quotes

• SCENE ONE:

  Catch! What? Meat!


  - Stella is from a higher social background to her husband, Stanley who wears 'blue denim work clothes'

  - Critic Ruby Conn said "Stanley has taught Stella to catch his meat in all senses"

  - Stanley's language tends to be quite monosyllabic highlighting the difference between the two worlds that Stella and Stanley come from

  - The implied message between Stanley and Steve because Stanley gives the meat and Stanley is successful

  - Stella's language echoes Stanley's language + Giles' Communication Accommodation Theory suggests that when two speakers are in rapport they're specs styles resemble each others showing that Stella is happy where she is

  - Catch is in the imperative mood which shows Stanley's dominance over Stella who can only question him using interrogative mood
• SCENE ONE: They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off to at -Elysian Fields


  - The journey is an allegorical representation of Blanche's downfall as in Greek mythology the Elysian Fields were a paradise for the dead.

  - Foreshadows the inevitability of her descent into madness 'her future is mapped out for her'

  - The 'streetcar named Desire' signifies her old life at Belle Reve as her 'desire' which is her hamartia encouraged her to make advances on a 17 year old boy that 'drove' her out to Elysian Fields

  - The passive voice of 'they told me' illustrates a sense of Blanche's lack of control and how she is forced to interact with the new, materialistic world of postwar America as she has to leave the old lifestyle of Southern refinement and culture that she is used to.
• SCENE ONE: 'suggests a moth' 'delicate beauty that must avoid a strong light'


  - drawn to the light; quite fragile and has an image of vulnerability

  - 'a moth' is a creature of self-destruction which foreshadows and intensifies the tragedy from the beginning as it suggests a sense of inevitability of an tragic outcome

  - could perhaps suggest her preference of the night-time

  - metaphor adds to the growing sense that it is external factors which lead to Blanche's downfall and not her own internal flaws as it is natural for moths to be drawn to the light
• SCENE ONE: 'her appearance is incongruous to this setting' 'fluffy bodice' 'daintly dressed in a white suit'


  - Weals (1965) points out that:

  Blanche's clothes are a characterizing device and a way of separating her from her surrounding, Blanche is going to be destroyed by the end of the play and Williams wants her first appearance...to imply that end. Costume here becomes a way of foreshadowing the events to come. (29)
• SCENE ONE: 'gaudy seed bearer
• SCENE ONE: use of the 'blue piano'

  - evokes the sound for which New Orleans has become famous for as it is a mix of black American and European popular music which seems embody the bohemian laid-back multicultural ambience of the city

  -
• SCENE ONE: Belle Reve


  - The error of Belle Reve being grammatically incorrect due tot he adjectival disagreement could be suggestive that there is something wrong with Blanche's 'beautiful dream' from the outset.

  - Is representative of her Southern aristrocracy

  - Williams conveys how the world of the Old South has become merely a distant dream in modern America, symbolised by the name of the DuBois plantation, 'Belle Reve' (beautiful dream). Squandered through its owners' reckless hedonism, their 'epic fornications', 'Belle Reve' becomes a setting associated with death and slow decline, where Blanche has to nurse various members of her family on her own, the power and privilege of her ancestors clearly vanished as she can no longer even get 'a colored girl' to help.
• SCENE ONE: 'No, one's my limit'


  - Blanche is an alcoholic who covers up the fact she drinks by saying 'No, one's my limit' which is an example of dramatic irony since the audience knows that she has already had a drink which shows she is a drinker as well as a liar.

  - Williams was also an alcoholic.

  - Alcohol offers her temporary amnesia and reassurance, but this becomes less effective as the play progresses, and so her drinking gets steadily worse.

  - Closely linked with the need of 'soaking in a hot tub' to 'quieten her nerves'

  - Habitual drinking was bad for a woman's reputation in the 1940s and 50s, so the vice was often hidden/disguised
• SCENE ONE: 'I won't be looked at in this merciless glare'

  - Implying that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases and false pretences, rather than accept truth and reality. Blanche lives in a world of delusions.

  - Allows her to hide her deteriorating image, with her obvious intolerability of light on stage allowing the audience to focus on her constant escape from reality. By using this motif, the audience feel compassion for Blanche who experiences life as an illusion

  - Represents the nature of the unstoppable change, overpowering and dominant as the erosion of the Old South becomes more evident.
• SCENE ONE: 'fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!'


