A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 9 Summary and Analysis

Summary:
-​ Later the same evening, Blanche sits tensely in the bedroom
-​ On a nearby table are a bottle of liquor and a glass
-​ The Varsouviana, the polka music that was playing when Blanche’s husband killed
himself, can be heard
-​ Williams’s stage directions state that the music we hear is in Blanche’s head, and that
she drinks to escape it
-​ Mitch, unshaven and wearing work clothes, comes to the door
-​ The doorbell startles Blanche
-​ She asks who it is, and when he gruffly replies, the polka music stops
-​ She frantically scurries about, applying powder to her face and stashing the liquor in a
closet before letting Mitch in with a cheerful reprimand for having missed her birthday
celebration
-​ She expects a kiss, but Mitch walks right past her into the apartment
-​ Blanche is frightened but continues in her light and airy mode, scolding him for his
dishevelled appearance and forgiving him in the same breath
-​ Mitch, a bit drunk, stares and then asks Blanche to turn off the fan, which she does
-​ He plops down on the bed and lights a cigarette
-​ She offers him a drink, fibbing that she isn’t sure what the Kowalskis have on hand, but
Mitch says he doesn’t want Stanley’s liquor
-​ Blanche retorts that she’s bought her own liquor, then changes the subject to Mitch’s
mother’s health
-​ Mitch is suspicious of Blanche’s interest in his mother, so she backs off, saying she just
wants to know the source of Mitch’s sour mood
-​ As Blanche retreats into herself, the polka music again begins in her head, and she
speaks of it agitatedly, identifying it as the same tune that was playing when her
husband, Allan, killed himself
-​ She breaks off, then explains that the usual sound of a gunshot, which makes the music
stop, has come
-​ Mitch has no idea what Blanche is talking about and has little patience for her anxiety
-​ As Blanche rambles about the birthday evening Mitch missed, she pretends to discover
the whiskey bottle in the closet
-​ She takes her charade so far as to ask what Southern Comfort is
-​ Mitch says the bottle must be Stan’s, and he rudely rests his foot on Blanche’s bed
-​ Blanche asks Mitch to take his foot off the bed and goes on about the liquor, pretending
to taste it for the first time
-​ Mitch again declines a drink and says that Stanley claims Blanche has guzzled his liquor
all summer on the sly
-​ At last Blanche asks point-blank what is on Mitch’s mind
-​ Mitch continues to beat around the bush, asking why the room is always so dark
-​ He comments that he has never seen Blanche in full light or in the afternoon
-​ She has always made excuses on Sunday afternoons and has only gone out with him
after six to dimly lit places

, -​ Blanche says she doesn’t get Mitch’s meaning, and he says that he’s never had a good
look at her
-​ Mitch tears the paper lantern off the lightbulb
-​ She begs him not to turn the light on, but he says that he wants to be “realistic.”
-​ Blanche cries that she doesn’t like realism and “want[s] magic.”
-​ She explains that her policy is to say what “ought” to be true
-​ Mitch switches the light on, and Blanche lets out a cry and covers her face
-​ He turns the light off
-​ Mitch says he doesn’t really care about Blanche’s age, but he cannot stand the way
Blanche lied to him all summer, pretending to be old-fashioned and morally upright
-​ Blanche tries to deny Mitch’s charge, but Mitch says that he has heard stories about her
from three different sources: Stanley, Shaw, and a merchant from Laurel named Kiefaber
with whom Mitch spoke on the phone
-​ Each man presented the same facts about Blanche’s shady past
-​ Blanche argues that all three men are liars, and that Kiefaber concocted stories about
her as revenge for her spurning his affection
-​ Finally, Blanche breaks down and admits the truth through convulsive sobs and shots of
liquor
-​ She says that she panicked after Allan’s death and looked to strangers for human
companionship to fill her loneliness
-​ She did not know what she was doing, she claims
-​ She eventually ended up in trouble with a seventeen-year-old student from Laurel High
School and was forced to leave her position
-​ She thought she had nowhere to go, until she met Mitch
-​ He gave her hope because he said he needed her as she needed him
-​ But, says Blanche, she was wrong to hope, because her past inevitably caught up with
her
-​ After a long pause, Mitch can say only that Blanche lied to him, “inside and out.” Blanche
argues that she didn’t lie “inside . . . in her heart
-​ A blind woman comes around the corner selling bunches of tacky tin flowers to use at
funerals. In Spanish, she says, “Flowers. Flowers for the dead.”
-​ Hearing the vendor’s voice, Blanche opens the door, and she is terrified when the
woman offers her funeral flowers
-​ She slams the door and runs back into the apartment as the vendor continues down the
street
-​ The Varsouviana polka tune resumes
-​ Blanche begins to think out loud while Mitch sits silently
-​ Every so often, the Mexican woman’s call can be heard. In her tortured soliloquy,
Blanche discusses regrets, and then legacies
-​ She speaks about pillowcases stained with blood, and seems to be recalling a
conversation she had with her mother about not having enough money to pay a servant
-​ Blanche then begins to speak about death, saying that it once seemed so far from her.
She says that “the opposite [of death] is desire.”
-​ And she begins to reminisce about a camp of soldiers that used to be near Belle Reve