blanche quotes

'Her appearance is incongruous to the setting...daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice'- Scene 1

'Her appearance is incongruous to the setting...daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice'- Scene 1

-Initial impression: vulnerable and fragile figure

-White suit: image of sexual innocence

'Her delicate beauty must avoid strong light...suggests a moth'- Scene 1

-Introduces motif of ‘light’

-Stage directions

-Literal: Blanche wishes to hide signs of aging

-Symbolic: light symbolises truth, but Blanche is a chronic liar; demonstrates Blanche’s fragility; Blanche’s Southern Belle background is tied her whiteness, meaning Blanche must avoid sunlight.

'They told me to take a Streetcar named desire and then transfer to one called cemeteries..'- Scene 1

-Foreboding: cemeteries are ominous

-Ties to tragedy

-Setting up expectations of Blanche’s death, which will be subverted with Blanche’s survival

'What I meant is that I'd like to be left alone'- Blanche to Eunice, Scene 1

-Blanche’s classism; she views Eunice as inferior due to their aristocratic and working class backgrounds respectively

'She pours a half tumbler of whisky and tosses it down...Where could it be I wonder I spy I spy'- Scene 1

-Blanche’s entitlement to Stella’s possessions

-Blanche’s alcoholism

-Blanche’s infringing on Stanley’s territory

'What are you doing in a place like this?...Only Mr Edgar Allan Poe could do it justice!'- Scene 1

-Blanche’s educated background

-Blanche’s former job as an English teacher

'He suggested that I take a leave of absence'- Scene 1

-Blanche’s evasive nature

-Blanche’s dishonesty

'I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it'- Scene 1

Audience reactions to Blanche vary

- Promotes sympathy for the loss of Belle Reve

- Presents Blanche as melodramatic and manipulative

- Diverts attention from her own culpability

- Metaphors of physical injury, bleeding, and death are used create expectations of Blanche’s death

'The music of the polka rises in the distance...I'm going to be sick'- Scene 1

-Non-diegetic

-Blanche’s trauma

-Blanche’s guilt

-Ominous

-Marks the moment

-Recurring motif

'Why the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep'- Scene 1

Absence of sentimentality and any emotional involvement. She jokingly talks of the Grim Reaper but the death scenes are stamped on her mind. Experiences at Belle Reve have clearly affected her mental imbalance

'And funerals are pretty compared to deaths...pitiful salary'- Scene 1

Blanche's resentment towards Stella is obvious. She may be saying this to extract pity from Stella tinged with a bit of self dramatisation

'In bed with her Polack'- Scene 1

Some of Blanche's resentment towards Stella may be due to sexual jealousy as Stella got away and found a husband whilst Blanche remained in Belle Reve. It is a double insult. It hints at Stella's sexual appetite and Blanche's contempt for an immigrant

'Give those back to me-' Scene 2

Stanley oversteps a boundary as he seizes Blanche's love letters. She proclaims this rather fiercely. This conflict between Stanley and Blanche foreshadows the rape in Scene 10- Stanley takes by force something that is intimate to Blanche just like he takes her sexuality in the rape. Main function of Scene 2 is to set the tragedy in motion. Theatre audience would easily pick up the warning signs with Stanley's smouldering rage set against Blanche's dangerous misguided playfulness

'Blanche comes out of the bathroom in a red satin robe'- Scene 2

Blanche in her red robe is posturing flirtatiously. Suggestion here of the scarlet woman in the Bible

'He's just not the sort that goes for jasmine perfume...But maybe he's what we need to mix with our blood now'- Scene 2

Blanche seems to acknowledge the demise of the Old aristocratic South and a new more meritocratic America

'The sisters appear around the corner of the building'- Scene 3

Dramatic development takes place in this scene when Stella and Blanche arrive home creating a potential for a clash between unrefined masculinity and delicate femininity symbolised by Blanche

'How do I look?'- Scene 3 to Stella

Immediately we see that Blanche is preoccupied by her looks and by implication her attractiveness towards men

'Please don't get up'- Scene 3

Blanche immediately shows the presumption that men would automatically show deference to a woman of her privileged social class

