scene 11 - ending Flashcards
How is the conflict of Blanche and Stanley concluded?
been an ongoing issue explored from the beginning, concluded when Stanley sends her away to the mental asylum after the climax, key scene of the play when he rapes her.
STAGE DIRECTIONS on BLANCHE: ‘(Sound of water can be heard running in the bathroom)’
(Scene 11, p.98) - 1st thing in scene
Motif of bathing - this is an emotional cleansing, not like the others - a cleansing after the rape
The verb ‘running’ implies that Blanche is still trying to escape Stanley’s entrapment but she is still trapped in the apartment
STAGE DIRECTIONS : “the atmosphere of the kitchen is now the same raw, lurid one of the disastrous poker night”
parallel scene 3 poker night
sense of dominance, certainty and callousness - ensures Blanche goes – foreshadowing gender division, poker as a symbol of Stanley’s victory - therefore victory of NA/masculinity.
STELLA: ‘I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley’
(Scene 11, p.99)
Stella is resolved to hold on to Stanley. The alternative is the crumbling world of Belle Reve. Her choice to reject her sister seems motivated by self-preservation as Stanley offers her more stability
- (AO3) A reflection of 1940s and 50s America in which women were totally dependent on men as they were the breadwinners who offered them safety, home, money and a family
The diction choice of ‘believe’ implies that Stella doesn’t believe Blanche anyways - perhaps Blanche’s constant lying has caused her to be completely mistrustful and unbelievable
- The noun of ‘story’ reinforces this idea that Blanche is only telling a fairy tale so she can live her fantasy
The juxtaposition between ‘story’ and ‘living’ highlights how Stanley is a character of reality and Blanche is one of fantasy, establishing the theme of fantasy vs reality
EUNICE: ‘Life has got to go on. No matter what happens you’ve got to keep on going.’
(Scene 11, p.99)
Eunice, being Stella’s friend, gives her advice in the last scene when Blanche is being taken away. Eunice connects with Stella because their lives mirror each other and her advice is heartfelt as she and Stella have a bond over similarities, unlike Stella and Blanche
The use of the verbs ‘go’ and ‘going’ takes us back to the streetcar and its inevitable journey
- Motifs of relentless forward motion structure the play and how Blanche was only a figure passing through their story
BLANCHE: ‘I’m going to die on the sea […] (The cathedral chimes are heard) And i’ll be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard…’
(Scene 11, p.102)
Blanche, who is now fully slipped into madness, fantasises about her death peacefully and lyrically filled with religious symbolism
Linking death and water connotes purification, augmented by water’s association with rebirth and baptism
- The ‘clean white sack’ reveals a longing for absolution
- Water is a recurring motif, and Blanche’s many baths symbolise a desire to wash away guilt perhaps linked to the suicide of Allan Grey
The ‘sea’ has connotations of freedom and release - this is a spiritual release from bodily entrapment - a release of facade and entrance to truth/reality
The colour imagery of ‘white’ symbolises calmness and innocence, but she still tries to maintain her facade in death
The repetition of ‘sea’ and ‘die’, the sibilance (‘sea’, ‘sewn’, ‘sack’), and the mournful chime of church bells present death and a gentle release
BLANCHE: ‘It’s Della Robbia blue. The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures.’
(Scene 11, p.101)
In this moment, Blanche clings to her constructed fantasy as a figure of beauty and purity, despite being at her most mentally broken. The reference to “Della Robbia blue”, associated with the Virgin Mary in Renaissance art, reflects Blanche’s desperate attempt to maintain the illusion of innocence and sanctity. This allusion reveals her inner conflict with the Madonna-Whore dichotomy (AO3): though society and her past may cast her as morally fallen, Blanche continues to shape herself as a tragic, saint-like figure.
The colour blue carries symbolic weight—traditionally linked to calmness, spirituality, and emotional depth, it reflects Blanche’s dreamy, airy persona. It evokes the sky, which often symbolizes freedom, but here that freedom is deeply ironic. Blanche’s “liberation” is not from oppression into peace, but from reality into delusion. The trauma she’s endured, especially in light of Stanley’s assault and her institutionalization, has pushed her to retreat entirely into fantasy. Thus, her blue robe becomes a kind of emotional armor, representing the ideal self she can no longer uphold in the real world.
In essence, the blue robe is not just a symbol of the woman Blanche wishes to be, but of the final veil between her and reality. Her fantasy has fully consumed her, offering a tragic form of freedom—freedom from suffering, but only through the loss of sanity.