  - Blanche uses a tricolon which is a rhetorical device used to exert power on Stella and manipulate her

  - This also indicates Blanche's familiarity with different literary structures showing intelligence
• SCENE ONE: 'when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby'


  - Demonstrates Stella's vulnerability and submissiveness to Stanley

  - Illustrates how she depends on him as he is the 'gaudy seed-bearer'

  - Stanley and Stella's marriage is purely based on sex and a marriage based on sexual intensity is hard to maintain
• SCENE ONE: 'a different species'

  - foreshadowing
• SCENE ONE: 'Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often'


  - illustrates Stanley's surprising intellectuality

  - foreshadows of how Stanley will expose Blanche's past
• SCENE ONE: 'not till I've bathed'


  - symbolises her doomed attempt to remove her disreputable past and is similar to Lady Macbeth's compulsive washing in attempt to remove the imaginary bloodstains in order to hide the evidence of her crimes
• SCENE TWO: The Kowalskis and the DuBois have different notions'


  Kowalskis are industrial whilst the Dubois are agrarian; both represent the world they are coming from

  - The fact that Stanley 'wins' Stella could be a metaphor for how eventually he and the working classes that he represents will be the new source of power and money in America by pushing the Southern aristocracies to the side. - summarizes the difference between the lower class, emphasized by the immigrant surname of Kowalski in contrast to the French name Dubois which has connotations of power, wealth and aristocracy. However, the declining upper class is emphasized by the loss of Belle Reve. Furthermore, the idea that Stella adopted Stanley's last name emphasizes how the power of the upper class (signified by the last name Dubois) has begun to deteriorate, as Blanche is the remaining member of the Dubois family. In a sense both characters seem to be fighting for control over Stella and the fact that, in the end Stanley wins, reveals how eventually he and the vigorous working classes he represents are the new source of power in America.

  - Blanche is a 'representative of sensitive individual lost in the modern, impersonal world' - Thomas Adler
• SCENE TWO: 'strong, bold colours, primary colours
• SCENE TWO: 'These are love-letters, yellowing with antiquity, all from one boy.'


  - Unable to let go of the dream that her husband is still alive

  - These are love letters' she says of a sheaf of paper Stanley points to, 'yellowing with antiquity, all from one boy.' This sentence is full, with no elisions (she uses 'They are', not the more common 'they're'), with the modifying 'yellowing with antiquity' in parenthesis - sandwiched between the beginning and the end of the sentence. Blanche is under threat in this scene, as her actions over the sale of Belle Reve are being explored by Stanley. It may well be that Blanche is diverging from Stanley, deliberately keeping her language formal to distance herself from him. This suggests a kind of act, and perhaps it is, but it is an act in which we all often take part, adapting our language to the social context at hand.

  - Blanche considers her former husband and their love, the embodiment of her youth, love and purity
• SCENE TWO: 'epic fornications
• SCENE TWO: 'I was flirting with husband, Stella'


  - covering her back in case Stella finds out from a different source

  - The reason for her pride could be interpreted as the ability to tease men, something Blanche perceives as crucial in order to remain youthful. Furthermore, by flirting with Stanley, Blanche is competing directly with her more youthful sister which allows Blanche to remain young and beautiful. Hence, this once again shows Blanche's refusal to accept reality.
• SCENE THREE: 'primary colours' and 'wear coloured shirts'


  - The men are said to "wear coloured shirts" emphasising their strength and again showing freedom to be active and "at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours." This mirrors the social changes in America during this time, when the set of aristocratic values represented by Blanche were giving way to a new, vibrant, young life making its mark on America.
• SCENE THREE: 'it makes me so mad when he does that in front of people'


  - hints that Stella might like the violence in different circumstances

  - has a problem with it being public
• SCENE THREE: 'that one seems - superior to the others'


  - concern with status and social class even though she is in Elysian Fields

  - superficial
• SCENE THREE: 'I can't stand the naked light-bulb, any more than a rude remark or a vulgar action'


  - the light will reveal her true age and her sordid past

  - Blanche may feel that the naked light is unflattering and may show any flaws that she might not want Mitch to see. The bright naked light could also symbolise a harsh, rough society, one that is 'beneath' her and that she looks down on.

  · Blanche's reluctance to be in the light could be for the following reasons: she feels the light reveals her true age (deteriorating beauty); metaphorically, she feels the light will reveal her past; the light reveals the truth she tries to hide. It is also a symbol of the world she wishes to hide from, the world of ugly truths and grim realities which contrasts with Stanley and his garish embrace of all that is colourful and loud
• SCENE THREE: 'I'm very adaptable - to circumstances.'


