Streetcar Scene 6 - Blanche and Mitch

Question 1

Blanche: Well..

Answer 1

Mitch: I guess it must be pretty late–and you’re tired.

Question 2

Blanche: Even the hot tamale man has deserted the street, and he hangs on till the end. How will you get home?

Answer 2

Mitch: I’ll walk over to Bourbon and catch an owl-car.

Question 3

Blanche: Is that streetcar named Desire still grinding along the tracks at this hour?

Answer 3

Mitch: I’m afraid you haven’t gotten much fun out of this evening, Blanche.

Question 4

Blanche: I spoiled it for you.

Answer 4

Mitch: No, you didn’t, but I felt all the time that I wasn’t giving you much–entertainment.

Question 5

Blanche: I simply couldn’t rise to the occasion. That was all. I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard to be gay and made such a dismal mess of it. I get ten points for trying!–I did try.

Answer 5

Mitch: Why did you try if you didn’t feel like it, Blanche?

Question 6

Blanche: I was just obeying the law of nature.

Answer 6

Mitch: Which law is that?

Question 7

Blanche: The one that says the lady must entertain the gentleman–or no dice! See if you can locate my door-key in this purse. When I’m so tired my fingers are all thumbs!

Answer 7

Mitch: This it?

Question 8

Blanche: No, honey, that’s the key to my trunk which I must soon be packing.

Answer 8

Mitch: You mean you are leaving here soon?

Question 9

Blanche: I’ve outstayed my welcome.

Answer 9

Mitch: This it?

Question 10

Blanche: Eureka! Honey, you open the door while I take a last look at the sky. I’m looking for the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, but these girls are not out tonight. Oh, yes they are, there they are! God bless them! All in a bunch going home from their little bridge party… Y’get the door open? Good boy! I guess you–want to go now…

Answer 10

Mitch: Can I–uh–kiss you-goodnight?

Question 11

Blanche: Why do you always ask me if you may?

Answer 11

Mitch: I don’t know whether you want me to or not.

Question 12

Blanche: Why should you be so doubtful?

Answer 12

Mitch: That night when we parked by the lake and I kissed you, you–

Question 13

Blanche: Honey, it wasn’t the kiss I objected to. I liked the kiss very much. It was the other little–familiarity–that I–felt obligated to–discourage… I didn’t resent it! Not a bit in the world! In fact, I was somewhat flattered that you–desired me! 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 13

Mitch: Lost?

Question 14

Blanche: I guess you are used to girls that like to be lost. The kind that get lost immediately, on the first date!

Answer 14

Mitch: I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my–experience–I have never known anyone like you.

Question 15

Blanche: laughs

Answer 15

Mitch: Are you laughing at me?

Question 16

Blanche: No, honey. The lord and lady of the house have not yet returned, so come in. We’ll have a nightcap. Let’s leave the lights off. Shall we?

Answer 16

Mitch: You just–do what you want to.

Question 17

Blanche: The other room’s more comfortable–go on in. This crashing around in the dark is my search for some liquor.

Answer 17

Mitch: You want a drink?

Question 18

Blanche: I want you to have a drink! You have been so anxious and solemn all evening, and so have I; we have both been anxious and solemn and now for these few last remaining moments of our lives together–I want to create–joie de vtvre! I’m lighting a candle.

Answer 18

Mitch: That’s good.

Question 19

Blanche: We are going to be very Bohemian. We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists’ cafe on the Left Bank in Paris! Le suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous etes–Armand! Understand French?

Answer 19

Mitch: Naw. Naw. I–

Question 20

Blanche: Voutez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Vous ne comprenez pas? Ah, auelle dommage!–I mean it’s a damned good thing…I’ve found some liquor. Just enough for two shots without any dividends, honey…

Answer 20

Mitch: That’s–good.

Question 21

Blanche: Sit down! Why don’t you take off your coat and loosen your collar?

Answer 21

Mitch: I better leave it on.

Question 22

Blanche: No. I want you to be comfortable.

