‘A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE’ – KEY QUOTATIONS

Scene Blanche Stanley Stella Mitch Stage Directions

They told me to take a street-car named Desire… transfer to one called He heaves the package at her …she manages to catch it The blue piano expresses the spirit of life

1. Cemeteries ... and get off at—Elysian Fields!

I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All those deaths. The long
parade to the graveyard!
Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements
a richly feathered male bird…gaudy seed bearer
I cry on his lap like a baby
I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night
New Orleans isn't like other cities.
Her appearance is incongruous to this setting.
She carefully replaces the bottle and washes the tumbler
something about her uncertain manner suggests a moth
Where were you! In bed with your--Polack! The music of the polka rises up in the distance
There are love letters yellowing with antiquity. You said the country place was disposed of I put you a cold plate on ice He hurls the furs to the day-bed then jerks open a drawer

2. Now you’ve touched them I’ll burn them.

I’m not young and vulnerable any more
Fathers and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications
Have you ever heard of the Napoleonic code?
Look at these feathers and furs
What’s this sister of yours, a deep-sea diver?
She jumps up and kisses him [Stanley] Shoves it [trunk] roughly open
She spray herself …and playfully sprays him with it.
He seizes the atomiser and slams it down on the dresser.
Maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood Since when do you [Stella] give me orders? A Tamale vendor calls out ‘Red hots!’
One [daisy] that’s been picked a few days. Stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh Stanley's the only one of his crowd likely to get anywhere. I gotta sick mother. She don't go to A picture of Van Gogh's of a billiard-parlor at night.

3. Is he [Mitch] a wolf?
Sick people have such deep, sincere attachments.
I'm not accustomed to having more than one drink.
all at once he subsides and is limp in their grasp.
Stella! Stella, sweetheart! Stella!
He falls to his knees and presses his face to her belly
You're standing in the light, Blanche!
This is my house and I'll talk as much as I want to!
sleep until I come in at night.
You all are married. I’ll be alone
She knew she was dying when she
lurid nocturnal brilliance… raw colours…an electric bulb
She moves out of the yellow streak of light.
Blanche moves back into the streak of light.
I call her little in spite of the fact she's somewhat older than I. give me this. Mitch moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear.
I can't stand a naked light bulb Poker shouldn't be played in a There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out.
it's touching to notice them making their first discovery of love! house with women. Dissonant brass and piano sound… clarinet moans.
There's so much--so much confusion in the world They’re crazy about each other. they come together with low, animal moans
In my opinion? You're married to a madman! Stanley hesitates, licking his lips. He was as good as a lamb when I came back Her eyes and lips have that narcotized tranquillity

4. "Darling Shep. Sister and I in desperate situation."

I have to plan for us both, to get us both--out!
What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!
I was--sort of--thrilled by it.
Stanley doesn't give me a regular allowance
there are things that happen between a man and a woman in
Under cover of the train's noise Stanley enters.
Stanley hesitates, licking his lips.
Stella has embraced him--with both arms, fiercely, and full in
He acts like an animal… Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! the dark—that make everything else seem--unimportant the view of Blanche.
There has been progress since then! Such things as art--as poetry don't you think your superior attitude is a bit out of place? Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.
Stella! What have you heard about me? He jerks open the bureau drawer, slams it shut throws shoes Oh... Use my hanky. Blot gently cologne-dampened handkerchief to her temples

5. You look like a young Prince out of the Arabian Nights

I've got to be good--and keep my hands off children.
Young man! Young, young, young man!
in a corner. At each noise Blanche winces slightly Coke foams over and spills. Blanche gives a piercing cry.
Steve bounds after her--with goat-like screeches
Her eyes fall shut… palm leaf fan drops from her fingers
I have - old fashioned ideals. Mitch is stolid but depressed. The utter exhaustion which only a neurasthenic personality

