A Streetcar Named Desire: Key Quotations (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature)

Key Quotations

The Assessment Objectives for the CIE IGCSE Literature in English state that you should demonstrate your knowledge of the content of the text through reference to detail and quotations from the text. This means summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words and referencing plot events are all as valid as direct quotations in demonstrating that you understand the text. It is important to remember that you can evidence your knowledge of the text in these two equally valid ways: both through references to it and direct quotations from it. 

Overall, you should aim to secure a strong knowledge of the text, rather than rehearsed quotations, as this will enable you to respond to the question. It is the quality of your knowledge of the text which will enable you to select references effectively.

If you are going to revise quotations, the best way is to group them by character or theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:

• Sex and desire

• Fantasy versus reality

• Gender roles

Sex and desire

Desire is a central theme of the play, as demonstrated with the metaphor of the streetcar bearing the same name being the one that carries Blanche to Elysium Fields, representing one of her driving emotions, and the means of her undoing. Physical desire is also at the heart of Stella and Stanley’s relationship.

“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!” – Blanche, Scene 1

Meaning and context

• This quote is the first line Blanche speaks to Eunice upon arriving at the Kowalski’s apartment

• She has just arrived in New Orleans and describes the instructions she was given with “faintly hysterical humour”

Analysis

• Elysian Fields is named after the land of the dead in Greek mythology

• Therefore, the journey that Blanche makes from the train station to the apartment is an allegorical version of her life up to that point

• Her pursuit of sexual desires has led to her social death and banishment from her hometown, as represented by the Cemeteries, to a sort of after-life

“There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications” – Blanche, Scene 2

Meaning and context

• Blanche gives this speech to Stanley in Scene 2, after he has accused her of swindling Stella (and him) out of her inheritance

• She shows Stanley paperwork that proves she lost Belle Reve due to foreclosure on its mortgage 

Analysis

• Here, Blanche links her family’s decline into poverty with the behaviour of its male members, specifically their “epic fornications”, over the generations

• Like Blanche, the DuBois ancestors have maintained an outward appearance of refinement, while secretly pursuing their sexual desires

• She is the last in a long line of ancestors who cannot express their sexual desire in a healthy manner

Paired quotation:

“Since earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens” – Stage directions, Scene 1

“He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them” – Stage directions, Scene 1

Meaning and context

• These stage directions describe Stanley before he first meets Blanche in Scene 1

• He enters loudly, throwing open the screen door of the kitchen, and his description is summed up as one of a “gaudy seed-bearer”

Analysis

• These stage directions place Stanley firmly as both masculine and dominant:

  • For Stanley, masculinity and sexuality are connected

• The reference to the “taking” of women’s pleasure foreshadows his eventual rape of Blanche

• He sees women as objects of sex and determines their worth on this basis:

  • Stanley is not interested in anything else they might offer

• He is described as having the “power and pride of a richly feathered male bird”, suggesting his arrogance and belief that he is at the centre of a woman’s universe

“But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark – that sort of make everything else seem – unimportant” – Stella

“What you are talking about is brutal desire – just Desire! – the name of that rattle-trap street-car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another…” – Blanche

“Haven’t you ever ridden on that street-car?” – Stella

“It brought me here. – Where I’m not wanted and where I’m ashamed to be…” – Blanche, Scene 4

Meaning and context

• Stella is trying to explain how she feels about Stanley and why she stays with him even though he hits her

• Blanche does not understand how that kind of physical passion can be true love

Analysis

• Here, the sisters are talking in metaphors

• For Stella, love and physical attraction are inseparable:

  • The sexual dynamic she has with Stanley keeps them together

• Blanche can recognise desire, but tries to pretend that she can’t and refuses to get on board:

  • She speaks of it with disdain

• She links desire with shame, as it was her desire that brought her to her current predicament

Paired quotation:

“You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” – Mitch, Scene 9

“Tiger – tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” – Stanley, Scene 10

Meaning and context

• The first quote is spoken by Mitch when he visits Blanche after learning the truth about her past

• Mitch attempts to have sex with Blanche, but Blanche tells him that he must marry her first – this is his response

• The second quote is spoken by Stanley to Blanche just before he rapes her

• Blanche has broken a bottle and waves it at Stanley in a feeble act of self-defence

• Following this, the stage directions tell us that he carries her to the bed

Analysis

• When Mitch arrives, Blanche is clinging on to the illusion that he might still want to marry her, and that she is a Southern Belle

• Mitch, however, believes that he has been lied to:

  • For him, Blanche is simply a liar pretending to be virtuous

  • He therefore thinks that, if she has had that many men, then one more won’t matter

  • He is astonished at her reaction, which underlines the lack of understanding between them

• Mitch speaks plainly, while Blanche still uses poetic language, emphasising the different worlds they represent

• Stanley’s words hint at the inevitability of their situation from the moment they met:

  • Blanche was always aware of his dominant masculinity, and behaved flirtatiously in response to it

• Stanley breaks taboos by raping his sister-in-law while his wife is giving birth to their child:

  • This final violation is what sends Blanche into insanity

Fantasy versus reality

One of the basic tensions in this play is the one between the romantic and the realistic, or between fantasy and reality. This is most obviously symbolised through Blanche as the romantic fantasist and Stanley as the realist, and Blanche’s dependence on fantasy and illusion is contrasted with Stanley’s down-to-earth view of the world, which eventually “wins”.

