2. Blanche

3.  Blanche :
frivolous, hysterical, insensitiv
e and self-obsessed individual
who derides her sister‟s lesser
social status
 has a craving for drink and
attempts to disguise her
drinking – dishonest
 “Moth” attracted to light – desires
glamour. Destructive – light kills moths.
Will her desire for life and glamour lead to

4.  She is aware of social distinctions;
looks down on those she considers
her inferiors - Eunice and the
neighbour – expects them to behave
a certain way toward a “lady.”
 Her attitude towards these women
foreshadows her criticism of Stella
and Stanley‟s way of life.

5.  She is vain and needs flattery.
 Afraid of growing old and losing her
looks; relies on flattery to banish
these terrors – fantasy and denial.
 Vulnerable, yet she is very much the
older sister, treating Stella as a child
and expecting her to run errands.

6. • Stanley is the new American in the new
America
• He is an immigrant who believes he can
achieve the American Dream

7.  Stanley makes an impact
 The description contained within the
stage direction “gaudy seed-bearer”
conveys his sexual magnetism and
his masculinity
 His entrance with the package of
meat symbolises his primitive
qualities as it is if he were bringing it
back to his cave fresh from the kill

8.  Stanley‟s cocky interactions with Blanche
show him to be insensitive - he barely lets
Blanche get a word in as he quickly
assesses her beauty
 Yet, he is unpretentious and has a zest for
life (more sympathetic than the snobby
Blanche?)
 An intense sexual bond with Stella

10.  New Orleans - cosmopolitan city where all
races mingle freely – the New America,
represented by the character of Stanley (a mix,
not elitist)
 Refinement mixed with the grit of poverty and
modern life; decay and corruption alongside
the regenerative powers of desire and
procreation.

11.  Elysian Fields - in Greek
mythology, the equivalent of
paradise or the home of the blessed
dead (the heroes)
 Irony - Stanley is clearly at home in
Elysian Fields, but the Kowalskis‟
home and neighbourhood are not
Blanche‟s idea of heaven

12. A streetcar named
„desire‟ takes Blanche to
„Elysian Fields‟(the
afterlife, or heaven)
 Does Blanche “desire”
death?

13.  Windows and door of the
apartment are left open - Stanley
and the others leave everything
out in the open.
 Belle Reve translates as “beautiful
dream”. Appropriate since the
“dream” is now all that remains
of it.

14. Stage directions contrast with the
uneducated language used by
most of the characters on the
stage (except Blanche and Stella)
 Blanche‟s quotation from Poe‟s
poem reminds us that she is an
English teacher

16.  Blanche:
 white clothes - virginal connotations
(irony)
 constant drinking symbolises her
inability to cope with reality and her
desire to forget the past
 aristocratic and sensitive - symbolises
the old South
 hearing the Polka - thinking about her
dead husband
 obsession with her appearance -
inability to cope with reality

17.  Stanley:
 animal sexuality is symbolised by
numerous stage directions
 butcher‟s package -
blood, danger, violence and his
primitive qualities
 brash, loud and arrogant -
symbolic of the New South

18.  Blanche – critical of poor conditions Stella lives
in; disapproves of Stanley
 Belle Reve has been lost – sentimental Blanche
stayed in the South; Stella abandoned it
(moving on)
 Blanche, though just as poor as Stanley and
Stella, looks down on them with
pretentiousness (tension)

19.  Desire is central to the play. Blanche is
unable to come to terms with her desire.
She is repelled and fascinated by Stanley
at the same time (partly jealous of Stella‟s
escape from the South)
 Obsessed with the idea of Stella sleeping
with her "Polack." Stella has chosen a life
built around her sexual relationship with
Stanley.

