Summary:
- The morning after the poker game, Stella lies serenely in the bedroom, her face aglow
- Her satiated appearance contrasts strongly with that of Blanche, who, haggard and
terrified, tiptoes into the messy apartment
- Blanche is greatly relieved to find Stella safe and sound
- She demands to know how Stella could go back and spend the night with Stanley after
what he did to her
- Stella feels Blanche is making a big issue out of nothing, claiming that she likes Stanley
the way he is
- She explains that Stanley’s violence is the type of bad habit you have to learn to put up
with from other people, and she adds that Stanley has always been violent- on their
honeymoon, he smashed all of the light bulbs with her shoe
- Blanche is horrified, but Stella refuses to listen and cheerily proceeds to start cleaning
the apartment
- Blanche’s horror intensifies, and she begins to rant that she and Stella need to find a
way out of their situation and acquire money
- She recounts how she recently ran into an old suitor named Shep Huntleigh who struck it
rich in oil all over Texas
- Perhaps he would be able to provide the money they need to escape
- Blanche begins to compose a telegram to Shep, and when Stella laughs at her for being
ridiculous, Blanche reveals that she is in fact completely broke
- Stella offers her five dollars of the ten that Stanley gave her as an apology that morning
- She says she has no desire to leave and that Blanche merely saw Stanley at his worst
- Blanche retorts that she saw Stanley at his best, because “what such a man has to offer
is animal force,” but she argues that it’s impossible for herself to live with such a man
- Blanche simply cannot understand how a woman raised at Belle Reve could choose to
live her life with such an ungentlemanly, brutish man
- Stella replies that her physical relationship with Stanley “make[s] everything else seem-
unimportant.”
- Blanche argues that sheer desire is no basis for a marriage
- Stella hints that Blanche is familiar with the pleasure of gratifying her desire
- Blanche agrees that she has done so, but she adds that she wouldn’t settle down with a
man whose primary attraction is sexual
- A train approaches, and while it roars past Stanley enters the flat unheard
- Not knowing that Stanley is listening, Blanche holds nothing back and describes Stanley
as a common, apelike, primitive brute
- She completely violates him and compares him to an ape from the stone age who is
purely aggressive
- Stella listens coldly
- Under cover of another passing train, Stanley slips out of the apartment, and enters it
again noisily
- Stella runs to Stanley and embraces him fiercely and he brings her head in and glances
and Blanche
, Quotes:
- “Narcotized tranquility that is in the face of eastern idols”
➔ Peaceful, in a higher state of being despite what happened last night
➔ “Narcotisised” suggests she is addicted to Stanley like a drug
- “He didn’t know what he was doing…. He was as good as a lamb when he came
back and he’s really, very, very ashamed of himself”
➔ Religious imagery, connoting Stanley to jesus
➔ She is defending his cruel actions
➔ The repetition of “very” is evident as she is insistent on persuading Blanche that his
outrage wasn’t significant and was simply a normal occurrence
- “I was- sort of- thrilled by it”
➔ Hesitant to admit she admires this violent side of Stanley
➔ She was impressed by his actions
➔ Blinded by her desire
➔ He has a strong masculine force
➔ Surprising to the audience
- “But it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it”
- “Stanley’s always smashed things”
- “In my opinion, you’re married to a madman. No!”
➔ Blanche is genuinely shocked that Stella is married to such an aggressive person
➔ She sees him as a lunatic and is uncomfortable
- “I’m not in anything I want to get out of”
➔ Stella is comfortable with her situation and isn’t looking for an escape
➔ It crumbles Blanche to learn that this way of life is embraced by someone she loves and
respects
➔ This naïve image that is created by Williams here indicates that Stella is unaware of the
possible, and, as we will soon find out, definite repercussions of domestic violence
➔ However, there is a possible viewpoint of this declarative sentence that Stella enjoys
domestic violence because, in an obscured way, she becomes more emotionally
connected to Stanley
➔ The use of the active verb ‘want’ symbolises Stella’s ‘want’ for pleasure and security
from Stanley
➔ But, like the idealistic Tennessee Williams, is not aware of what she is ‘wanting’, and
what she is getting in to, as opposed to ‘[getting] out out of’
➔ She is blinded by love
- “But there are things that happen between a man and women in the dark- that sort
of make everything else seem- unimportant”
- “What you are talking about is brutal desire-just- Desire!- the name of that
rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the quarter”
- “Haven’t you ridden on that streetcar?”