STAGE DIRECTIONS on STANLEY and BLANCHE: ‘(…seizes the paper lantern, tearing it off the light-bulb, and extends it towards her. She cries out as if the lantern was herself)’
(Scene 11, p.105)
The motif of the ‘paper lantern’ has connotations with cheap temporary and weak, just like Blanche - perhaps she’s also easily expendable as the baby has taken her place
Animalistic imagery shown through Stanley tearing the paper lantern, just like he as torn apart Blanche’s mental stability
Stanley destroying any last part of Blanches fantasy/facade- cruelty/hyper-masculine - critique violence and cruelty of New America.
STANLEY: “You left nothing here but split talcum and old empty perfume bottles”
symbolic of Blanche; all that’s good/illusory has gone
“talcum” - transitory; how insubstantial she is and her values, nothing left of her
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”
creates a powerful sense of betrayal - Blanche can no longer rely on her sister.
reinforces how Blanche as a character, can no longer deal with reality as promiscuous past and Stanley’s actions have ultimately completed her descent into insanity as she is dragged into a mental asylum
reflects scene 3 - total destruction of old world.
These words, which Blanche speaks to the doctor in Scene Eleven, form Blanche’s final statement in the play
She perceives the doctor as the gentleman rescuer for whom she has been waiting since arriving in New Orleans
Blanche’s final comment is ironic for two reasons:
- First, the doctor is not the chivalric Shep Huntleigh type of gentleman Blanche thinks he is
- Second, Blanche’s dependence ‘on the kindness of strangers’ rather than on herself is the reason why she has not fared well in life
In truth, strangers have been kind only in exchange for sex
Otherwise, strangers like Stanley, Mitch, and the people of Laurel have denied Blanche the sympathy she deserves.
Blanche’s final remark indicates her total detachment from reality and her decision to see life only as she wishes to perceive it
STELLA “[She sobs with inhuman abandon]”
she has lost refinement and now is animalistic
Stella is creating her own illusion now for survival - Stanley’s self preservation – needs to be animalistic in New America
inevitably about Stella’s decision - “life has to go on”– chosen security and survival
STANLEY [voluptuously, soothingly]: ‘Now, honey. Now, love. Now, now love.’
(Scene 11, p.107)
This final tableau disturbingly combines guilt and distress with arousal and pleasure. Stella seems to submit to Stanley’s dominant masculinity, disappointing us with her silent passivity and possible acceptance. Stanley is re-established as an alpha male.
The stage direction ‘voluptuously’ suggests sexual pleasure, reminding us of Stella sobbing ‘luxuriously’, adverbs that connote sensuality and indulgence
The repetition of ‘love’ blurs its connotations and use; it is used patronisingly as a noun, yet romantically as an imperative
- It seems that it is not love as a spiritual, sacred emotion that triumphs, but ‘brutal desire’
The repetition of ‘now’ draws attention to the present; it is modernity embodied in the vitality of an immigrant that is the final image, augmenting the possibility of changing social structures in a new world
STEVE: ‘This game is a seven-card stud.’ (Scene 11, p.107)
The imagery of ‘game’ implies that the fall of Blanche was all a game to Stanley to simply showcase his masculinity and control over women
(AO3) Seven card stud is a classic poker game which can take a lifetime to perfect - Stanley has spent his life perfecting his dominance and presentation of masculinity
By ending the play with a minor character highlights the universal issue of this play - domesticity and violence
The implied meanings of leaving the play on this line are:
- The men have learned nothing - they are still trapped in the masculine, competitive world we saw at the start of the play
- The women are still victims of that world
- It emphasises the didactic nature of the tragedy - (AO5) Williams asks us to ‘consider how we can live with kindness in a changing world
- Stanley’s victory is a brutal one, rather than one that suggests a positive future for America
[The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle.]”
The image of the “Varsouviana” is repeated throughout the last few scenes to emphasise the non diegetic music that Blanche cannot get out of her head, and it acts to forebode the danger yet to come, as it has done numerous times.
Distorted Polka: The description of the Varsouviana as “filtered into weird distortion” shows how Blanche’s grasp on reality is breaking down. The music is no longer simply a memory—it’s twisted, overtaking her senses, signaling a full psychological collapse.
“Cries and noises of the jungle”: These sounds add to the hallucination and mirror Blanche’s internal chaos, making her trauma feel overwhelming and inescapable. The jungle imagery also alludes to predatory violence, tying into the threat Stanley has represented.
Symbolic Fusion: This blend of music + animalistic noise reflects the complete fusion of past trauma (Allan Grey’s death) with present trauma (institutionalization after Stanley’s assault).
However, ironically, now it is “distorted” which shows now it doesn’t even play normally to emphasise how her mental health is damaged.
The “jungle” could be used to emphasise Stanley to show how his constant cruelty is always in her mind
