key quotations

blanche:

• her appearance is incongruous to this setting (sc1, pg3)

• there is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth (sc1, pg3)

• “they told me to take a streetcar named Desire” (sc1, pg3)

• “she pours a half tumbler of whisky and tosses it down” (sc1, pg5)

• “I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!” (sc1, pg6)

• “daylight never exposed so total a ruin” (sc1, pg8)

• “you messy child, you, you’ve spilt something on that pretty white lace collar!” (sc1, pg8)

• “…but I’m not going to put up at a hotel…I can’t be alone!” (sc1, pg10)

• “I stayed at Belle Reve and tried to hold it together!” (sc1, pg11)

• “funerals are quiet, but deaths - not always” (sc1, pg12)

• “but funerals are quiet, with pretty flowers. and oh what gorgeous boxes they pack them away in!” (sc1, pg12)

• ‘Blanche’s dress, a flowered print, is laid out on Stella’s bed’ (sc2, pg16)

  • imposing on Stella’s marriage

• Stanley: “look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in!”

  • moth-like

• “Here I am, all freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand-new human being!” (sc2, pg20)

• “I’ve nothing to hide” (sc2, pg20)

• “I ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down” (sc2, pg25)

• “wait till I powder before you open the door” (sc3, pg29)

• “thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now” (sc3, pg39)

  • to Mitch

• “we’ve got to get hold of some money, that’s the way out” (sc4, pg43)

• “there’s something downright - bestial - about him!” (sc4, pg47)

• “he acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits” (sc4, pg47)

• “maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!” (sc4, pg47)

• “I’m compiling a notebook of quaint little words and phrases I’ve picked up here” (sc5, pg51)

• “people don’t see you - men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you” (sc5, pg53)

• “you make my mouth water” '(sc5, pg57)

• “I said unhand me, sir” (sc6, pg63)

  • to Mitch

• “I didn’t know anything except I loved him unendurably but without being able to help him or help myself” (sc6, pg66)

  • about Allan

• “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again” (sc6, pg67)

• Stanley to Stella: “yes, did you know there was an army camp near Laurel and your sister’s was one of the places called ‘Out-of-Bounds?” (sc7, pg71)

• She sinks back in her chair with a frightened look (sc8, pg80)

• Stanley: “delicate piece she is” (sc8, pg81)

• “you’ve stopped that polka tune that I had caught in my head” (sc9, pg84)

• “I won’t cross-examine the witness” (sc9, pg84)

• “here’s something Southern Comfort!” (sc9, pg85)

• “I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me” (sc9, pg86)

• Mitch: “you never want to go out till after six and then it’s always some place that’s not lighted much” (sc9, pg86)

• “I don’t want realism…I’ll tell you what I want. Magic!” (sc9, pg86)

• “yes, I had many intimacies with strangers” (sc9, pg87)

• “I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle - a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in!” (sc9, pg88)

  • to Mitch

• “death…the opposite is desire” (sc9, pg89)

• she has decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown (sc10, pg90)

• “when I think of how divine it is going to be to have such a thing as privacy once more - I could weep with joy!” (sc10, pg93)

• “a cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life - immeasurably!” (sc10, pg93)

• “how strange that I should be called a destitute woman!” (sc10, pg93)

• “I have been foolish - casting my pears before swine!” (sc10, pg93)

• Stanley: “lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile!” (sc10, pg94)

• a prostitute has rolled a drunkard (sc10, pg95)

• “those cathedral bells - they’re the only clean thing in the Quarter” (sc11, pg101)

• “I shall die of eating an unwashed grape one day out on the ocean” (sc11, pg102)

• “I will die - with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ship’s doctor, a very young one” (sc11, pg102)

• She cries out as if the lantern was herself (sc11, pg105)

• “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (sc11, pg107)

• Steve: “this game is seven-card stud” (sc11, pg107)

stanley:

• roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes (sc1, pg2)

• Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes (sc1, pg13)

• …with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens (sc1, pg13)

• …that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer (sc1, pg13)

• “let me enlighten you on a point or two, baby” (sc2, pg18)

  • to Stella

• “and I don’t like to be swindled” (sc2, pg18)

• “the Kowalskis and the DuBois have different notions” (sc2, pg19)

• “since when do you give me orders?” (sc2, pg19)

• He rips off the ribbon (sc2, pg23)

• Stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh (sc3, pg29)

• “I can’t stand a naked light-bulb, any more that I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (sc3, pg34)

• “I want my baby!” (sc3, pg37)

• then they come together with low, animal moans (sc3, pg38)

• Blanche: “what such a man has to offer is animal force and he gave a wonderful exhibition of that!” (sc4, pg45)

• Blanche: “there’s something downright - bestial - about him!” (sc4, pg47)

• Blanche: “he acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits” (sc4, pg47)

• Blanche: “bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle” (sc4, pg47)

• Blanche: “maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!” (sc4, pg57)

• “yes, did you know there was an army camp near Laurel and your sister’s was one of the places called ‘Out-of-Bounds?” (sc7, pg71)

• “I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!” (sc8, pg78)

• “God, honey, it’s gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way that we used to and get the coloured lights going with nobody’s sister behind the curtains to hear us” (sc8, pg79)

• “I’m the team-captain, ain’t I?” (sc8, pg80)

• “delicate piece she is” (sc8, pg81)

  • to Blanche

• “I pulled you down off the columns and how you loved it” (sc8, pg81)

  • to Stella

• he rips the sack off a quart beer-bottle (sc10, pg92)

• the bottle cap pops off and a geyser of foam shoots up (sc10, pg92)

• “not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes” (sc10, pg94)

• “lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile!” (sc10, pg94)

• [Stanley} picks up her inert figure (sc10, pg97)

stella:

• then they come together with low, animal moans (sc3, pg38)

• Stella goes out on the porch and stares reproachfully at her husband (sc8, pg78)

• Stanley: “I pulled you down off the columns and how you loved it” (sc8, pg81)

• “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (sc11, pg99)

mitch:

• Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear (sc3, pg35)

• Blanche: “I said unhand me, sir” (sc6, pg63)

• “mother is sick” (sc6, pg65)

• “you never want to go out till after six and then it’s always some place that’s not lighted much” (sc9, pg86)

• “what it means is I’ve never had a real good look at you, Blanche” (sc9, pg86)

• “let’s turn the light on here” (sc9, pg86)

• Blanche: “I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle - a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in!” (sc9, pg88)

• “you’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” (sc9, pg89)

allan gray:

• Blanche: “there was something different about the boy, a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn’t like a man’s" (sc6, pg66)

• Blanche: “he wasn’t the least bit effeminate-looking” (sc6, pg66)

• Blanche: “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again” (sc6, pg67)