Summary:
- Stanley comes in and Stella is preparing for Blanche’s birthday
- She has a cake and candles
- Blanche is in the shower soaking off her nerves and she has been in there for a very
long time
- Stanley criticises the fact that she has been in the tub for so long and mocks that she
needs to ease her nerves
- He reveals he has some hot gossip on Blanche
- He says that she has been telling them lies and she was very famous in Laurel for being
a prostitute
- He continues to reveal her past and how she was known all around town and then
kicked out
- He also reveals that she is not going back to teach in a school, in fact she got fired
because she had an altercation with a seventeen year old boy
- Blanche comes out of the shower and Stella hands her a towel because she asked for it
- Blanche questions the expression on her sister’s face but Stella just says she is tired
- She refuses to believe what she is told and tells Stanley what happened when Blanche
was with her younger lover
- Stanley reveals that he has informed Mitch and now he is not gonna marry her which
upsets Stella
- Stanley demands that Blanche leaves ASAP
- He demands her to leave the bathroom and when she does she is happy at first but
when she glances at Stanley’s face her expression is quick to change
- The hotel asked her to leave, presumably for immoral behaviour unacceptable even by
the standards of that establishment
- She came to be regarded as a crazy person by the townspeople, and her home was
declared off-limits to soldiers at a nearby base
- She was not given a leave of absence by her school/ she was kicked out after a father
reported his discovery that Blanche was having a relationship with a seventeen-year-old
boy
- Stanley surmises that Blanche, having lost her reputation, her place of residence, and
her job, had no choice but to wash up in New Orleans
- He is certain that she has no intention of returning to Laurel
- Stanley tells Stella that he has bought Blanche a birthday present: a one-way bus ticket
back to Laurel
- He yells at Blanche to get out of the bathroom
- When at last Blanche emerges, she is in high spirits, until she sees Stanley’s face as he
passes by
- He goes into the bathroom and slams the door
- Blanche senses from Stella’s dazed responses to her chatter that something is wrong
- She asks Stella what has happened, but Stella feebly lies and says that nothing has
happened
, Quotes:
- “Mid- september”
➔ It is almost autumn, the fall of Blanche is about to commence
- “And you run out and get her cokes…. and serve it to her majesty in the tub?”
➔ Mocking her for blindly believing everything she has to say
➔ Makes her seem used
- “You know she’s been feeding us a pack of lies here?”
- “But now I got proof from the most reliable sources- which I have checked on!”
➔ He has gathered solid evidence, true facts
➔ Blanche lives in a fantasy world, whereas Stanley is based in reality- has tangible proof
- “He thought she had never been more than kissed by a fellow!”
- “But sister Blanche is no lily! Ha-ha! Some lily she is!”
➔ Lilies are associated with purity, rebirth and renewal
➔ In christianity, it is associated with virgin Mary’s purity
➔ Sarcasm is employed as it is outrageous to consider her as a lily after all of her sexually
promiscuous acts
➔ There is a sense of irony
➔ The mocking tone (“Ha-ha!”) suggests scorn or ridicule, likely reflecting Stanley’s
contempt for Blanche’s pretensions
➔ The metaphor of the "lily"- a flower traditionally symbolising purity, innocence, and
feminine delicacy- is employed mockingly to highlight Blanche’s pretensions of virtue,
which are contradicted by her scandalous past
➔ The sarcastic repetition and laughter (“Ha-ha! Some lily she is!”) strip away her cultivated
facade, revealing the moral disapproval and judgment she faces from Stanley
- “She is as famous in Laurel as if she was the president of the United States, only
she is not respected by any party”
➔ The simile is employed to ridicule her promiscuous past
➔ The simile likens Blanche’s notoriety in her hometown of Laurel to the fame of a national
leader, but this comparison is immediately undercut by the biting irony that, unlike a
president, she commands no respect
➔ This line exposes the disparity between fame and respect, suggesting that Blanche’s
name is widely known not because of honor, but because of scandal
➔ It reflects Stanley’s contempt for her and underscores Blanche’s fall from Southern
gentility into disgrace
- “But it would only be make believe- if you believed in me!”