'That one- seems superior to the others...sort of sensitive look'- Scene 3

Williams shows that Blanche has a tendency to categorise people by their social class and it is immediately implied that she wonders if Mitch may be marriageable material. Nevertheless Blanche's predicament is that she has lost her job and has no status or source of income since the loss of Belle Reve. Mitch therefore might be thought of as a way out of difficulty through marriage for Blanche

'I'm sorry but I haven't noticed the stamp of genius even on Stanley's forehead'- Scene 3

Blanche's snobbery and disdain for Stanley is seen in this sarcastic comment. One interpretation of the play sees Blanche and Stanley representing two different Americas. Blanche on one hand can be linked to the old landowning aristocratic class of South which could be thought of as the class which has been on the steady decline ever since the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865. Stanley represents a new and thrusting America linked to the American dream that anyone who works hard can prosper

'Big beefy things'- Scene 3

We may notice a tendency in Blanche to sneer at people whom she regards as social inferiors and evidence of this is seen when she tries to imagine Stanley's friends wives

'Why that's my favourite sonnet by Mrs Browning...the girl's dead now'- Scene 3

Flirtatious exchange between Mitch and Blanche continue. Mitch is impressed when Blanche recognises the inscription on his cigarette lighter as a sonnet from Elizabeth Browning. Fact that both Mitch and Blanche have loved someone and lost that person to death suggests that there is some matter of affinity between them. For the play to work as a tragedy, Williams needs to make us sympathise with Blanche. In her attempts to attract Mitch, it shows her neediness

'I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action'- Scene 3

Williams presents Blanche as a character with capacity for dissembling. She creates a slightly prudish impression of herself. Reality is that she has been promiscuous in the past. The fact is when Blanche asks Mitch to place a paper lampshade over the bulb she is infant shading the truth about her age and her fading looks in the hope that Mitch will marry her

'Lunacy, absolute lunacy. She ran downstairs and went back in there with him'- Scene 3

Blanche is genuinely shocked by the violent way in which Stanley behaves but is even more shocked and uncomprehending of the fact that Stella takes him back failing to understand that a deep physical passion underpins their relationship

Motif of Baths

Blanche has a passion for long baths. May be a symbolic aspect to this obsessive habit. May represent Blanche's yearning to wash away the guilt of her husband's death and her many sexual encounters

'And that makes it all right?'- Blanche to Stella- Scene 4

Blanche is upbraiding Stella for being foolhardy enough to return to Stanley. Stella is met with the incredulity of Blanche. Blanche fails to understand Stella's passionate marriage. It seems that despite her sexual experience she has never experienced true passion. Scene 4 achieves a rather great deal in a dramatic sense. It illuminates the 2 sister's attitudes to passion, stressing the basic difference between them regardless of common background and the social values upon which they were brought up.

'What you are talking about is brutal desire...name of that rattle trap streetcar...it brought me here where I am not wanted...'- Scene 4

Blanche tries to dismiss what Stella is saying as not love but 'brutal desire'. Following Stella's questioning of whether she has 'ever ridden on that streetcar', Blanche concedes that she has and it has brought her to Stella's apartment. This admission represents a rare moment of candour for Blanche since she is alluding obliquely to the illicit relationship with one of her students which caused her to loose her job and also her promiscuous past. It could be seen that the streetcar to Desire brought her to her sister's house but equally it is a metaphor for the sexual desire that has ruined her life and brought her to New Orleans to live on her sister's charity

'Shep Huntleigh...wife throws away at races...Honey would I be here if the man weren't married'- Scene 4

In counterpoint to 'brutal desire' is the world of fantasy and evasion that Blanche inhabits. She speaks of her need to leave Elysian Fields and also Stella's through the help of her old beau Shep Huntleigh. Blanche's ideas are both desperate and unrealistic. She shows an unscrupulous side to her character. Throughout the play Shep Huntleigh can be associated with fantasy and illusion since he represents the idealist past to which Blanche desperately clings too

'May I speak plainly...he's common, He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits...sub human...ape like'- Scene 4

