Scene Eleven

Question 1

Key quotes in scene 10

Answer 1

• “The atmosphere of the kitchen is now the same raw, lurid one of the disastrous poker night”
• “Stella has been crying as she arranges the flowery dresses in the open trunk”
• “Luck is believing you are lucky”
  “You…you…you…brag…brag…brag…bull…bull”
• “I always did say men were callous pigs things with no feelings, but this does beat everything”
• “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley”
• “Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep going”
• “The vasouviana rises rapidly as Blanche enters the bedroom”
• “At the sound of Blanche’s voice Mitch’s arm supporting his cards has sagged and his gaze is dissolved into space. Stanley slaps him on the shoulder”
• “The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures. Are these grapes washed?”
• “Those cathedral bells - they’re the only clean thing in the quarter”
• “I shall die of eating an unwashed grape one day out on the ocean”
• “I will die with my hand in the hand of some of nice-looking doctor, a very young one”
• “Please don’t get up. I’m only passing through”
• “The poker players stand awkwardly at the table”
• “There is a moment of silence - no sound but that of Stanley shuffling his cards”
  “Echoes: Now Blanche, now Blanche, now Blanche”
• “What have I done to my sister? Oh god what have i done to my sister”
• “You done this, all o’ your God Damn interfering with things”
• “Quit the blubber”
• “He draws her up gently and supports her with his hand”
• “Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”
• “Stella accepts the child, sobbingly”
• “She sobs with unhuman abandon”
• “He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse”
• “This game is a 7 card stud”

Question 2

Plot summary for scene 11

Answer 2

While Stanley and the men play poker and Blanche takes a bath, Eunice and Stella discuss the fact that Stella has chosen not to believe Blanche, and that doctors are coming to take Blanche away to receive mental help. Blanche believes that Shep is coming to pick her up, but when the doctors arrive instead she bursts into hysterics. Stella watches Blanche being taken away; Eunice hands Stella her baby, and Stanley comforts a tearful Stella.

Question 3

What does John McCrae have to say about scene 11?

Answer 3

• Final scene is set a few weeks together.
• Links to ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
• Talks of the male companionship of war
• Stanley committing rape and adultery at the birth of his child.
• Blanche bathing as this scene takes place, still expecting a phone call - resilience in hope
• Artificial violets sum up her whole personality
• Stella can’t believe Blanche’s story, things must go on.
• What Williams has made Blanche go through is the true human experience
• People have to flatter her and support her delusions.
• Humour in the midst of dissolution - laughter in the face of the abyss.
• Cathedral bells chiming, connotations to a wedding or a funeral, wants to be buried in white - virginal.
• Nurse and doctor take her away

Question 4

Contextual notes on scene 11

Answer 4

• Blanche is taken away to a mental institution. Her descent into mental instability and the way others treat her—Stanley’s indifference and Stella’s helplessness—mirror the era’s misunderstanding and marginalization of mental illness, especially in women.
• Stanley embodies the aggressive, patriarchal male archetype. His dominance over the household and final “victory” over Blanche reflect a cultural reassertion of traditional masculinity.
• The Kowalski household (working class) “wins” over Blanche’s outdated pretensions of class and gentility. The power shift is complete with Blanche’s institutionalization.
• Blanche’s retreat into fantasy can be seen as a response to a world that no longer makes sense to her. Her final line, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” has a tragic, ironic weight in this context.

Question 5

Notes on structure and stagecraft in scene 11

Answer 5

• Scene 11 functions as the play’s emotional and narrative resolution. It shows the aftermath of Blanche’s breakdown and Stella’s internal conflict, bringing the central tensions (truth vs illusion, old vs new) to a devastating conclusion.
• The scene opens with a calm, almost domestic tone (playing cards, everyday chatter), which contrasts starkly with Blanche’s emotional distress. This juxtaposition emphasizes how normalized cruelty and denial have become in the household.
• As throughout the play, lighting is used symbolically. Blanche’s world is associated with soft, dim lighting. In this final scene, the light becomes harsh and clinical as the reality of her institutionalization closes in.
• The Varsouviana Polka is heard again, symbolizing Blanche’s fractured mental state and memories of trauma. This auditory motif heightens the emotional tension and marks her detachment from reality.
• The poker game symbolizes masculine control and indifference—it continues as Blanche is led away. The doctor’s calm, non-threatening demeanour contrasts the matron’s roughness, underlining themes of kindness and cruelty.

Question 6

Links across literature in scene 11

Answer 6

• Blanche’s final line echoes the tradition of tragic heroines in literature, particularly from Romantic and Gothic fiction—women who are fragile, dependent, and destroyed by a harsh world. It has since become one of the most quoted lines in American theatre.
• Blanche draws from a long literary tradition of the Southern belle (e.g., Gone with the Wind’s Scarlett O’Hara
• In 1940s–50s media, mental illness was often sensationalized or misunderstood. Films like The Snake Pit (1948) had just begun to explore the experience of institutionalization. The way Blanche is treated—first gently by the doctor, then forcefully by the matron—mirrors public confusion about how to treat mental illness with both compassion and control.