➔ This scene operates as a powerful symbolic juxtaposition between illusion and reality
➔ The song itself, from the ballad “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” encapsulates Blanche’s
desperate belief that love, identity, and dignity can be sustained through illusion, if others
choose to believe in them
➔ Her act of bathing is ritualistic- a futile attempt at psychological and moral cleansing,
trying to wash away both her physical and emotional stains
➔ Meanwhile, Stanley’s exposure of her past strips her illusions bare, undermining her
carefully constructed identity
- Stanley comes in and Stella is preparing for Blanche’s birthday
- She has a cake and candles
- Blanche is in the shower soaking off her nerves and she has been in there for a very
long time
- Stanley criticises the fact that she has been in the tub for so long and mocks that she
needs to ease her nerves
- He reveals he has some hot gossip on Blanche
- He says that she has been telling them lies and she was very famous in Laurel for being
a prostitute
- He continues to reveal her past and how she was known all around town and then
kicked out
- He also reveals that she is not going back to teach in a school, in fact she got fired
because she had an altercation with a seventeen year old boy
- Blanche comes out of the shower and Stella hands her a towel because she asked for it
- Blanche questions the expression on her sister’s face but Stella just says she is tired
- She refuses to believe what she is told and tells Stanley what happened when Blanche
was with her younger lover
- Stanley reveals that he has informed Mitch and now he is not gonna marry her which
upsets Stella
- Stanley demands that Blanche leaves ASAP
- He demands her to leave the bathroom and when she does she is happy at first but
when she glances at Stanley’s face her expression is quick to change
- The hotel asked her to leave, presumably for immoral behaviour unacceptable even by
the standards of that establishment
- She came to be regarded as a crazy person by the townspeople, and her home was
declared off-limits to soldiers at a nearby base
- She was not given a leave of absence by her school/ she was kicked out after a father
reported his discovery that Blanche was having a relationship with a seventeen-year-old
boy
- Stanley surmises that Blanche, having lost her reputation, her place of residence, and
her job, had no choice but to wash up in New Orleans
- He is certain that she has no intention of returning to Laurel
- Stanley tells Stella that he has bought Blanche a birthday present: a one-way bus ticket
back to Laurel
- He yells at Blanche to get out of the bathroom
- When at last Blanche emerges, she is in high spirits, until she sees Stanley’s face as he
passes by
- He goes into the bathroom and slams the door
- Blanche senses from Stella’s dazed responses to her chatter that something is wrong
- She asks Stella what has happened, but Stella feebly lies and says that nothing has
happened
, Quotes:
- “Mid- september”
➔ It is almost autumn, the fall of Blanche is about to commence
- “And you run out and get her cokes…. and serve it to her majesty in the tub?”
➔ Mocking her for blindly believing everything she has to say
➔ Makes her seem used
- “You know she’s been feeding us a pack of lies here?”
- “But now I got proof from the most reliable sources- which I have checked on!”
➔ He has gathered solid evidence, true facts
➔ Blanche lives in a fantasy world, whereas Stanley is based in reality- has tangible proof
- “He thought she had never been more than kissed by a fellow!”
- “But sister Blanche is no lily! Ha-ha! Some lily she is!”
➔ Lilies are associated with purity, rebirth and renewal
➔ In christianity, it is associated with virgin Mary’s purity
➔ Sarcasm is employed as it is outrageous to consider her as a lily after all of her sexually
promiscuous acts
➔ There is a sense of irony
➔ The mocking tone (“Ha-ha!”) suggests scorn or ridicule, likely reflecting Stanley’s
contempt for Blanche’s pretensions
➔ The metaphor of the "lily"- a flower traditionally symbolising purity, innocence, and
feminine delicacy- is employed mockingly to highlight Blanche’s pretensions of virtue,
which are contradicted by her scandalous past
➔ The sarcastic repetition and laughter (“Ha-ha! Some lily she is!”) strip away her cultivated
facade, revealing the moral disapproval and judgment she faces from Stanley
- “She is as famous in Laurel as if she was the president of the United States, only
she is not respected by any party”
➔ The simile is employed to ridicule her promiscuous past
➔ The simile likens Blanche’s notoriety in her hometown of Laurel to the fame of a national
leader, but this comparison is immediately undercut by the biting irony that, unlike a
president, she commands no respect
➔ This line exposes the disparity between fame and respect, suggesting that Blanche’s
name is widely known not because of honor, but because of scandal
➔ It reflects Stanley’s contempt for her and underscores Blanche’s fall from Southern
gentility into disgrace
- “But it would only be make believe- if you believed in me!”
➔ This scene operates as a powerful symbolic juxtaposition between illusion and reality
➔ The song itself, from the ballad “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” encapsulates Blanche’s
desperate belief that love, identity, and dignity can be sustained through illusion, if others
choose to believe in them
➔ Her act of bathing is ritualistic- a futile attempt at psychological and moral cleansing,
trying to wash away both her physical and emotional stains
➔ Meanwhile, Stanley’s exposure of her past strips her illusions bare, undermining her
carefully constructed identity