Blanche can be seen as a character who constantly tries to drive a wedge between Stanley and Stella. This is the point where the dramatic climax occurs. Unbeknowst to Blanche, Stanley enters the apartment at this exact moment yet he chooses to wait on the threshold and hear Blanche's appraisal of him. She does not hold back and paves the way for future animosity between them. Shows the reality of Stanley's brutishness. Without knowing it, Blanche recreates the opening of the play in which Stanley throws a blood stained package to Stella. Blanche contrasts the world of Belle Reve with Stella's present lifestyle. Draws a class distinction to the old, educated aristocracy and the new bestial middle class

'I'm writing a letter to Shep...disturbance is heard upstairs'- Scene 5

At the opening of scene 5, Williams sets up a contrast between Blanche who is composing a letter to her former beau and the rather rough and ready neighbourhood in which she finds herself in since Eunice and Steve are having a row upstairs. Williams also introduces the sub plot of Steve and Eunice's aggressive arguing. Threatening undertone runs throughout this scene

'I am spending the summer the wing...round of entertainments, teas, cocktails and luncheons'-Scene 5

As Blanche reads what she has written, we see that her world is based on fantasy rather than reality as she paints herself as a lady of leisure. It can be seen that Blanche is being dishonest about her life, presenting herself as a busy socialite when in reality she is clinging on to a past which no longer exists for her

'Laugh breathlessly...cologne dampened handkerchief to her temples'- Scene 5

It is clear from Blanche's demeanour that she is uncomfortable with the idea of Stanley metaphorically shining a light into her promiscuous past

'Stella what have you heard about me?'- Scene 5

Once Blanche is alone with Stella, Williams shows her anxiety by asking her sister if she has heard anything about her. Blanche is keen to maintain a ladylike reputation for herself so that see can win Mitch's love and admiration, using marriage as a way out of the fix that she finds herself in. Concern is that Stanley will uncover the truth and thereby blight any chance of success that she may have

'Put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings...make a little temporary magic just in order to pay for one night's shelter'- Scene 5

Blanche uses euphemistic language. Implication is that Blanche has a series of sordid one night stands and that she is concerned that these will be exposed yet characteristically she dresses these up in language which is an evasion from reality. We are reminded of her vulnerability and fragility

'They think a girl over thirty ought to be in vulgar terms...put out...prim and proper'- Scene 5

Blanche speaks candidly about her age-may be seen as too old to be marriageable material and of the persona she has constructed of herself in front of Mitch. Allows Stella to understand that the situation is extremely delicate

'I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again'- Scene 5

Implication here is that Blanche does not love Mitch but merely sees him as a way to get out of a difficult predicament. Defence mechanism of projection is evident here- unwanted feelings are attributed to another person. Blanche becomes attracted to Mitch for all the wrong reasons. She wants a companion. Mitch is at the right place in the wrong time

'You make my mouth water...I've got to be good and keep my hands off children'- Scene 5 Delivery Boy

Rather distasteful side to Blanche's personality is seen here as she begins flirting with him unashamedly. Deliberate sexual ambiguity to her remark here and she seems almost predatory as she insists on kissing him. Also makes a reference to past actions on her part which have put her in her current predicament. Once again Blanche into the same downward spiral of her life in which she has to turn to a vulnerable boy out of desperation. We become aware of the inevitability of disaster because Blanche's past suggests that she will always go astray, propelled by sexual desire. Williams uses this scene to presents the contradictions in Blanche's character- she is desperate to marry Mitch yet she is ready to ruin that in this flirtatious moment. Williams clearly intends to arouse questions as to why Blanche puts at risk the material and emotional security she desires. She may have urge to self destruct, not commit to married life etc

'My Rosenkavalier!'- Scene 5

Rather disturbingly, vignette of delivery boy incident is juxtaposed with the arrival of Mitch whom Blanche receives as if her were a chivalrous hero of a Richard Strass opera. Blanche's capacity for dissembling is clearly revealed in this way in which these 2 scenes are juxtaposed

'Did he kill her'- Scene 5

Demonstrates her anxiety regarding the dynamic relationships that are deemed acceptable in New Orleans

'It foams over and spills. Blanche gives a piercing cry'- Scene 5

There is a sense of foreboding here as Blanche cries over the stain on her white shirt- could be a symbol of her lost innocence