20.  Stanley is comfortable with
desire and satisfying his
physical needs. Sex is part of
what makes him tick.
 He appraises women based
on their physical looks (sex
objects)

21.  The play is haunted by mortality. Desire
and death and loneliness all combine.
 Decay in setting - the dying Old South
and the dying DuBois family
 Blanche's first monologue is a graphic
description of tending to the terminally ill.
 The specter of Blanche's husband, who
died when they were both very young;
Blanch still refers to him as a "boy."
 Rot underneath the surface – Blanche
(mental and moral)

22. Scene Two
Conflicts Introduced:
- Stanley’s jealousy and
suspicion
- Blanche’s ignorance of the
effect her behaviour has on
people

23. Blanche
• Compassion for Blanche:
–Destitution
–All her belongings equal
a trunk full of cheap
dresses, fake furs and
costume jewelry

24. Baths
• Blanche needs baths to “calm
her nerves”
• Symbolizes her need for
spiritual, mental and emotional
cleansing
• She feels “dirty” or “soiled” in
some way

25. • This habit is
irritating to
others – tension
• Foreshadows the
revelation of her
sordid past –
impurity
• Wants to start
clean; get rid of
social blemishes
and her previous

26. The red bathrobe
• Flirting and
provocative
• Arouses Stanley’s
suspicions (and
something else)
• More a prostitute
than aknow that you teacher
“If I didn’t
school
were my wife’s sister I’d
get ideas about you!”

27. Stanley
• Becomes suspicious
of Blanche
• Hostility due to his
awareness of the
class differences
between himself and
Blanche (and by
extension Stella)
• Wants to pull
Blanche down to his
level

28. • Thinks Blanche has
cheated him and
Stella out of $$
• Thinks she spent it
on herself
• Not aware that
Blanche’s costume
jewelry is fake
• Feels insecure
when Stella

29. Napoleonic Code References –
forbids privileges based on
birth
• Show Stanley’s ignorance
• Belle Reve, in Mississippi, would
not fall under New Orleans law
• Gender showdown – Stanley feels
that as a man, whatever Stella
has belongs to him
• Hates that Blanche is a woman
with a higher social status than
him – must bring her down

30. Symbolism
• Red robe – the scarlet woman of
the Bible (Revelations 17)
• “The blind are leading the blind”
(Matthew 15:14) – impending disaster
• Stella tells Stanley how to treat
Blanche – ashamed at her husband’s
behavior
• The baby – unites the Kowalskis but
isolates Blanche
• Blanche’s trunk – a façade, fantasy
of riches

31. Symbolism of letters
• Business papers =
reality (Stanley
handles them)
• Love letters =
fantasy (Blanche
handles them) –
maintains her
illusions of the
past.

32. The Poker Scene

33. Scene 3 – Pivotal Scene
• Cements Stanley’s role as the villain
• Highlights the primal nature of Stanley
and Stella’s relationship
• Stanley dominates over his
friends, making all the decisions
• Tenderness of friends – look after the
drunk Stanley
• Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche

34. Blanche
• Her vanity makes her
lie about Stella’s age
• Her inability to deal
with reality makes her
say that she’s come to
help Stella
• Her lies are NOT
malicious; she lies to
protect herself

35. • Seductive posturing when
men are around – flirts
instinctively
• She’s half undressed in the
gap
• Contradiction:
– genteel lady: expects
men to stand up when
she comes in; can’t
stand a rude remark or
vulgar action
– cheap seductress

36. Chinese Lantern
• Blanche puts the lantern
over the harsh light bulb –
symbolic of her inability to
face reality
• Light threatens to reveal
her lies
• Chinese lanterns have a
softer light, more
fantastical

37. Stanley
• Stanley is loud and
domineering; wears loud shirts
– emphasizes his manliness
• Stanley throwing down the
watermelon emphasizes his
disregard for the house and
Stella – FORESHADOW
VIOLENCE
• Stanley drinking – destructive
behavior (domestic violence)

38. • Shower symbolizes
his attempt to
wash his sins away
(hitting Stella)

