Blanche sharing how she got to Stella's house
‘They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, then transfer to one called Cemeteries'
Blanche talking to herself when she steals some of Stella's alcohol
‘I've got to keep hold of myself.’
Blanche on vanity and looks
‘I still have that awful vanity about my looks even now that my looks are slipping.’
Blanche on how much losing Belle Reve impacted her.
‘I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body!’
Blanche to Stanley, pause shows her guilt and continued sadness on her husbands death.
‘The boy - the boy died.’
Stella on how much she loves Stanley, and how much she misses him when he is gone.
‘When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!'
here Stella knows that her love for Stanley impacts the way she views him, so she can't provide a realistic description.
‘Oh, you can’t describe someone you're in love with.’
Stanley on comfortability.
‘Be comfortable is my motto.’
Blanche on mixing blood after losing Belle Reve
‘But maybe he is what we need to mix with our blood now that we've lost Belle Reve.’
Blanche on her feelings of uncertainty and the dash maybe shows her reluctance to admit this. Means a lack of certainty of guidance, can also show her anxiety about Stella having a baby in those surroundings.
‘The blind are - leading the blind.’
Blanche about the type of man Stanley is.
'You're simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side I should think.'
Stella on Blanche's weaknesses to do with her looks.
‘And admire her dress and tell her she is looking wonderful. That's important with Blanche, her little weakness.’
Stella questioning Stanley's behaviours and way he is treating Blanche.
‘You have no idea how stupid and horrid you’re being!’
Stanley on the Napoleonic code.
‘ whatever belongs to my wife is also mine, and vice versa.’
Stanley on how different he is to Stella's family.
‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions.’
Stanley on not being interested with women fancy clothes and glamour.
‘Some men are took in by this Hollywood glamour stuff, and some men are not.’
Stanley on him as a man needing to get involved in his wife's affairs, even more so if she is having a baby.
‘A man has to take interest in his wife's affairs, especially if she is going to have a baby.’
Blanche's reaction on meeting Mitch for the first time.
‘That one seems - more superior to the others… I thought he had a sort of sensitive look.’
Blanche about hating naked light bulbs.
‘I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.’
Stella after Stanley hits her on her thigh infant of his friends.
‘It makes me so mad when he does that in front of people.’
Stella asserting her strength and standing up against Stanley.
‘It’s my house and I will talk as much as I want to.’
Stanley rudely calling the women hens
‘You hens cut out that conversation in there!’
Eunace to Stanley after he beats Stella.
‘You can’t beat on a woman an’ then call ‘er back! ... And her goin’ t’ have a baby … you stinker!’
Mitch about poker and women.
‘Poker should not be played in a house with women.’
Blanche questioning if Stanley being sorry after makes his violence acceptable
‘And that - that makes it all right?’
Stanley making Blanche seem like a fake performer in her romances.
‘The same old lines, same old act,’
Blanche saying that if Shep wasn't married she would have made sure she became his wife, as he is very rich.
‘Would I be here if the man weren’t married?’
Blanche about desire.
‘Brutal desire - just - Desire! - the name of that rattle-trap street-car.’
Blanche pleading for Stella not to stay with Stanley and calling him a brute.
‘Don’t - don’t hang back with the brutes.’
Stella on how she felt after Stanley smashed all the lightbulbs with her slipper.
‘I was -sort of - thrilled by it.’
Stella saying she doesn't want to leave Stanley.
‘I’m not in anything I want to get out of.’
Stella questioning Blanche's supers attitude.
‘Don’t you think your superior attitude is a little out of place?’
Blanche on how to survive she has had to be seductive because she is soft.
'make a little - temporary magic just on oder to pay for - one night's shelter!'
“And so the soft people have got to – shimmer and glow – put a – paper lantern over the light”
Blanche after she kisses the paper boy, about better behaving herself.
‘I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children.’
Blanche showing that she can be dishonest to get what she wants, lying to Shep.
'Myself, myself, for being such a liar! I'm writing a letter to Shep.'
Quotes from Eunace's and Steve's fight which normalises the behaviour of Stanley and Sella.
'You hit me! I'm gonna cal the police! - Eunace
'That hunk!' -Steve
Blanche about her star sign.
'Virgo is the Virgin.' Stanley: 'Hah!'
Blanche lying to Stanley using her posh persona when he questions her about her dirty past.
'The Hotel Flamingo is not an establishment I would dare to be seen in!'
Blanche about how men only acknowledge her existence when she has sex with them.
'men don't - don't even admit your existence unless they are making love to you. And you've got to have your existence admitted by someone, if you're going to have someones protection.'
Blanche about deceiving Mitch.
'he thinks I'm sort of - prim and proper, you know! I want to deceive him enough to make him - want me ...'
Blanche on the nature of the womens role.
'the lady must entertain the gentleman - or no dice!'
Blanche on her 'ideals' trying to get Mitch to believe her dignified lady act.
‘I have - old fashioned ideals!’
Blanche about her fantasies when she is with Mitch.
‘We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artist’s cafe in Paris!’
Blanche talking about Mitch's body.
'You have a massive bone struture and a very imposing physique.'
Blanche to Mitch about how horrible Stanley is.
'He is insufferably rude. Goes out of his way to offend me.'
'And I have to ask him to close the bathroom door. That sort of commonness isn't necessary.'
light used to be a symbol for passion and love for Blanche and not a representation of unwanted truth.
