A Streetcar Named Desire: Quotes

Question 1

Stanley in Scene One:

Answer 1

‘Meat!’

-In hurling the package of meat at her, Stanley states the sexual proprietorship he holds over her.
-Monosyllabic - Introduces a animalistic, primitive image - Williams invites the audience to associate his character with a sense of primalism.
-Stella receives it as she ‘laughs breathlessly’ - her delight in catching it symbolises her sexual infatuation with him.

Question 2

How does Williams first describe Blanche through a state direction:

Answer 2

‘Her expression is one of shocked disbelief. Her appearance is incongruous to this setting’

-Presents Blanche as a contrast to the impoverished area, and as a woman who is dismayed and lost.

Question 3

What must Blanche’s ‘delicate beauty’ avoid?

What does something about her suggest?

Answer 3

‘Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light […] there is something about her […] that suggests a moth.’

-Metaphorical meaning - light as exposing - Blanche’s delicate features must avoid it.
-Interesting to consider how moths are attracted to light, perhaps suggesting how Blanche’s confliction as she is drawn to what will harm her.

Question 4

Blanche questions why Stella hasn’t written to her and let her know - about what?

Answer 4

‘Why, that you had to live in these conditions!’

-Suggests Blanche’s inability to comprehend Stella’s new way of life - Blanche symbolic of the Old South.
-Exclamatory suggests her hysterical nature.

Question 5

What reasoning does Blanche offer Stella for why she left her job teaching?

Answer 5

‘I was on the verge of - lunacy’

-Fragmented speech suggests she is behaving in an erratic manner.

Question 6

Blanche to Stella: ‘You haven’t said a word …’

Answer 6

‘You haven’t said a word about my appearance.’

-Blanche is seeking validation from her sister - implicit suggestion that she puts on a façade of how she wants to present herself.

Question 7

Blanche to Stella: ‘I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Belle Reve…’

Answer 7

‘I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Belle Reve. The summer Dad died and you left us…’

-Tone of resentment, accusatory tone established.

Question 8

Blanche revelation to Stella: ‘I can’t be alone! …’

Answer 8

‘I can’t be alone! I’m not very well…’

-Confessional tone, revelation of her mental struggle. Her vulnerability begins to intensify.
-Her erratic behaviour is revealed by her fragmented, disjointed speech.

Question 9

Stella describing Stanley: ‘Yes. A different …’

Answer 9

‘Yes. A different SPECIES’

-Stella dehumanises Stanley - element of class prejudice and divide can be recognised here - Stanley is dissimilar to Blanche and Stella.

Question 10

Stella describing how she feels when Stanley is away (very dependent woman):

Answer 10

‘When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!’

‘And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…’

-Stella presented as a dependent, submissive woman.

Question 11

Stage Direction that describes Blanche as she reproaches Stella:

Answer 11

[Blanche begins to shake again with intensity]

-Her physical reaction exemplifies her inner emotions and instability.

Question 12

Blanche to Stella: ‘But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! …’

Answer 12

‘But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!’

-Tricolon emphasises Blanche’s physical suffering - her near death experience was the crushendo of her suffering.
-Blanche reveals the loss of Belle Reve (their family estate) - Blanche then moved to The Flamingo hotel.

Question 13

Blanche in her first monologue: ‘You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals…’

Answer 13

‘You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals ARE PRETTY COMPARED TO DEATHS’

-Blanche laments her experience of the loss of Belle Reve and the absence of support she received from Stella.

Question 14

Blanche: ‘Where were you. In bed with your - …’

Answer 14

‘Where were you. In bed with your - Polak!’

-Accusatory tone again conjured as Blanche answers her own question - overarching sense of resentment as Stella was living her life whilst Blanche endured immense struggle.
-‘Polak’ - Derogatory - suggests Stanley represents the new heterogeneous America to which Blanche does not belong.

Question 15

How does Williams describe Stanley via stage directions?

