Blanche Quotes - A Streetcar named desire

“Her appearance is incongruous to this setting.”

“There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth.”

From the very beginning, Blanche doesn’t fit in with New Orleans. The whole moth is drawn to light, she is drawn to tragedy.

“You messy child.”

“Blessed child.”

Even though Stella is older than Blanche, she still treats her as a younger sister. Blanche may feel superior due to the conditions

“There was the struggle for breath and bleeding…you didn’t dream, but I saw! Saw! Saw!

Repetition, shows the deaths one after another. Whilst Stella was “thrilled” by the New south, Blanche was in the past watching the end of an era, one by one.

“Would you think it possible that I was once considered to be - attractive?”

The only way Blanche knows how to communicate with men is by flirting with them. Instead of saying “Do you think I’m attractive,” she uses hedging in order to appear more vulnerable and feminine in a world that requires women to be quiet and demure.

“Life is too full of evasions and ambiguities… I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours.”

This is ironic for the audience. Blanche herself is vague and 50% illusion.

Blanche utters a sharp, frightened cry and shrinks away; then she laughs breathlessly again.

This is at a tamale vendor yelling. New Orleans seems threatening to Blanche, it is subliminally already telling her she doesn’t belong. “Shrinks away” verb connotations of helplessness.

“My nerves are in knots. Is the bathroom occupied?”

Blanche always goes to the bathroom to cleanse herself and her emotions. Use of word “nerves” suggests the problem is within her instead.

“Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think.”

Sibilance suggests snake like, suggesting lying. Blanche has been through sorrow and yet she is 50% illusion.

“And you - you let him? Didn’t run, didn’t scream?”

The difference between Blanche and Stella’s reaction to the New South. Stella was “thrilled by it” but Blanche “shrinks away” she runs from it, it is overwhelming for her.

“It (the streetcar) brought me here. Where I’m not wanted and I’m ashamed to be…

From the very moment Blanche got in that streetcar, her fate was sealed. “Brought” has connotations of having little to no power.

“Don’t - don’t hang back with the brutes!”

This is ironic, Blanche is hanging back with the brutal, slave - ridden south.

“Maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!”

The unpredictability of Stanley, women were not protected from violent outbursts of men.

“Soft people have got to court the favour of hard ones… put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings…a little temporary magic”

Euphemistic language, Blanche never says anything directly “you never get anywhere with direct appeals.” Magic shows her imagination as the Southern Belle.

“Men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you.”

The only real power women have had historically is as sexual beings. It is what Blanche has been using to stay afloat in this patriarchal society, and she’s “fading now.”

“Gracious”

Feminine, less coarse language highlights how Blanche uses every chance she can get to be the perfect feminine southern Belle.

“If I were a man and this creature had dared to invent such things in my presence…”

Men have all the power, Blanche cannot do anything but be judged for these accusations. “Men act, women appear.” John Berger.

“Her future is mapped out for her.”

Stanley is the character who has the most power in this entire play, and he understands that as soon as he kicks her out, she has nowhere else to go.

“She is drinking to escape it (the Varsouviana) and the sense of disaster closing in on her.”

The Varsouviana played just before the tragedy of Allan, and now it is playing just before the tragedy of Blanche. Blanche has been pursuing menial pleasures as she cannot face the real world, drink, sex.

“I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me.”

Whilst this could be interpreted as Blanche wanting to shield herself so we and society don’t see the entire her - metaphorically and physically, it could also mean she doesn’t want to see the world as it is. The dark is comforting as it means she doesn’t have to deal with either.

“Deliberate cruelty…it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.”

Stanley is Blanche’s foil, whilst he may not have done wrong in the eyes of society, he is cruel, such as when he gives Blanche a ticket back to Laurel. Repetition of “never” gives us the impression that this is one of the only times Blanche is being 100% truthful.

“Beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart…how strange I should be called a destitute woman when I have all these treasures.”

Even Stanley responds to this whole passage with “swine, huh?” he does not understand the beauty of the personality, as the patriarchal world only views women as objects.

“The barely audible ‘blue piano’ begins to drum up louder.”

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“The hot trumpet and drums from the four deuces sound loudly.”

Aural space, the bar where Stanley and frequents is taking up the room, to show Stanley has won. The blue piano is reaching a crescendo to show Blanche’s story is about to end.

“Tell her how well she’s looking.”

Links back to the very beginning “that’s her little weakness!” Circular pattern symbolises that wherever Blanche goes she will never find a place to call home.

“Please don’t get up. I’m only passing through.”

Even now, Blanche believes she is the southern belle. She is caught up in her own fantasy land.

“She allows him to lead her as if she were blind.”

Blanche has been led from the beginning, by fate, by the Streetcar, by Stella and now by the doctor. She is blind to the new south, she is delusional.