'I want to kiss you'- To Delivery Boy- Scene 5

In a tragedy, the playwright has to create a sense of inevitable downfall. Dramatically this scene with delivery boy does make us doubt Blanche's real desires. For most audience members there is now little possibility of a happy ending for her, given the set of circumstances that have been established in the play so far

'Utter exhaustion which only a neurasthenic personality can now...in Blanche's voice and manner'- Scene 6

Sixth scene opens with Mitch and Blanche returning to the apartment after an unsuccessful date. Williams creates a rather downbeat tone in the stage directions. As the play progresses, Blanche's grasp on reality becomes more and more slippery. Neurasthenia is a condition that is characterised by chronic fatigue, memory loss and weakness- Blanche's condition therefore reflects on her detachment from reality as she is portrayed as having a nervous breakdown

'I simply couldn't rise to the occasion'- Scene 6

Blanche seems to be in a apologetic state as to how the date panned out. There is a sense here that Blanche and Mitch are mismatched

'We'll have a nightcap'- Scene 6

Mood of the scene becomes more cordial as Blanche notices that Stella and Stanley have not returned home

'We are going to be very Bohemian...Je suis la Dame aux Camellias'- Scene 6

Blanche attempts to create a romantic French theme. Makes an allusion to the work of literature by Dumas in which a courtesan is saved from moral degradation by love but ultimately dies tragically by consumption. Allusion is not understood by Mitch who is from a different cultural and intellectual level. She makes a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. Her attempt is doomed to failure- this highlights her inability to understand others and isolated in her world of imagination

'I weigh two hundred and seventy pounds...Its awe inspiring'- Scene 6

The idea of there being a gulf intellectually and culturally between Blanche and Mitch is further reinforced here

'He was a boy just a boy...Then I found out in the worst possible of all ways...He'd stuck the revolver in his mouth and fired'- Scene 6

Blanche becomes a sympathetic figure when she reveals how she once fell in love with a boy without realising that he was homosexual. She discovered this while he was in flagrante delicto with another man. Williams thereby shows how Blanche is tormented with the sound of polka music at moments of high anxiety. Involvement with young boys may stem from a needed to be reminded of her husband

'You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be you and me Blanche'- From Mitch- Scene 6

Seems to hope for Blanche and Mitch as there is suggestion that they could provide each other comfort. Tragedy that subsequently unfolds however is that the sense of communion between Blanche and Mitch proves to be short lived

'Searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again'- Scene 6

For Blanche time has stood still since the death of Allan hence her attachment to young boys and the light symbolising reality that had been suspended. Light imagery that emerges throughout the play finds a source in this image which has determined Blanche's desire to remain in the darkness

'The locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past'- Scene 6

Bright light of the locomotive punctuates Blanche's words depicting her metaphorical image of the blinding lights turning on and off. Locomotive also makes a loud noise. Williams uses the noise from the outside to perhaps symbolise reality

'The Polka music increases'- Scene 6

Blanche is tormented by the melody that was being played when Allan committed suicide. Music plays a key role in the play that Williams uses to draw attention to the theme of death as well as indicate Blanche's descent into madness. Since there is always noise around Blanche, she cannot differentiate between those that belong to reality and those that belong to her fantasy world of regret and pain

'Sometimes there is God so quickly'- Scene 6

Typical of the dramatic lines in which several of the scenes end. Comes at a sudden outpouring of emotion from Blanche, mixed with hope and gratitude. Reference to God is not characteristic of Blanche- she takes comfort in men not religion. Wording suggests that most of the time God does not exist for her but at a time like this her prayers have been answered

'Saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapunctually with Stanley's speech...paper moon, make believe'- Scene 7

Interestingly, Williams presents Stanley's brutish realism about Blanche being juxtaposed with the fantasy world that Blanche inhabits. Suggests that her impending tragedy stems from the collision of the 2 worlds- the world of fantasy and evasion symbolised by Blanche and the world of cruel reality personified by Stanley

'There is a fourth place at the table which is left vacant'- Scene 8

8th scene of the play transports the audience to the occasion of Blanche's birthday supper and Williams creates a mood of poignancy as the empty chair symbolises the fact that Mitch has failed to materialise at Blanche's birthday celebration

'I love parrot stories'- Scene 8

Poignant mood is continued as Blanche with feigned gaiety tells a rather tired parrot joke in a bid to put a brave face on the situation to pretend that things are not the way that they are