Answer 22

Mitch: I’m ashamed of the way I perspire. My shirt is sticking to me.

Question 23

Blanche: Perspiration is healthy. If people didn’t perspire they would die in five fives. This is a nice coat. What kind of material is it?

Answer 23

Mitch: They call that stuff alpaca.

Question 24

Blanche: Oh. Alpaca.

Answer 24

Mitch: It’s a very lightweight alpaca.

Question 25

Blanche: Oh. Light weight alpaca.

Answer 25

Mitch: I don’t like to wear a wash-coat even in the summer because I sweat through it.

Question 26

Blanche: Oh.

Answer 26

Mitch: And it don’t look neat on me. (beat) Last Christmas I was given a membership to the New Orleans Athletic Club.

Question 27

Blanche: Oh, good.

Answer 27

Mitch: It was the finest present I ever was given. I work out there with the weights and I swim and keep myself fit. When I started there, I was getting soft in the belly but now my belly is hard. It is so hard that a man can punch me in the belly and it don’t hurt me. Punch me! Go on! See?

Question 28

Blanche: Gracious.

Answer 28

Mitch: Guess how much I weigh, Blanche?

Question 29

Blanche: Oh, I’d say in the vicinity of–one hundred and eighty?

Answer 29

Mitch: Guess again.

Question 30

Blanche: Not that much?

Answer 30

Mitch: No. My weight is not a very interesting subject to talk about. (hesitates) What’s yours?

Question 31

Blanche: My weight?

Answer 31

Mitch: Yes.

Question 32

Blanche: Guess!

Answer 32

Mitch: Let me lift you.

Question 33

Blanche: Samson! Go on, lift me. (lifted up) Well?

Answer 33

Mitch: You are as light as a feather.

Question 34

Blanche: Ha-ha! (lowered down) You may release me now.

Answer 34

Mitch: Huh?

Question 35

Blanche: I said unhand me, sir. Now, Mitch. Just because Stanley and Stella aren’t at home is no reason why you shouldn’t behave like a gentleman.

Answer 35

Mitch: Just give me a slap whenever I step out of bounds.

Question 36

Blanche: That won’t be necessary. You’re a natural gentleman, one of the very few that are left in the world. I don’t want you to think that I am severe and old maid school teacherish or anything like that. It’s just–well–

Answer 36

Mitch: Huh?

Question 37

Blanche: I guess it is just that I have–old-fashioned ideals!

Answer 37

Mitch: Blanche–

Question 38

Blanche: Yes, honey?

Answer 38

Mitch: Can I ask you a question?

Question 39

Blanche: Yes. What?

Answer 39

Mitch: How old are you?

Question 40

Blanche: Why do you want to know?

Answer 40

Mitch: I talked to my mother about you and she said, “How old is Blanche?” And I wasn’t able to tell her.

Question 41

Blanche: You talked to your mother about me?

Answer 41

Mitch: Yes.

Question 42

Blanche: Why?

Answer 42

Mitch: I told my mother how nice you were, and I liked you.

Question 43

Blanche: Were you sincere about that?

Answer 43

Mitch: You know I was.

Question 44

Blanche: Why did your mother want to know my age:

Answer 44

Mitch: Mother is sick.

Question 45

Blanche: I’m sorry to hear it. Badly?

Answer 45

Mitch: She won’t live long. Maybe just a few months.

Question 46

Blanche: Oh.

Answer 46

Mitch: She worries because I’m not settled.

Question 47

Blanche: Oh.

Answer 47

Mitch: She wants me to be settled down before she–

Question 48

Blanche: You love her very much, don’t you?

Answer 48

Mitch: Yes.

Question 49

Blanche: I think you have a great capacity for devotion. You will be lonely when she passes on, won’t you? I understand what that is.

Answer 49

Mitch: To be lonely?

Question 50

Blanche: I loved someone, too, and the person I loved I lost.

Answer 50

Mitch: You need somebody. And I need somebody too. Could it be–you and me, Blanche?