Scene 4

Question 1

” In this dark march toward whatever it is we’re approaching …

Answer 1

don't hang back with the brutes!"
Blanche views life as based on class differences. She sees refined people like herself as beacons of light that guide humankind to a better world. As a result she sees herself as being superior to common people, whom she considers "brutes."
Blanche

Question 2

When I found out you’d been insane enough to come back in here…..

Answer 2

after what happened—I started to rush in after you!
Blanche
she prepared to risk her safety to help her sister - here we see the less self absorbed side of Blanche

Question 3

“In my opinion?…

Answer 3

You’re married to a madman!”

Blanche

Question 4

“What you are talking about is brute desire—just—Desire!..

Answer 4

—the name of that rattle-trap street-car …”
It is clear to both the audience and the characters themselves that they are discussing the streetcar Desire as a metaphor for the kind of desire that brings two people together. But the truth is that Blanche’s romanticism is a cover for the true cynicism of one who loves only calculatingly, for money and power and security. Of the DuBois sisters, Stella is the romantic.

Question 5

A man like that is someone to go out with—once—twice—three times when the devil is in you…

Answer 5

But live with? Have a child by?
Blanche
Blanche will never experience what Stella has experienced with Stanley. Blanche will never experience maternity either. She wants poetic love, the kind she came to appreciate during her sequestered girlhood at Belle Reve
Stella has learned something from Stanley that Blanche has never learned from literature or from her immature lovers. She lives in a world of dreams and fantasies, and she wants to keep it that way.

Question 6

“On our wedding night…

Answer 6

He smashed all the light bulbs with the heel of my slipper!”
Stella
Light motif - While Blanche is wary of the truth light exposes, Stella and Stanley seek darkness to enjoy the sex, the foundation of their relationship. Also hide the troubles in the relationship

Question 7

He acts like an animal!… Survivor of the stone age!…

Answer 7

Blanche’s monologue here is a full scale attack on Stanley

Question 8

Stanley hesitates licking his lips

Answer 8

animalistic language

Stanley has overheard everything Blanche has said and is relishing in the idea of exposing her.