'Tensed hunch position...bottle of liquor...rapid feverish polka tune'- Scene 8

Williams uses stage directions to suggest that Blanche is in a disturbed state of mind. Polka music is a non naturalistic element that is used by Williams in the play which is inextricably linked to Blanche's fragility since it connects her back to night where she confronted Allan about his homosexuality and he shot himself. Polka music establishes Blanche's complete loss of control- It is evident that Blanche has begun to descend into madness as the polka spills into the scene more regularly and finally ceases to be background music as it materalises in her mind. In her mind the tune is associated with impending misfortune and pain and symbolises the collapsing world of her mind

'Rushes about frantically...dabbing her face with cologne and powder'- Scene 9

We see Blanche tenuously clinging onto the idea that she is a respectable lady. There is an air of desperation here as she still entertains the hope that she has a possible future with Mitch

'He tears the paper lantern of the light bulb'- Scene 9

Scene itself centres on a dramatic confrontation between Blanche and Mitch. Light in this scene has a clear symbolism since Mitch's action in tearing away the lampshade and putting on the light is not only linked to his discovery of Blanche's age but also the truth about her promiscuous past. Blanche is violated with the light of reality. Stripping away of Blanche's pretensions

'No just realistic (Mitch)...I don't want realism'- Scene 9

Mitch is seen to be the diametric opposite of Blanche as he wants to be 'realistic' but Blanche wants to escape reality

'I stayed at a hotel called The Tarantula Arms'- Scene 9

Blanche's tragic situation seems to stem from the fact that she cannot escape reality and a sense of her claustrophobic situation is conveyed when Mitch confronts her about the disreputable hotel she stayed in

'I had many intimacies with strangers...even at last in a seventeen year old schoolboy'- Scene 9

Blanche is seen to embrace her shame and be finally candid. Some critics have drawn parallels between Blanche's tragic predicament and the situation that Williams found himself in as a result of living in a society which was intolerant of his homosexuality

'Flores. Flores para los muertos'- Scene 9 Mexican woman

Sense of the past closing in on Blanche is reinforced through the dramatic device of the Mexican flower seller. Line not only seems to comment on the death of hope for Blanche but also foreshadows her bleak future that lies ahead of her now that she has confronted reality. Mitch's desire is contrasted by this.

'You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother...cries wildly'- Scene 9

Further foreshadowing as Mitch shows the desire to take advantage of the now degraded Blanche sexually. But at this point Blanche shows herself to be strong enough to resist Mitch's tentative sexual assault

'I don't think I've ever seen you in the light'- Scene 9

Works on 2 levels. He has not seen her in physical light and he has not seen her in the light of truth. Exposure foreshadows Stanley's rape. Mitch violates Blanche internally who forcefully tears down Blanche's fantasies and exposes the naked truth of her character

'What I been missing all summer (Mitch)- Scene 9

Comment introduces a side to Mitch that we have not seen yet- lustfulness and desire. Views Blanche only as an object of physical desire and his sexual appetite is a precursor for the rape. Scene marks a decisive stage in Blanche's integration. It is effective as melodrama as Mitch's hostility and Blanche's half hearted protestations lead up to violent ending

'There is some obscure meaning in this'- Scene 9

Blanche once again retorts to the stilted speech of a school mistress in an attempt to regain control of situation. Her flirtatiousness jars and adds to the dramatic tension

'Drinking fairly steadily since Mitch left...hysterical exhilaration'- Scene 10

Through stage directions, Williams shows a deterioration in Blanche's condition. In her confused mental state she retreats to a fantasy world to insulate herself from the harsh realities of the world that she would have to face

'Crumpled white satin evening gown...scuffed silver slipper...rhinestone tiara'- Scene 10

Visual symbols of her escapism is seen here. Through the adjectives 'crumpled' and 'scuffed', we can see that these may signify Blanche's tarnished reputation. Final symbol of the fantasy world that Blanche now inhabits is the 'rhinestone tiara' though of little value, symbolises the glamour that Blanche desperately longs for in life

'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers'- Scene 11

Seems to function as the tragic epitaph who sought refuge from suffering in the company of others'