Scene and quotes

Question 1

They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemetaries and ride six blocks to get off at- Elysian Fields!

Answer 1

Blanche - Scene 1

Elysian Fields - Greek mythological land of dead

Question 2

She showed me a picture of your home-place, the plantation. A great big place with white columns.

Answer 2

Eunice - Scene 1

mention Dubois’ wealth on slavery

Question 3

What are you doing in a place like this?

Answer 3

Blanche - Scene 1

Question 4

You are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!

Answer 4

Blanche - Scene 1

desperation to cling to past

Question 5

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

Answer 5

stage direction - Scene 1

Question 6

When she comes in be sure to say something nice about her appearance… and admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important to Blance. Her little weakness!

Answer 6

Scene 2 - Stella

Question 7

I don’t understand what happened to Belle Reve but you don’t know how ridiculous you are being when you suggest that my sister or I or anyone of our family could have perpetrated a swindle on anyone else

Answer 7

Scene 2 -Stella

Question 8

Some men are took in by all this Hollywood glamour stuff and some are not

Answer 8

Scene 2 - Stanley

Question 9

Poems a dead boy wrote. I hurt him the way you wuold like to hurt me, but you can’t! I’m not young and vulnerable anymore. But my young husband was and I- never mind about that! Just give them back to me!

Answer 9

Scene 2 - Blanche

feels guilt about husbands death

Question 10

“You look fresh as a daisy”
“One that’s been picked a few days”

Answer 10

Scene 3 - Stella, Blanche

Blanche and ageing

Question 11

Stanley gives a loud what of his hand on her thigh

Answer 11

Scene 3 - stage direction.

non-consensual physical aggression - shows he’s drunk

Question 12

I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more that I can a rude remark or vulgar action

Answer 12

Scene 3 - Blanche

paralel between motif of discomfort and stanley’s brutishness.

Question 13

They come together with low, animal moans

Answer 13

Scene 3 - stage direction

animalistic sex imagery

Question 14

There’s so much- so much confusion in the world… Thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now.

Answer 14

Scene 3 -Blanche

Mitch is hope?
reliance on strangers to escape reality

Question 15

I was sort of- thrilled by it

Answer 15

Scene 4 - stella

sexuality and animalistic masculinity
danger of desire

Question 16

What you are talking about is brutal desire-just- Desire!- the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bands through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another…..

Answer 16

Scene 4 - Blanche

Streetcar allegory - universality of danger

Question 17

In this dark march towards whatever it is we’re approaching… don’t- don’t hang back with the brutes

Answer 17

Scene 4 - Blanche

progression painted by Blanche is ironic - she’s old south

Question 18

it isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I- I’m fading now! I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick

Answer 18

Scene 5 - Blanche

abstract, poetic speech - alluding to gender and sensitivity
motif of light

Question 19

I want to kiss you - just once - softly and sweetly - on your mouth
[without waiting for him to accept, she crosses quickly to him and presses her lips to his.] Run along now! It would be nice to keep to keep you, but I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children! Adios!

Answer 19

Scene 5 - Blanche

obsession with desire

Question 20

but honey, you know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone in the world, has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or she’ll be lost

Answer 20

Scene 6 - Blanche

inoncence and caution

Question 21

I guess it is just that I have - old-fashioned ideals! [she rolls her eyes, knowing he cannot see her face]

Answer 21

Scene 6 - Blanche

Question 22

He hates me. Or why would he insult me? Of course there is such a thing as hostility of - perhaps in some perverse kind of way he - No! To think of it makes me…
[She makes a gesture of revulsion. Then finishes her drink. A pause follows.]

Answer 22

Scene 6 - Blanche

insists that stanley feels emotion towards her

Question 23

When I was sixteen, I made the discovery - love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned on a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck the world for me

Answer 23

Scene 6 - Blanche

Allan - “blinding light “
metaphor to light and lantern

Question 24

I think Blanche didn’t just love him but worshipped the ground he walked on! Adored him and though him almost too fine to be human! But then she found out… this beautiful and talented young man was a degenrate

Answer 24

Scene 7 - Stella

“Degenerate” - outlook of 1940s America on homosexuality

Question 25

Yes, I do, so refreshed. A hot bath and a long cold drink always give me a new outlook on life!

Answer 25

Scene 7 - Blanche

cleansing

Question 26

That girl calls me common!

Answer 26

Scene 7 - Stanley

Question 27

Ticket! Back to Laural! On the Greyhound! Tuesday!
[The ‘Varsouviana’ music steals in softly and continues playing]

Answer 27

Scene 8 - Stanley

Question 28

You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother

Answer 28

Scene 9 - Mitch