Blanche
Appearance
● Moth-like delicacy and vulnerability
Faults
● Snobbery early on (dismissal of black neighbour’s kindness)
● Dismissal of Eunice’s unwashed grapes
● Alcoholism offers her temporary reassurance and dulls emotional pain
Contradictions
● Cultural pretensions are designed to impress others with her superiority and contrast
her genuine love for poetry
● She is ignorant of why Belle Reve was lost but she understands the root cause was
the Dubois extravagant spendings
● Inconsistencies make her less predictable and more human
Blanche weaknesses
● Recognises some of her weaknesses “got to be good and keep my hands off
children”
● Unclear if she regrets the affair with her student beyond her losing her job
● Uncertainty of Blanches character makes her more human
Tragic heroine
● Blanche is isolated by her ignorance of her future
● Pathos of her ignorance diminishes those who are deceiving her
Key quotes
● “Young man!…look like a prince out of the Arabian nights”
● “Can’t stand a naked lightbulb”
● Thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now”
Stanley
Appearance
● “Medium height …. Strongly, compactly built”
● His intense masculinity and awareness of his sexual magnetism are the core of his
personality
● “Gaudy seed-bearer”
● “Richly feathered male bird among hens”
Stanley’s dominance
● Sees himself as a natural winner whose right it is to dominate
● Poker scene
Lack of education and culture
● Ungrammatical speech betrays his lack of education
● Acutely class-conscious as having married a gentle-woman he resents the
differences in outlook and manner between himself and his wife and pulling her down
to his level is part of his sexual attraction for her.
Quotes
● “Luck is believing you're lucky”
● “Napoleonic code”
● “One hundred percent American”
Stella
Relationship with Blanche
● “I like to wait on you Blanche. It makes it seem more like home”. This can be seen as
Stella ironically commenting oh how their relationship has always been
Appearance
● Moth-like delicacy and vulnerability
Faults
● Snobbery early on (dismissal of black neighbour’s kindness)
● Dismissal of Eunice’s unwashed grapes
● Alcoholism offers her temporary reassurance and dulls emotional pain
Contradictions
● Cultural pretensions are designed to impress others with her superiority and contrast
her genuine love for poetry
● She is ignorant of why Belle Reve was lost but she understands the root cause was
the Dubois extravagant spendings
● Inconsistencies make her less predictable and more human
Blanche weaknesses
● Recognises some of her weaknesses “got to be good and keep my hands off
children”
● Unclear if she regrets the affair with her student beyond her losing her job
● Uncertainty of Blanches character makes her more human
Tragic heroine
● Blanche is isolated by her ignorance of her future
● Pathos of her ignorance diminishes those who are deceiving her
Key quotes
● “Young man!…look like a prince out of the Arabian nights”
● “Can’t stand a naked lightbulb”
● Thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now”
Stanley
Appearance
● “Medium height …. Strongly, compactly built”
● His intense masculinity and awareness of his sexual magnetism are the core of his
personality
● “Gaudy seed-bearer”
● “Richly feathered male bird among hens”
Stanley’s dominance
● Sees himself as a natural winner whose right it is to dominate
● Poker scene
Lack of education and culture
● Ungrammatical speech betrays his lack of education
● Acutely class-conscious as having married a gentle-woman he resents the
differences in outlook and manner between himself and his wife and pulling her down
to his level is part of his sexual attraction for her.
Quotes
● “Luck is believing you're lucky”
● “Napoleonic code”
● “One hundred percent American”
Stella
Relationship with Blanche
● “I like to wait on you Blanche. It makes it seem more like home”. This can be seen as
Stella ironically commenting oh how their relationship has always been