6. Voutez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

He was in the quicksands and clutching at me--but I wasn't holding him
out, I was slipping in with him!
Just give me a slap whenever I step
out of bounds.
You need somebody. And I need
can know.
A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She claps her
hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlight of the
the searchlight which had been turned on was turned off ..never for somebody too. Could it be--you locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past
one moment since …any light stronger than this--kitchen--candle and me, Blanche?
it's only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea now the cat's out of the bag! I don’t believe all of those stories Blanche emerges with a gay peal of laughter, but as Stanley

7. A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a brand new outlook
on life!
Sister Blanche is no lily!...Dame Blanche
She is as famous in Laurel as if she was the President of the
United States, only she is not respected by any party!
She was always – flighty!
This beautiful and talented young man was a degenerate.
I’ll stop at twenty-five.
crosses past her, a frightened look appears on her face,
almost a look of panic.
She stares fearfully at Stella, who pretends to be busy at the
he's not going to jump in a tank with a school of sharks table.
Her future is mapped out for her.
only way to hush the parrot up was to put the cover back on its cage I am the king around here, so don't forget it! I hope you're pleased with your doings. I never had so much fading gradually into a still-golden dusk

8. Mr Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself to think of anything

else… your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy.
I hope his eyes are going to be like candles, like two blue candles.
He hurls a plate… seizes her arm
It’s gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night that
way we used to and get the coloured lights going.
trouble swallowing food in my life
You needn’t be so cruel to someone as alone as she is.
people like you abused her, and forced her to change
Stanley pays no attention…he eats with his fingers
Blanche fiercely controls herself, drinking quietly
Varsouviana music steals in softly… springs from the table
Candles aren’t safe…candles burn out…wind blows them out… electric People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks… I am… one Her look goes suddenly inward as if some interior voice had and runs… Coughing, gagging sounds are heard
light bulbs go on hundred per cent American… proud as hell of it.” called her name. Varsouviana is heard… rising with sinister rapidity
El pan de mais sin sal I was common as dirt… pulled you down off them columns
I don't want realism. I want magic! he stalks into the bedroom tense hunched position… has on her scarlet satin robe

9. Tarantula arms… That’s where I brought my victims

You seemed gentle a cleft in the rock of the world I could hide in
Death- I used to sit here and she used to sit over there
tears paper lantern off the light
You’re not clean enough to bring in
the house with my mother
she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster
Mitch comes… in work clothes, blue denim… unshaven
He turns the light on and stares at her
Get out of here quick before I start screaming fire! Fumbling to embrace her Distant piano… slow and blue
You hit a rock… don’t come up until tomorrow Only rhinestones…/ thought it was Tiffany diamonds Soiled and crumpled white satin… scuffed silver slippers

10. Slams the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks
Casting my pearls before swine
Smashes a bottle… clutching the broken top
The silk pyjamas I wore on my wedding night
So, you want some rough-house!
He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed
Geyser of foam shoots up…]
shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form…
night is filled with inhuman voices like cries in a jungle
roar of an approaching locomotive
I’m not sure I got the soap out You left nothing here but spilt talcum and old empty perfume I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley You... you... you... Brag... brag... Blanche… in amber light… tragic radiance in red satin robe

11. I don't want to pass in front of those men.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Help me get dressed… I’m anxious to get out- this place is a trap
bottles-
Now, honey. Now, love. Now, now, love.
He kneels beside… fingers find the opening of her blouse
Oh, God, what have I done to my sister?
As soon as her sister goes past her, Stella closes her eyes and
clenches her hands
bull... bull.
Mitch’s arm… sagged and his gaze
is dissolved into space
Her rising voice penetrates the concentration of the game
aura of the state institution with its cynical detachment
Matron is a peculiarly sinister figure in her severe dress.
I shall die of eating an unwashed grape She sobs with inhuman abandon. There is something She allows him to lead her as if she were blind.
Blanche walks on without turning luxurious in her complete surrender to crying