39. Stella and Stanley
• Stella and Stanley’s
reunion conveys their
desire for one another
• Stella’s desire for Stanley
is so great she is willing
to forgive anything
• Their “animal-like” moans
when they embrace on
stairs = “animal-like”
passion

40. There is a sense of
King Kong, or a
brute, about Stanley
when he carries
Stella away -
Primitive

41. • Even though Stanley is
abusive, something about Stanley
excites Stella when he is at his most
beast-like.
• Their making-up is completely
wordless: no plea for forgiveness, no
promise of better behavior.
• They make up by coupling like animals.
The bond between Stanley and Stella is
not intellectual, but physical.

42. Blanche and Mitch
• Mitch is the opposite of Stanley:
kind, understanding, shy, sympathetic
• Their conversation shows their class
differences – Mitch is trying to overcome the
gap
• Description of dancing symbolizes that they
are ill suited for one another: “Mitch dances
clumsily, mimicking Blanche’s grand
movements.

43. Scene 4
Turning Point:
• Stanley overhears
Blanche’s opinion of
himself
• Will not rest until he
has destroyed and
disposed of her

44. Streetcar Metaphor
• There is no
turning
back for
Blanche
• Headed for
disaster

45. Blanche
• Blanche tells Stella that sheer desire is no
basis for a marriage. The streetcar “that
bangs through the Quarter, up one old
narrow street and down another” is what
she believes Stella feels
• Blanche fails to understand Stella’s
passionate relationship with her husband.
It seems that with all her sexual experience
she has never experienced true love.

46. “{The streetcar} brought me here, where I’m not
wanted and where I’m ashamed to be……”
• Literally, Blanche arrived on a streetcar named
“Desire”
• Metaphorically, Blanche’s search for sexual desire
led to her expulsion from Laurel; her family’s need
to shroud desire and cover up “epic fornications”
led to the break-up of the Belle Reve estate and
impoverishment

47. • Blanche is a cold cynic
• Doesn’t believe in love
• Laughs at Stella’s
attraction and affection
for her husband
• Uses money and men –
calculating and selfish

48. • One of Blanche’s most famous speeches: “There’s
even something – sub-human - something not
quite to the stage of humanity,” meaning: Stanley
is too much of a beast for the evolved Stella.

49. Stella
“I’m not in anything
I have a desire to
get out of”
• Lost patience with Blanche’s hysterics; becomes
ironic
• The difference in the sisters’ attitudes to passion
shows that despite their common background and
social values, they are very different characters

50. Scene 5
• A threatening undertone runs
throughout this scene
• Opens with a violent row
between Eunice and Steve

51. Blanche
• Fear of truth: her telegram
to Shep (all lies)
• Past catches up with her
(Stanley has investigated):
– Nights at a hotel of ill repute
with men
– Sought comfort in
men, physically
– Stained purity, just like her
stained white dress
– Less healthy desire than the
marriage?

52. Blanche and the Young Man
• Emphasizes Blanche’s loneliness and
inappropriate desire – desperate and
destructive
• Wants to marry Mitch, but risks her future to
flirt with a boy
• Can she settle down with one man? Is that
why she is jealous of Stella?

53. • Hypocrite: She condemns Stanley and Stella’s
sexual relationship, but she is prepared to
engage in a inappropriate sexual encounter
with a young boy. Her behavior with him
makes Stanley and Stella’s relationship appear
almost normal

54. Astrology
• Ironically, Blanche’s sign is “Virgo,” the virgin
– Does she want to reclaim her
virginity, spiritually and emotionally? A new life
• Stanley’s sign is Capricorn – ‘the ram’ – goats are
supposed to be promiscuous and stubborn. He is
both.
– Capricorn and Virgo are opposites – they either
conflict or…opposites attract?

55. Stella
• Also escapes to
fantasies:
–Stops listening
whenever Blanche
is morbid
–Puts up with an
abusive husband
–Reads comics -
childlike