Top Streetcar Quotes Flashcards
“They told me to take a streetcar named desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!” Metaphor of streetcar, fields, cemeteries.
- Elysian Fields = Greek Afterlife.
- Desire is intrinsically linked to death = the idea of fate and the inevitability of her “death.” Desire will kill us if we do not manage it rationally.
“incongruous to her setting” (Blanche).
the ‘other’/outsider, trying to keep up appearance of the Southern Belle (a carefully curated facade).
“[her white clothes, that suggests a moth]” (Blanche). Stage directions, colour imagery.
Fragility, alike to a moth’s wings. Purity.
The idea that she is drawn to light despite trying to avoid it - tragedy convention of inevitability/fate.
“feeling like a brand-new human being!” (Blanche) - simile.
Symbolic of baptism; rebirth and cleansing her sins. She confesses yet she never takes responsibility: this is why she repeats her mistakes.
“I need kindness now.” (Blanche).
The Doctor and Mitch both offer kindness that comes from benevolence rather than romance.
- Irony: contrasts with “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
“Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women.” (Mitch).
The idea of betting/bluffing: certain rules of behaviour that should be followed.
Inevitability: Blanche, as a woman, cannot beat Stanley in the game of life due to brute strength.
“What you are talking about is brutal desire - just - Desire!” (Blanche).
Desire as obnoxious/awful = hypocritical as she arguably desires the most.
- Foreshadows Blanche’s assault.
“He smashed all the lightbulbs with the heel of my slipper!” (Stella). Metaphor of lightbulbs, darkness and light.
Stanley has smashed the light inside of Stella as the “star”. Blanche cannot find a safe space within Stella - no longer her guiding light.
Also = has blinded Stella from how awful he really is (Stella may be truly blind to it, or the darkness may symbolise her ignorance in favour of having the ideal nuclear family).
“I’m not in anything I want to get out of.” Patronising tone.
Denial - has to believe this otherwise she will face ostracism from society with no social security.
Talks to Blanche as if she doesn’t understand = she’s the ‘whore’.
“Virgo is the Virgin” (Blanche) / “Capricorn - the goat!” (Stanley) - both allusions to astrology.
- Goat connotes sexuality.
- The idea that Stanley’s birthright is his sexuality: he is allowed to fuel it freely whilst Blanche is reproached for it.
- ‘Virgin’ ideals imposed upon Blanche by society since birth: hence why she became the Southern Belle.
“Have got to be seductive - put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings, and glow!” - Blanche’s multiple costumes.
The symbol of the moth contrasting the butterfly = butterflies viewed as more attractive despite being the same species as the moth.
Blanche trying to be the prettier, more desirable kind of her own species, as well as trying to reduce herself to a butterfly rather than a moth out of fear of being attracted to the light = escapism, denial.
“My Rosankavalier!” (Blanche).
Blanche, the “epic fornicator”, is as sinful as her ancestors before her; hopes that marrying Mitch will help her ‘keep the lid’ on her wayward desires (Hodder Study Guide).
- Is Blanche the seductress or a product of the society in which she lives, and the trauma she has experienced (which in itself is a product of societal expectations)?
Richard Strauss’s Opera: An aristocratic girl, Marschallin, marries a common boy. The impossibility of them being together is recognised, and she inevitably loses him.
“Sometimes - there’s God - so quickly!” (Blanche).
Biblical Allusion to God: the idea of a religious confession, suddenly relieved of all her sins; blessed by God.
- She has hope with Mitch; the potential for redemption.
Mitchell = Allusion to the angel Michael; god-like. Mitch represents sanctuary for Blanche as he opens the gate to marriage and a nuclear family: can finally become the ‘Madonna’ she’s always dreamed of.
“[Then the polka resumes in a major key]”
Major key often associated with happiness: Blanche feels relief over not having to marry a homosexual.
As well as this, Allan is relieved too as he is saved from both societal criticism and living a life that would have made him utterly miserable = a criticism of society: It is more acceptable to push a gay man to suicide than to be sexually liberated as a society..
“a plaster statuette of Mae West” - a symbol of female liberation.
West stood for women’s’ rights and independence from men = Blanche is the antithesis of West.
A film star similar to Marilyn Monroe. The fact that the statue is “upside down” connotes how Blanche is rejecting the idea of independence from men, as it is not liberating for her. She thrives on male validation.
