It is not enough to just analyse a passage or scene in isolation; you must also consider why that particular passage or scene is important to the text as a whole. What key themes or ideas does it represent? Does it foreshadow upcoming events? Does it reveal more about a character’s motivations, thoughts or feelings, given what has happened and/or what is to come? The following section includes some key moments from the play and how they are relevant to the rest of the text, but this list is not exhaustive, and you are encouraged to consider other moments and how these also relate to the play as a whole.
Key moment
Scene 2:
Stanley: “Yeah. I get the idea. Now let’s skip back a little to where you said the country place was disposed of”
Summary of key moment:
- Stanley questions Stella about the loss of Belle Reve, and is dismissive of her pleas to be kind to Blanche:
- He demands to see the papers and tries to explain the Napoleonic code to Stella
Why this is important in relation to the play as a whole:
- Stanley’s aggression is hinted at when he raises his voice and does not care if Blanche hears:
- This foreshadows his later violence
- The reference to the Napoleonic code establishes Stanley’s role as a working-class man with traditional values and a sense of justice:
- If he feels he has been cheated he will fight to get what he feels he has a right to
- The scene also shows his ignorance, which explains why he is so keen not to have the wool pulled over his eyes
- He resents Stella and Blanche for making him feel a fool
- The scene also reinforces gender stereotypes, as at this point in time he has a right to everything Stella owns
- It also shows how Blanche’s visit has started to create conflict between Stanley and Stella:
- Stella defends Blanche, which makes Stanley envious
Key moment
Scene 4 (the whole scene)
Summary of key moment:
- This scene opens after Stanley has physically assaulted Stella and then the couple have made up:
- Stella wakes serenely, juxtaposing the violence of the previous scene
- Blanche cannot reconcile the physical violence she witnessed with Stella’s acceptance of the situation:
- She tells Stella what she thinks of Stanley, unaware that he is outside and overhears
Why this is important in relation to the play as a whole:
- This scene demonstrates Blanche’s superior attitude towards Stanley
- It also explores the gender dynamics between Stella and Stanley:
- It highlights her pregnancy as a physical connection to her husband, and her determination to make her marriage work despite the violence
- It also reveals tensions between the sisters, as Stella reveals that she is used to Stanley’s aggression when drunk, and is even aroused by it
- The fact that Stanley’s violence is so easily accepted by Stella highlights toxic masculinity
- There is then somewhat of a role reversal between the sisters, with Blanche trying to be practical and get Stella away from the situation (even though Stella does not want to be away from it):
- Blanche associates Stanley’s violence with his social class
- The conversation turns to the theme of desire:
- The allegory of the streetcar as sexual desire is resumed, with Blanche saying that this is what brought her to this place, where she is ashamed to be
- This reveals more about Blanche’s past and shame
- This scene is also important because Blanche and Stella are unaware that Stanley has overheard their conversation, but the audience know – this is called dramatic irony
Key moment
Scene 10:
Stanley: “Was this before or after the telegram came from the Texas oil millionaire?”
Summary of key moment:
- Stanley has returned from the hospital to find Blanche drunk:
- At this point, she knows that Mitch is not going to marry her, but creates a fantasy of being saved by an old “beau”
- Stanley angrily advances on her, verbally shattering her illusions one by one
- The play then reaches its climax:
- Stella is in the hospital giving birth
- Stanley and Blanche clash
- Stanley rapes Blanche
Why this is important in relation to the play as a whole:
- This scene explores the themes of desire, fate and toxic masculinity
- Stanley hates the names that Blanche calls him, such as “Polack” and “swine”:
- His subsequent verbal destruction of Blanche foreshadows his physical destruction of her
- His assertion that “we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning” alludes to sexual attraction between the two, but also gives Stanley an excuse to do what he does – almost as if it is Blanche’s fault
- The rape can been seen as the final victory of the working-class American Dream over the Old South and its traditional, prejudicial ideals:
- The rape itself is not explicitly shown, but is implied to be primitive and animalistic through the stage directions