Quotes about Themes Flashcards
“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, Scene 1
Theme: Sex and Desire
The streetcar being called Desire shows how Blanche was metaphorically brought to Elysian Fields by her own desire for a reliable life as well as her desire to be able to have sex with as many men as she wants and not have to suffer the same consequences she did in Laurel.
“He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them” – Stage directions, Scene 1
Theme: Sex and Desire
Stanley is often described using predatory language. Many of the things he does are usually to do with sex or sexuality, something that shows the standards of the time.
“It brought me here. – Where I’m not wanted and where I’m ashamed to be…” – Blanche, Scene 4
Theme: Sex and Desire
This quote is not only about the actual streetcar “Desire,” but also about Blanche’s shame at how much her desire to be wanted has taken her to places she is ashamed of. It leads to encounters with men who want her only for a night or two, and then she’s just left to go find someone else.
“You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” – Mitch, Scene 9
Theme: Sex and Desire
Mitch sees Blanche as being dirty because of her past sexual promiscuity and her ventures of sex outside of wedlock. He feels that Blanche would cause scandal and unpleasant feelings for his sick mother, it also comes from a place of fearing for his mother’s disapproval.
“I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” – Blanche, Scene 3
Theme: Fantasy versus Reality
Fantasy - Blanche seems to be a perfectly respectable, almost mysterious southern belle who can’t stand vulgarity in conversation.
Reality - Blanche only has the lights off/dimmed because she’s scared to show her ageing self off to anybody. She can stand rude remarks and vulgar actions, as is proven by her sexual promiscuity.
“I don’t want realism” – Blanche, Scene 9
Theme: Fantasy versus Reality
Blanche tries to hide reality with a fantastical world she has built in her mind, failing to realise that she won’t be the same person in reality that she is in her little world. This quote is one of the first moments in which Blanche confirms that most of her world is a world of make-believe.
“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” – Stella, Scene 11
Theme: Fantasy versus Reality
Stella creates her fantasy world to live in, in which she believes Stanley over her sister and allows herself to continue being with Stanley. Stella feels she wouldn’t be able to live with Stanley or herself if she made the opposite decision.
“Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women” – Mitch, Scene 3
Theme: Gender Roles
This line shows Mitch as the stereotypical gentleman in the 1940s. He believes women are soft, impressionable beings who need to be protected from the harsh nature of the world, and gambling and drinking are among those things. This reinforces the beliefs of the 1940s.
“Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” – Blanche, Scene 11
Theme: Gender Roles
The line suggests Blanche finally gets the gentleman she has been longing and waiting for, when, in actual fact, he’s just a doctor there to take her away to an institution.