'It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow...'
Mitch asks if it could be him and Blanche that are meant to be together.
‘You need somebody… Could it be - you and me Blanche
Stella explaining to Stanley that they grew up in a different world to him and shows taht taht does have an impact on them as people.
‘Blanche is sensitive and you've got to realise that Blanche and I grew up in very different circumstances than you did.’
Stella refusing to believe what Stanley is telling her about Blanche.
'What - contemptible - lies!’
Stellla knows about Blanche's sensitivity to her age and stops ata certain number when putting on candles.
‘I’ll stop at twenty-five.’
Stanley strips Blnche of her high status as he mockingly repeatedly calls her Dame Blanche.
'they were so impressed by Dame Blanche that they requested her to turn in her room key - for permanently!'
We can tell that Stanley is being defensive and guarding his territory in the way he shouts at Blanche to get out the bath-room.
‘Get OUT of the BATH-ROOM!
When Blanche's first love died a part of her died as well.
'never for one moment since has there been any light that's stronger than this - kitchen - candle.'
'she had an experience that - killed her illusions!'
Stanley on how close him and Mitch are, there bond with each other is too strong for Blanche.
'We were in the same outfit together... We work in the same plant and now on the same bowling team.'
Blanche points out Stanley's languadge when telling her story to emphasise her superiority above him any chance she gets.
‘Knew more vulgar expressions than Mr Kowalski.’
Blanche on why she takes hot baths. We also know it is to try cleanse herself.
‘I take hot baths for my nerves.’
Stella showing her strength and speaking with authority to Stanley. This backfires terribly, as well as questioning his cruelty.
‘Your face and fingers are disgustingly greasy.'
'You needn't have been so cruel.'
Stella about the beauty of Blanche's soul before it got destroyed by the cruel world.
‘Nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.’
Stanley attacking Blanche's innocense laughing at the idea of her being a Nunn.
‘But Sister Blanche is no lily!’
To win over Stella Stanley reminds her of how things used to be making it sound very romantic and blaming Blanche for their problems.
‘Stell, it's going to be alright after she goes.’
‘I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going.’
Stanley on his roots and shows his pride for it in the way he states it so openly and assertively.
‘What I am is a one hundred per cent, American … So don’t ever call me a Polack.’
‘I was common as dirt.’
Blanche on the polka tune in her head.
‘You’ve stopped the polka tune I had caught in my head.’
‘There now, the shot! It always stops after that.’
Blanche about realism and magic.
‘I don’t want realism. I'll tell you what I want. Magic!’
‘I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth.’
Blanche explaining to Mitch excuses why she had her intimacies with strangers.
‘Intimacies with strangers were all I was able to fill my empty heart with.’
‘Panic that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection’
Mitch confronting Blanche on her alcohol problem.
‘He says you have been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat.’
Mitch confronting Blanche about not seeing her in the light.
‘I don’t think I have ever seen you in the light.’
Mitch considers raping Blanche as he admits that he has been wanting sex from Blanche all summer.
‘What I been missing all summer.’
Mitch views women as either good if they are virgins or as whores if they have had sex, which he perceives fine for men to do. He planned on having sex with Blanche anyway himself without marrying her. he believed in the old-fashioned idea that women have to save themselves for men.
‘You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.’
When Blanche and Stanley are alone she spells out the danger she is in.
‘Does that mean we are to be alone in here.’
‘Caught in a trap.’
This shows Blanche knows what is on Stanley's mind and suggests that he is interested in raping her. She is in a fantasy over a fake lover.
‘It won’t be the sort of thing you have in mind. Thisman is a gentleman and he respects me.’
Blanche views herself highly and sees her breeding as something that adds value to her.
Metaphor showing superiority, biblical reference, doesn't see Stanley and Mitch as worthy.
‘A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding.’
‘But I have been foolish - casting my pearls before swine!’
Stanley refers to Blanche as a bird.
‘Fine feathers.’
Blanche on cruelty.
'Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.'
Stanley destroying Blanche's fantasies, can hear his hate for imagination in this line.
‘There isn’t a god damn thing but imagination.’
Stanley makes Blanche's outfit seem tacky and questions who she thinks she is.
"That worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for 50 cents from some rag-picker!'
Stanley paints a picture of her as Cleopatra mocking her superiority, but also her many men as Cleopatra is known for having multiple husbands.
'You are the Queen of the Nile!'
Stanley on how he was never taken in by Blanche's act.
‘Do you know that I've been on to you from the start, and not once did you pull the wool over this boy's eyes?'
Stanley before he raped Blanche.
‘Come to think of it - maybe you wouldn’t be so bad to - interfere with.’
‘Tiger - tiger!’
Blanche feeling like the apartment is a trap and wants to leave.
‘This place is a trap!’
Blanche's fear of men after Stanley raped her.
‘I don’t want to pass in front of those men.’
Stella's regret after Blanche is taken away.
‘I don’t know if I did the right thing.’
‘Oh, God, what have I done to my sister?’
Mitch pinpointing the Blame of what happened to Blanche on Stanley.
‘You! You done this … I’ll kill you!’
Stella on how the physical aspects and sexuality make all the other negatives of their relationship unimportant.
‘There are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark – that sort of make everything seem – unimportant.’