Answer 15

‘Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes’

Everything that is his - ‘bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer’

-Animalistic lexicon to imply his masculine sexuality and force - Williams appears to have real disdain for his character.
-‘gaudy seed-bearer’ - Euphemism to suggest Stanley is open about his sexual promiscuity.

Question 16

Stanley asking Blanche about Stella’s whereabouts - ‘Where’s the …’

Answer 16

‘Where’s the little woman?’

-Speaks in the diminutive, sense of male chauvinism.

Question 17

Stanley on alcohol: ‘Some people rarely touch it…’

Answer 17

‘Some people rarely touch it … but it touches them often’

-Stanley’s response to Blanche’s deception - Williams employs a level of satire in this declarative sentence to represent the idea that Stanley already sees through Blanche’s attempts to deceive - he is aware of how the world works.

Question 18

Stanley to Blanche: ‘You were married once, weren’t you?’

What stage direction follows - how does Williams use plastic theatre?

Answer 18

[The music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance]

-Plastic theatre to heighten the audience’s impression of Blanche’s mental instability - reveals her sense of loss.
-Continuously associated with Blanche’s traumatic flashbacks and mental descent.

Question 19

Blanche: ‘The boy - the boy died’

Answer 19

-Repetition in the revelation almost suggests she is perhaps stammering.
-Noun choice ‘boy’ heightens the tragedy of his death - she infantilises Allen.

Question 20

Stanley on the Napoleonic Code: ‘It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby …’

Answer 20

‘It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you’re swindled under the Napoleonic code, I’, swindled too’

-Napoleonic code was an older French law that applied in New Orleans - it gives a husband control over his wife’s property - Stanley seems canny and aware of the rights the patriarchal society affords him. This adds to the impression of him as a very possessive and primitive character.
-The Napoleonic Code enables Stanley to justify his feelings of entitlement towards Stella’s inheritance.
-We see Stanley attempt to assert control over Blanche in the same way he has control over Stella - he demands to see the bill for the sale of Belle Reve.

Question 21

Stanley: ‘The Kowalski’s and the DuBois have different…’

Answer 21

‘The Kowalski’s and the DuBois have different NOTIONS’

-Declarative statement - the antagonistic relationship between Stanley and Blanche serves to symbolise the clash/ difference between the lower class (emphasised by the immigrant surname of Kowalski) and the French name DuBois which connotes power, wealth and aristocracy.
-The declining upper class is emphasised by the loss of Belle Reve - Stella has adopted Stanley’s surname of Kowalski, emphasising how the power of the upper class has begun to deteriorate.
-As both characters fight for control of Stella, Stanley ultimately wins, revealing how he and the working class he represents are the new source of power in America.

Question 22

Blanche to Stanley: ‘You’re a little on the primitive side I should think…’

Stanley: ‘Lay … her…’

Answer 22

‘You’re a little on the primitive side I should think. To interest you a woman would have to -‘

Stanley: ‘Lay … her cards on the table’

-‘Primitive’ - earliest form of man - perhaps implicit suggestion that Stanley is socially backward.
-Poker motif - shows Stanley to crave power and dominance - he wants a woman to show him everything and make herself vulnerable.

Question 23

Stanley: ‘Where’s the papers?’ ‘I’m talking of legal papers. Connected with the plantation’

Answer 23

-Emphasises Stanley’s attempts at asserting his patriarchal control - he clings to the idea of the Napoleonic Code and how he is entitled to all of Stella’s property.
-He rummages through and examines her love letters thinking they are the legal papers concerned with Belle Reve.
-Blanche representative of the traditions of the Old South of America.

Question 24

Blanche: ‘Now that you’ve touched them …’

Answer 24

‘Now that you’ve touched them I’LL BURN THEM’

-The letters represent Blanche’s past - her desire to ‘burn’ them perhaps connotes how Stanley’s impurity intrudes on Blanche’s fantasy.