Paired quotation:

“I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” – Blanche, Scene 3

“And so the soft people have got to – shimmer and glow – put a – paper lantern over the light” – Blanche, Scene 5

Meaning and context

• The first line is spoken during Blanche’s first interaction and flirtation with Mitch

• She has bought a paper lantern at a Chinese shop and she asks Mitch to put it over the light bulb for her

• The second is spoken by Blanche to Stella when she realises that Stanley has started digging into her past

• She is beginning to construct a defence of her actions

Analysis

• The paper lantern is used as a symbol in the play, as it is torn down later by both Mitch and Stanley, representing the tearing away of the illusion Blanche has created around herself

• It symbolises the reality that Blanche has created for herself – that of a genteel, virtuous woman of manners and breeding

• The line suggests that Blanche takes the truth, as symbolised by the naked light bulb, and blurs it:

  • She seems unable to face the ugly reality of her life

Paired quotation:

“I don’t want realism” – Blanche, Scene 9

“I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth” – Blanche, Scene 9

Meaning and context

• Blanche is arguing with Mitch when he visits her after learning the truth about her past

• He insists on turning on the light so that he can see her properly, as she is normally in shadow or muted light

Analysis

• For Blanche, it doesn’t matter if the magic is real or if even she believes it

• She wants fantasy and illusion over the harsh brutality of the real world:

  • This is where she can believe in and hope for something kinder and more refined than the real world

• She turns to her world of make-believe when she cannot face reality or her shame

• She believes that her lies are a way of presenting people with the truth, or reality, that they really want and wish for:

  • In Mitch’s case, a wife to look after him after his mother has passed away

“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” – Stella, Scene 11

Meaning and context

• This line is spoken by Stella to Eunice after revealing that she has arranged for her sister to be taken to a mental hospital

• She explains that she had no choice but to believe that the story of the rape was the invention of a mentally unstable woman

Analysis

• This line reveals that Stella has more in common with Blanche than it first appears

• She has chosen to believe a version of the truth that will allow her to survive, especially as she now has a new baby to care for and she is financially dependent on her husband

• Her guilt and devastation at Blanche being taken away, however, suggest that she does know the truth deep down:

  • This mirrors the fact that Blanche also knows the truth, but covers it with a metaphorical paper lantern

Gender roles

One of the other key themes Williams addresses in the play is gender stereotyping, following the emerging post-war American ideals that championed masculinity and patriarchal values. Williams also uses Blanche and Stella’s dependence on men to critique the treatment of women and their position in society.

“In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa” – Stanley, Scene 2

Meaning and context

• Stanley attempts to explain the Napoleonic code to Stella when he learns that Belle Reve has been lost

• He believes that Stella has been cheated out of her inheritance and, therefore, he has been cheated as well

Analysis

• Here, Stanley betrays his ignorance, as well as his fundamental belief in his own superiority:

  • He reacts suspiciously to anything he believes threatens this

  • His suspicions also relate to a profound mistrust of better-educated people

• The lines also underscore the characters of Stanley and Stella as conforming to traditional gender stereotypes

“Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women” – Mitch, Scene 3

Meaning and context

• This line is repeated twice by Mitch in the poker game scene

• He says it before and after Stanley has exploded in a violent rage and hit Stella

• It suggests he thinks that women, poker and gambling are a bad mix

Analysis

• This line shows Mitch as someone who fundamentally believes women are soft, gentle and should be protected from anything unpleasant or rough

• It also underscores his inherent patriarchal values:

  • He doesn’t blame Stanley for his actions, but instead blames the game, as though it stirs something up in a man that he cannot help

“Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is – Stanley Kowalski – survivor of the stone age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you – you here – waiting for him! Maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!” – Blanche, Scene 4

Meaning and context

• Blanche is berating Stella for staying with Stanley even though he is physically abusive to her

• Blanche is trying to explain the kind of man she thinks Stanley is

Analysis

• This is part of a longer speech in which Blanche throws a lot of names at Stanley

• She is trying to remind Stella of her upbringing and higher social status

• It also reveals how she sees Stanley, as primitive and animalistic

• This speech subverts traditional gender roles, as Blanche is arguing against patriarchal values and tries to make Stella see that she deserves more

“I want to kiss you – just once – softly and sweetly on your mouth…It would be nice to keep you, but I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children” – Blanche, Scene 6

Meaning and context

• A Young Collector has arrived at the Kowalski apartment – Blanche is alone and drinking, waiting for her date with Mitch

• Blanche flirts with him and kisses him

Analysis

• This quote is an example of Williams subverting normal gender stereotypes

• Instead of an innocent girl being corrupted by a more experienced man, Blanche is the one doing the corrupting

• The quote references her many previous liaisons with young men, and suggests that she was the instigator of them:

  • This includes the affair she had with the 17-year-old student that got her dismissed from her job

• Here, she is the one in control, as she orders the young man away:

  • This contrasts with her eventual rape by Stanley

“Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” – Blanche, Scene 11

Meaning and context

• This quote is Blanche’s last line in the play, as she is led out by the doctor

Analysis

• Her line suggests that Blanche sees the doctor as the gentleman rescuer she has longed for 

• Despite her masculine trait of overt sexuality, Blanche still longs to be saved by a man

• The line is ironic as Blanche’s dependence on the “kindness of strangers” is the reason why her life has unravelled:

  • In reality, strangers have only been kind in exchange for sex