself to some already. The audience is therefore introduced to this theme of deception.The fantasy that Blanche lives in requires a glossy appearance, and heralcoholism undermines the purity she tries to put across. The fact that her first lie is about drinking is incredibly important, as it establishes the idea thatBlanche is ashamed of her mental distress. This internal demonisation of her own coping mechanisms, reflect her adherence to a strict idea of what awoman should be, which has been ingrained in her by a bourgeois upbringing.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Blanche heavilycriticisesthe apartment, expressing her shock and worry that her sister “has to” live in these conditions. Stella is clearly slightlyoffended,saying it isn’t that bad.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  They go on to talk about why Blanche decided to leave the school. She blames it on her‘nerves’- we later learn this is alie. The discussion about Stanley between the sisters occurs after this. This is a key moment, as it lets the audience know thatStanley is an immigrant, something which affects how we see hissocial status.Moreover, Blanche’s reaction establishes further differences between the two reinforcing that their ideologies are incompatible.The fact that Stella laughs along with this is also worth noting - Stella is amediator, she has a lot of love for both Stanley and Blanche, being unable to fully comply with either ideology.Despite her love for Stanley, she is still shaped by her bourgeois upbringing, and will still mock his status as an immigrant when around a character that puts her back into that context.This becomes a point oftensionbetween Stella and Stanley later in the play.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  Blanche veers the conversation toward the loss of her family home, which descends into a nervous episode, where she expresses a level ofresentmenttowards Stella. She accuses her of leaving Belle Reve behind, saying that she stayed and“fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it”.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  The music from the blue piano grows louder,expressing an increase in tension.Talking about Belle Reve leads Blanche into an anxious speech about the deaths of her family. The conversation brings Stella to tears.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  When Stella goes into the bathroom to wash her face, there’s atonal shiftas the men come jeering down the street, back from bowling. Stanley walks into the apartment.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  The interaction that follows is relativelycasualandawkwardat most. The two get acquainted. However, the tone shifts again when he mentions her past marriage. We find out that Blanche’s husband died and this traumatic memory causes her to feel physically sick, reminding us again of Blanche’s fear of death,decayand loss.
• Scene Summary and Analysis

  At the end of this scene, we hearpolka musicfor the first time. This music will be continuously associated with Blanche’s traumatic flashbacks and mental descent.
• Key Quotes


  “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

  This is a key quotation because itallegoricallyexpressesBlanche’s journeythrough life so far. The streetcar named Desire introduces the theme ofsexuality, and points to its relevance in Blanche’s past. The reference to Cemeteriesillustrates thelossesshe has endured, and the street where she has arrived, Elysian Fields, is named after the Greek mythological land of the dead. This suggests ambiguous afterlife for her in its simultaneous utopian diversity andseedypoverty,amixwhichleavesBlanchefeelingoutofplaceinherpresentsetting, clinging on to the past.
• Key Quotes


  “She showed me a picture of your home-place, the plantation. A great big place with white columns.” - Eunice

  This is the first time we understand that the Dubois’ wealth was built onslavery. It therefore links the fall of Blanche and her family to the fall of the Old South and theexploitative nature of the bourgeois way of life.
• Key Quotes


  “What are you doing in a place like this?” -Blanche

  An expression of Blanche’sinabilityto understand Stella’s decision to leave the past behind andembraceprogression. This quote is burdened withclassism, and implies Blanche’s fear of poverty, as expressed through her discomfort in her setting.
• Key Quotes


  “You are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!” -Blanche

  This is one of the first examples we get of Blanche’sdesperationto cling on to the past, and the extent to which this has been a personal struggle for her.
• Key Quotes


  “Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes” - Williams’ stage direction

  This stage direction is key to keep in mind in relation to Stanley’s character at all times, many of Stanley’s stage directions from this point on take from this idea, usinganimalistic lexiconto imply hisprimal masculine sexuality and force.