Streetcar Named Desire

Scene 1

  • New Orleans
  • Stanley throws meat at Stella – common man – arrogant
  • Stella is a gentle woman
  • Blanche (Stella’s sister) - high maintenance - older than Stella by 5 years
  • Belle Reve - plantation in Mississippi
  • Blanche controls Stella
  • Lie #1 (Blanche) – said her shot limit was one
  • Lie #2 (Blanche) – superintendent gave her time off because she was “frazzled”
  • Blanche insults Stella about weight
  • Blanche believes Stella abandoned her
  • Blanche lost Belle Reve – needed money to pay for the family funerals
  • “’Funerals are pretty compared to death’” (Williams 9).
  • Stanley – “he sizes women up at a glance” (Williams 10). Looks at women as sexual objects
  • Polka music begins (only Blanche can hear it) when Stanley mentions that she was married once – she said the boy died and feels like she is going to be sick

Scene 2

  • Stella is pregnant and does not want to tell Blanche
  • Stanley thinks Blanche sold Belle Reve to buy furs, dresses, and jewelry
  • Napoleonic Code – what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa – “’It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you are swindled under the Napoleonic Code, I’m swindled too’” (Williams 13).
  • Stanley refuses to leave the apartment while Blanche gets dressed - Stella leaves
  • Blanche and Stanley are flirting - he has "ideas" about her
  • Blanche says the clothes in her trunk were “’a tribute from an admirer of mine’” (Williams 15).
  • Blanche admits she fibs, but when it is important she tells the truth – Belle Reve was lost to “epic fornications” – the males in the family were paying off the women by selling off land
  • Stanley mentions the baby when he wasn’t supposed to
  • Blanche admits to flirting with Stanley

Scene 3

  • Stanley and friends are having a poker party – he is mad and drunk
  • Blanche and Mitch meet for the first time – he is “superior” to the other men
  • Blanche didn't close the portieres and stood in the light to get changed
  • Stanley gets angry that the radio is turned on
  • Blanche and Mitch both lost someone that they loved – Mitch: the girl who gave him the cigarette case, Blanche: her husband
  • Blanche lies about not drinking much, her age, she came down to help Stella
  • Blanche asks Mitch to cover the light bulb with a lantern (light = truth)
  • Blanche turns the radio back on – she and Mitch awkwardly dance
  • Stanley storms in the room, throws the radio out of the window
  • Stella screams for everyone to leave - Stanley beats Stella
  • The men pull Stanley away - Blanche takes Stella upstairs to Eunice’s apartment
  • Stanley calls for Stella to come home - stands outside the apartment and screams her name
  • Stella returns home with Stanley
  • Blanche is horrified by this, other characters are used to it
  • Mitch sits with Blanche to calm her down – “’Thank you for being so kind. I need kindness now’” (Williams 26).

Scene 4

  • Stella has “next morning glow”
  • Blanche fears for both of their safety
  • “’You’re married to a madman!’” (Williams 27).
  • Blanche does not like seeing Stella so matter-of-fact about the abuse
  • Stella makes excuses for him – she loves him
  • “’I’m not in anything I want to get out of’” (Williams 27).
  • Blanche’s plan - contact the guy she dated in college (who is now a millionaire) and ask him for money – Shep Huntleigh is married
  • Blanche says Stanley is the type of guy you date a few times when the devil is in you, not the type of man you marry and have a kid with
  • “’There are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark – that sort of make everything else seem – unimportant’” (Williams 30). All Stella is talking about is desire, not love.
  • The streetcar (Desire) brought her to New Orleans – (Belle Reve lost because of desires of the men in her family – her own desires brought her to Stella)
  • Blanche tells Stella Stanley is an ape (bestial), common and sub-human – Stanley hears the whole conversation
  • Stella is hugging Stanley, he grins over Stella’s shoulder at Blanche
  • Blanche is extremely nervous
  • Stella shows she is on Stanley’s side by kissing and hugging him

Scene 5

  • Stanley asked Blanche, “’Say, do you happen to know somebody named Shaw?’” (Williams 33).
  • Blanche does not know if he heard her badmouthing him
  • Shaw knows Blanche has been hanging out at the Hotel Flamingo – Blanche denies this
  • She finally mentions that she has “’…seen it and smelled it’” (Williams 33).
  • Stanley is playing with her – Blanche knows he has been asking around about her and is nervous
  • Blanche admits there were rumors going around Laurel before Blanche came to New Orleans
  • Blanche is nervous because Mitch is coming over for a date – she has given him nothing more than a good night kiss
  • Stella asks if she wants Mitch – Blanche responds, “’I want to rest!’” (Williams 35). She needs someone to take care of her
  • The young man comes in and Blanche becomes calmer
  • “’…I’ve got to be good – and keep my hands off children’” (Williams 37).
  • She was flirting with him and keeping him in the apartment – forces a kiss on him
  • Mitch appears with roses and she is still happy and confident – she just got what she wanted (1 – a kiss from young man and 2) roses from Mitch)

Scene 6

  • Blanche and Mitch come home from a date – it did not go well
  • Blanche is hinting about a possible hook - Mitch is clueless
  • Blanche tells she is not a girl who ‘”…gets lost immediately, on the first date!’” (Williams 38).
  • Blanche sets the mood – they are alone, she lights candles, she gets liquor
  • Blanche asks Mitch if he speaks French and when he replies no, she asks him to sleep with her in French
  • Mitch’s version of foreplay is pathetic
  • “’I guess it is just that I have – old fashioned ideals!’” (Williams 40). Blanche rolls her eyes after saying this
  • Blanche is digging for information about Stanley
  • Blanche’s husband shot himself – she was sixteen and married Allan (the searchlight in the world was turned on) but there was something missing with him – he came to her for help but she did not know how to help him – one day

she finds Allan in the room with another man (they were together) – the three of them go out to a casino where Blanche is dancing to the Varsouviana with Allan (the polka music that always plays in her head) – she said, ‘” I saw! I know!

You disgust me!’” (Williams 43).

  • Allan runs off the dance floor and shoots himself – she is responsible
  • The polka music (symbol) was the song that was playing when she last danced with Allan and she hears the music over in her head whenever she is stressed or uncomfortable
  • Mitch does not run away – he asks if it is possible that the two of them could be together