  - suggests she is willing to lower her standards on social class due to her dependence on men and due to loss of Belle Reve

  - shows she is self aware

  - Blanche came from a higher social standing and is not used to the kind of men that she encounters while staying with Stella. The loss of the family home and wealth forces Blanche to lower her usual standards and this may be why she finds Mitch attractive. She feels that he is "superior" to the others and this shows that she still does retain an aristocratic attitude by judging people based on their status.
• SCENE THREE: Stella: 'Drunk-drunk-animal thing'


  - caesura and long pauses is indicative of how Stella is compared to Stanley

  - as she finds it hard to articulate true feelings it suggests that she doesn't usually get to take control in their relationship
• SCENE THREE: 'My baby doll's left me!' and 'STELLL-AHHHHH'

  - extreme behaviour which has switched from violent to regretful in a matter of minutes

  - we see this repeated again later in the play with Steve and Eunice after their fight. This interpretation is reinforced by Stella's lack of lines when she comes back to Stanley, suggesting that he remains dominant throughout, as well as the ending of the scene which sees Stanley carry Stella into the apartment where they will make love. Passionate violence having been transformed into passionate lust by way of passionate regret.
• SCENE THREE & FOUR- 'Her eyes go blind with tenderness' and 'narcotised tranquility' 'I was - sort of - thrilled by it'


  - Clear reference to how Stella seems unable to see the exploitative nature of the relationship and suggests she has no problem with violence
• SCENE THREE: 'Violence! Is so-'


  - unfinished
• SCENE FOUR: 'a terrible row'


  - changed a physical attack to a verbal attack; puts up an illusion
• SCENE FOUR: 'But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark--that sort of make everything else seem--unimportant'


  - indicates importance of sex for Stella

  - 'everything' includes fate of sister and this foreshadows the sending off of Blanche to the asylum.
• SCENE FOUR: 'ape-like' 'survivor of the stone age' and 'Bearing the raw meat home' 'Such things as art--as poetry and music--such kinds of new light' 'Don't--don't hang back with the brutes!
• SCENE FOUR: 'Stella has embraced him--with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche.'


  - Stella has made it clear to Blanche

  - Gives Stanley a motive to rape Blanche
• SCENE FIVE: 'You've got to be soft and attractive...I'm fading now!
• SCENE FIVE: 'Right on my pretty white skirt!
• SCENE SIX: 'Can I--uh--kiss you-goodnight?'

  - Attempts to display his affection for Blanche

  - It could reflect his inferior nature and lack of 'manliness' which is observed within Stanley.Directly contrasted with Stanley due to the fact that Stanley is seen to be passionate and to a degree primitive and animalistic as he expresses little hesitation in expressing his feelings; evokes sympathy for Mitch and ensures that he is perceived in a positive light due to the fact that he is seen to be more sensitive and gentle.

  - Blanche undermines the stereotypical role of a weak and submissive female to a certain extent due to the fact that she appears to hold a greater degree of power and authority within their relationship as Mitch is forced to ask her for permission to kiss her

  - However, his hesitation and uncomfortable movements, illustrated by stage directions such as, 'He shuffles and coughs a little' , indicates that he remains in an inferior position of power and is apprehensive to act upon his feelings.
• SCENE SIX: 'I have never known anyone like you'


  - divide between two classes is established and symbolises the inevitable conflict between them
• SCENE SIX: 'We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists' cafe on the Left Bank in Paris!'


  - Blanche attempts to create pleasant dreams in order to effectively mask and enhance the ugly truth

  - obvious window dressing

  - trues to her impending departure and awkwardness of their by choosing the stereotypically romantic city of Paris
• SCENE SIX: repetition of 'I didn't know that' and 'I loved him unendurably'


  - distancing herself from the responsibility of her being a potential factor in her husband's suicide

  - living in the illusion from which she was awakened by the truth that there were 'two people'

  - the juxtaposition of 'unendurably' and the revelation of the affair and suicide emphasises the cruel nature of reality and this could excuse Blanche's practical view of love
• SCENE SIX: [In a minor key] to [ the polka resumes in a major key]

  - The richness and complexity of Williams' dramaturgy is shown in his merging of aural and verbal symbolism; as the Varsouviana pole music plays in the background to externalise the memory of Allan's death, Blanche tells Mitch how falling in love had illuminated her world with a 'blinding light' which was brutally extinguished when he killed himself

  - This motif suggests Blanche is paralysed by the past, and her inability to free herself from the influence of her dead husband

  - Constant reminder of death and is used to foreshadow her own 'death' as it was played leading up to Allan's death but is also played leading up Blanche meeting Stanley.
• SCENE SIX: 'Afterwards, we pretended that nothing had been discovered'


  - Shows her attempt to maintain a fantasy and indicates her desire and desperation to maintain a safe haven which is undermined by the death of her husband

  - There the gay issue vanishes completely the film. Forbidden sexuality is the root problem of the secret narrative, but institutional pressures on the filmmakers mean it has to be erased from the film.