Key Quotes Significance Flashcards
“Blanche: They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields” (scene 1) [3]
- Elysian Fields sounds like a jolly and nice place = desire of Blanche
- cemeteries = symbolises death - foreshadows her past
- afterlife = Blanche’s desire for a new start
“Stella: And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby” (scene 1) [3]
- Shows Stella’s dependence on Stanley
- Shows how she can’t live without Stanley just how Blanche can’t live without Stella
- could foreshadow that Stella has to eventually choose between them and that she chooses Stanley
“Blanche: Oh I guess he’s just not the type that goes for jasmine perfume, but maybe he’s what we need to mix our blood with now that we’ve lost Belle Reve” (scene 1) [5]
- Blanche is saying that he can’t appreciate good taste like she does
- He wouldn’t be a good add-on to the Dubois family
- Acknowledges how they can’t affod luxuries themselves anymore
- Maybe Stanley can change that as immigrants like him are rising in the social status
- Blanche thinks highly of herself and low of others who are not from a wealthy background
“He is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine and strongly, compactly built. Animal
joy is implicit in all his movements and attitudes” (scene 1) [3]
- shows Stanley’s physical dominance
- compares him to an inhumane ‘animal’ could show his desires for food and sexual activities
- suggests Stanley as a powerful and stereotypical man
“Stanley: It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you’re swindled under
the Napoleonic code, I’m swindled too and I don’t like to be swindled” (scene 2) [3]
- Shows Stanley and Stella’s dependence on each other
- Hits a key theme of resentment - shown by Stanley accusing Blanche of cheating them out of money
- Stanley fights for what he wants and gets what he wants - shows how everything is always about him = dominance/power
“Stanley: Some men are took in by all this Hollywood glamour stuff and some men are not”
(scene 2) [3]
- Shows how Stanley doesn’t fall for allusions
- Stanley’s misogynistic views of women like Blanche is foreshadowing his violent attacks later in the play
- Shows how Stanley is not intrested in women who need compliments - like Blanche
“The poker players – Stanley, Steve, Mitch and Pablo – wear colored shirts, solid blues, a
purple, a red-and-white check, a light green…they are as coarse and direct and as powerful
as the primary colours” (scene 3) [4]
- distinct colours represent physical manhood and their boldness and harshness
- primary colours show the power and dominance as they are what make up every colour in the world
- emphasises masculinity and the overpowering effect of it
- these colours contrast with Blanche’s white character
“Stella: drunk! Drunk! Animal thing you!” (scene 3) [2]
- Stella is usually the gentle one but here she is losing her temper which is contrasted to her usual character
- Later we see that even after saying this, Stella goes back to Stanley because of the psychological grasp he has on her
“Stella: he was as good as a lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself
Blanche: And that-that makes it all right?” (scene 4) [3]
- Stella’s defending Stanley and making excuses for him
- The roles between delusional love and motherly/logical have been switched around for Blanche and Stella
- Stella can’t draw the line between physical violence and sexuality
“Stella has embraced him with both arms, fiercely, and in full view of Blanche. Over her head
he grins through the curtains at Blanche” (scene 4) [4]
- Stanley’s psychological torture towards Blanche starts here and he tells her he’s onto her by grinning
- Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche despite what Blanche just said to Stella about not hanging out with people like him
- Blanche is shown as lonely here and now things begin to fall apart
- Shows Stella’s affection towards Stanley and ignorance of events that have happened
“Blanche: I must jot that down in my notebook. Ha-ha! I’m compiling a notebook of quaint
little words and phrases I’ve picked up here” (scene 5) [3]
- Shows class difference
- Blanche is intrigued by this “lower class” language used by Steve
- Shows Blanche being ‘superior’ compared to others
“Stanley: Hah! Say do you happen to know somebody named Shaw?” (scene 5) [3]
- Stanley’s dominance is shown by him always changing the conversation/subject = his control
- Shows his resentment of Blanche and how he’s trying to reveal her true identity
- Shows Stanley’s determination to get the truth about Blanche out
“Blanche: I want his respect. And men don’t want anything they get too easy. But on the
other hand, men lose interest quickly” (scene 5) [3]
- Blanche is very conflicted by men’s interests
- She acts as a professional on what men want perhaps because of her experience with men in the past
- societal expectation men have put on women
“Blanche: Is that streetcar named Desire still grinding along the tracks at this hour?” (scene
6) [3]
- shows the lack of chemistry between Blanche and Mitch
- shows how Blanche doesn’t desire Mitch
- Seems like Blanche is being tugged into talking with Mitch
“Blanche…a single girl, alone in the world, has got to keep a firm hand of her emotions”
(scene 6) [3]
- ironic coming from Blanche - hypocritical
- Blanche promotes ideas of the Southern Belle even though she doesn’t follow them
- Blanche plays onto her facade by making herself seem innocent and cautious
