Streetcar: Ambition

I want to be near you, got to be with somebody[…]Because— […]

I’m— not very well… [Her voice drops and her look is frightened.]

Blanche,

Scene 1

Oh! So you want some rough-house![…][He springs toward her, overturning the table. She

cries out and strikes at him with the bottle-top but he catches her wrist.] Tiger—tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!

Stanley,

Scene 10

I simply couldn’t rise to the occasion. That was all.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard to be gay and made such a dismal mess of it. I get ten points for trying— I did try.

Blanche,

Scene 6

I was just obeying the law of nature[…]

the one that says the lady must entertain the gentleman— or no dice!

Blanche,

Scene 6

You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape one day out on the ocean […] with

my hand in the hand of some nice looking ship’s doctor

Blanche,

Scene 11

Young man! Young, young young man!

Has anyone ever told you that you look just like a young prince out of the Arabian Nights?

Blanche,

Scene 5

[The Young Man laughs uncomfortably and stands like a bashful kid[…]

without waiting for him to accept, she crosses quickly to him and presses her lips to his.]

Blanche,

Scene 5

It would be nice to keep you, but

I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off of children.

Blanche,

Scene 5

I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection[…] but somebody

wrote the superintendent[...][she throws back her head with convulsive, sobbing laughter. Then she repeats the statement, gasps, and drinks.]

Blanche,

Scene 9

There was nowhere else I could go. I was played out[…]My youth was suddenly gone up the water spout, and— I met you[…]

But I guess I was asking, hoping— too much! Kiefaber, Stanley and Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.

Blanche,

Scene 9

In the State of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic Code

according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband, and vice versa.

Stanley,

Scene 2

It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby

and when you’re swindled under the Napoleonic Code, I’m swindled too. And I don’t like to be swindled.

Stanley,

Scene 2

When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt[…]

I pulled you down off them columns, and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going.

Stanley,

Scene 8

I’ll be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard[…] into

an ocean as blue as my first lover’s eyes.

Blanche,

Scene 11

“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then

transfer to one called Cemeteries […] and get off at - Elysian Fields!”

Blanche,

Scene 1

“I took the trip as an investment, thinking I’d meet someone [..] Texas

is literally spouting gold in his pockets.”

Blanche,

Scene 4

“Well, he’s not going to marry her. Maybe

he was”

Stanley, Scene 7