Key Quotes

Question 1

Blanches loss of sanity

Answer 1

‘I dont want realism I want magic’

Question 2

Blanches exposition

Answer 2

‘her appearance is incongruous to this setting’

Question 3

Blanches exposition

Answer 3

‘Her delicate beauty must avoid strong light’

Question 4

Blanche’s superiority

Answer 4

‘you messy child’ - refering to stella

Question 5

Blanche - Death

Answer 5

‘funerals are pretty compared to deaths’

Question 6

Stanley - not very intellectual

Answer 6

‘a solid gold dress’ (obviously not a realy thing) - stanley knows hes lower class so has a natural resentment for expensive things

Question 7

blanche -

Answer 7

‘the blind are leading the blind’ - blanche often given the last line. she is blind as she cannot face reality. and they are blind becuase they cannot see the real her

Question 8

Eunice

Answer 8

‘you can’t beat a woman and then call her back’ - voice of reason. However, Steve beats Eunice and she still goes back to him.
‘Life has got to go on, no matter what happens, you’ve got to keep going’ - After rape allegation

Question 9

Stanley - animalistic (good aspect)

Answer 9

‘He was as good as a lamb’ - Contrasts to verbs associated with him - stalks, charges, seizes

Question 10

Blanche - ironic

Answer 10

‘pull yourself together and face the facts’ (to Stella) - ironic as it is Blanche who needs to ‘face to facts’
‘i never cared for wish-washy people’ - She one wish washy nibba if I ever seen one

Question 11

Blanche - loss of sanity

Answer 11

‘if only my mind would function’ - foreshadows breakdown

Question 12

Blanche - lies

Answer 12

‘y’know how indifferent i am to money’ - clearly a lie

Question 13

Theme: desire

Answer 13

stella ‘ haven’t you ever ridden on that streetcar?’

Blanche ‘ it brought me here’ - literally and metaphorically

Question 14

Stanley - animalistic

Answer 14

Stella: ‘a different species’ - New America is evolution

Question 15

Blanche - truth

Answer 15

‘i was never hard or self-sufficient enough’

Question 16

Blanche - truth

Answer 16

‘men dont even admire your existance unless they are making love to you’ - shows her desperate need for attention

Question 17

Blanche - Desire

Answer 17

‘it isnt enough to be soft. you’ve got to be soft and attractive’ - she is scared she is no longer wanted by men

Question 18

Blanche - ancient southern views

Answer 18

‘look whos coming! my Rosenkavalier’

Question 19

blanche - desire/death

Answer 19

‘i like it dark, dark is comforting to me’

Question 20

Blanche on Stanley

Answer 20

‘not so highbrow’ - snobbish and racist
Later calls him derogatory slurs - Polack
‘bestial’, ‘ape-like’, ‘sub-human’ - believes Stanley is a regression, not the future

Question 21

Destruction of Props

Answer 21

Trunk: ‘jerks’ - invasion of privacy
Radio: ‘stalks fericely’ ‘snatches’ ‘tosses’ - Power

Question 22

Stella - Exposition

Answer 22

‘gentle’ - contrast to Stanley

‘of a background obviously quite different from her husbands’ - microcosm of New America with the breakdown of classes

Question 23

blanche - linking death and desire

Answer 23

‘death… and the opposite is desire’

Question 24

Stanley - Power

Answer 24

‘loud whack of his hand on her thigh’ - slaps stella
‘charges’ ‘sound of a blow’ - hits stella
Exerts physically power over others

Question 25

Blanche - Light

Answer 25

‘I cant stand a naked lightbulb’ - Shows insecurity about her appearance and her need for protection

Question 26

Blanche - Stellas relations

Answer 26

‘only way to live with such a man is to go to bed with him and thats your job’
See’s sex and desire as a path to belonging and protection - use of the word job

Question 27

Blanche - Desire

Answer 27

Says ‘would you like to sleep with me tonight’

Language barrier allows her to be herself - shows true colours

Question 28

Blanche to gay hubby

Answer 28

‘I know, I know, you disgust me’ - Leads to him killing himself. Shows intolerant old america she belongs to.

Question 29

Stanley - Maculinity

Answer 29

‘Dont ever talk that way to me’

‘Every man is king’

Question 30

Blanche - Insanity

Answer 30

During rape: ‘lurid shadows and reflections’, ‘inhumane voices’ - Also seen as she is taken away.
Shadows that once offered her protection now closing in, everything turns against her