➔ The way that ‘desire’ and sex have been joined together, and subsequently the
‘streetcar’, we can decipher that Williams used the term ‘streetcar’ as a metaphor for
sex, and the use of the verb ‘ridden’ could be a euphemism
- The morning after the poker game, Stella lies serenely in the bedroom, her face aglow
- Her satiated appearance contrasts strongly with that of Blanche, who, haggard and
terrified, tiptoes into the messy apartment
- Blanche is greatly relieved to find Stella safe and sound
- She demands to know how Stella could go back and spend the night with Stanley after
what he did to her
- Stella feels Blanche is making a big issue out of nothing, claiming that she likes Stanley
the way he is
- She explains that Stanley’s violence is the type of bad habit you have to learn to put up
with from other people, and she adds that Stanley has always been violent- on their
honeymoon, he smashed all of the light bulbs with her shoe
- Blanche is horrified, but Stella refuses to listen and cheerily proceeds to start cleaning
the apartment
- Blanche’s horror intensifies, and she begins to rant that she and Stella need to find a
way out of their situation and acquire money
- She recounts how she recently ran into an old suitor named Shep Huntleigh who struck it
rich in oil all over Texas
- Perhaps he would be able to provide the money they need to escape
- Blanche begins to compose a telegram to Shep, and when Stella laughs at her for being
ridiculous, Blanche reveals that she is in fact completely broke
- Stella offers her five dollars of the ten that Stanley gave her as an apology that morning
- She says she has no desire to leave and that Blanche merely saw Stanley at his worst
- Blanche retorts that she saw Stanley at his best, because “what such a man has to offer
is animal force,” but she argues that it’s impossible for herself to live with such a man
- Blanche simply cannot understand how a woman raised at Belle Reve could choose to
live her life with such an ungentlemanly, brutish man
- Stella replies that her physical relationship with Stanley “make[s] everything else seem-
unimportant.”
- Blanche argues that sheer desire is no basis for a marriage
- Stella hints that Blanche is familiar with the pleasure of gratifying her desire
- Blanche agrees that she has done so, but she adds that she wouldn’t settle down with a
man whose primary attraction is sexual
- A train approaches, and while it roars past Stanley enters the flat unheard
- Not knowing that Stanley is listening, Blanche holds nothing back and describes Stanley
as a common, apelike, primitive brute
- She completely violates him and compares him to an ape from the stone age who is
purely aggressive
- Stella listens coldly
- Under cover of another passing train, Stanley slips out of the apartment, and enters it
again noisily
- Stella runs to Stanley and embraces him fiercely and he brings her head in and glances
and Blanche
, Quotes:
- “Narcotized tranquility that is in the face of eastern idols”
➔ Peaceful, in a higher state of being despite what happened last night
➔ “Narcotisised” suggests she is addicted to Stanley like a drug
- “He didn’t know what he was doing…. He was as good as a lamb when he came
back and he’s really, very, very ashamed of himself”
➔ Religious imagery, connoting Stanley to jesus
➔ She is defending his cruel actions
➔ The repetition of “very” is evident as she is insistent on persuading Blanche that his
outrage wasn’t significant and was simply a normal occurrence
- “I was- sort of- thrilled by it”
➔ Hesitant to admit she admires this violent side of Stanley
➔ She was impressed by his actions
➔ Blinded by her desire
➔ He has a strong masculine force
➔ Surprising to the audience
- “But it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it”
- “Stanley’s always smashed things”
- “In my opinion, you’re married to a madman. No!”
➔ Blanche is genuinely shocked that Stella is married to such an aggressive person
➔ She sees him as a lunatic and is uncomfortable
- “I’m not in anything I want to get out of”
➔ Stella is comfortable with her situation and isn’t looking for an escape
➔ It crumbles Blanche to learn that this way of life is embraced by someone she loves and
respects
➔ This naïve image that is created by Williams here indicates that Stella is unaware of the
possible, and, as we will soon find out, definite repercussions of domestic violence
➔ However, there is a possible viewpoint of this declarative sentence that Stella enjoys
domestic violence because, in an obscured way, she becomes more emotionally
connected to Stanley
➔ The use of the active verb ‘want’ symbolises Stella’s ‘want’ for pleasure and security
from Stanley
➔ But, like the idealistic Tennessee Williams, is not aware of what she is ‘wanting’, and
what she is getting in to, as opposed to ‘[getting] out out of’
➔ She is blinded by love
- “But there are things that happen between a man and women in the dark- that sort
of make everything else seem- unimportant”
- “What you are talking about is brutal desire-just- Desire!- the name of that
rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the quarter”
- “Haven’t you ridden on that streetcar?”
➔ The way that ‘desire’ and sex have been joined together, and subsequently the
‘streetcar’, we can decipher that Williams used the term ‘streetcar’ as a metaphor for
sex, and the use of the verb ‘ridden’ could be a euphemism
