A Streetcar Named Desire -
Quotations
Characters
·
“Hey,
there! Stella, Baby!”
·
“Some
people rarely touch it, but it touches them often.”
·
“Open
your eyes to this stuff! You think she got them out of a teacher’s pay?”
·
“I
want my baby down here. Stella, Stella!”
·
“Hey,
canary bird! Toots! Get OUT of the BATHROOM! Must I speak more plainly?”
·
“Don’t
ever talk that way to me! ‘Pig - Polack - disgusting - vulgar - greasy!’ - them
kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here! ...
Remember what Huey Long said - ‘Every Man is a King!’ And I am the king around
here, so don’t forget it!”
Stella
·
“I
can hardly stand it when he is away for a night…”
·
“And
try to understand her and be nice to her, Stan.”
·
“All
of you - please go home! If any of you have one spark of decency in you -“
·
“I
was - sort of - thrilled by it.”
·
“Your
face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy. Go and wash up and then help me
clear the table.”
·
“I
couldn’t believe her story and go on living with
Blanche
·
“Oh,
I’m not going to be hypocritical, I’m going to be honestly critical about it!”
·
“God
love you for a liar! Daylight never exposed such total a ruin!”
·
“Now
that you’ve touched them I’ll burn them!”
·
“There’s
so much - so much confusion in the world… Thank you for being so kind! I need
kindness now.”
·
“He
acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moved like one,
talks like one! There’s even something - sub-human - something not quite to the
stage of humanity yet!”
·
“I
guess it is just that I have - old-fashioned ideals! [She rolls her eyes]”
·
”Sometimes
- there’s God - so quickly!”
Mitch
·
“I
gotta sick mother. She don’t go to sleep until I come in at night.”
·
“Poker
shouldn’t be played in a house with women.”
·
“Ho-ho!
There’s nothing to be scared of. They’re crazy about each other.”
·
“Can
I - uh - kiss you - good-night?”
·
“I
don’t mind you being older than what I thought. But all the rest of it - God!
That pitch about your ideals being so old-fashioned and all the malarkey hat
you’ve dished out all summer. Oh, I knew you weren’t sixteen any more. But I
was a fool enough to believe you was straight.”
·
“You’re
not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.”
Themes:
·
“they
told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called
Cemeteries”
·
“Blanche’s
look” when seeing Stella and
·
“she jumps up and kisses him which he accepts
with lordly composure”
·
“And
when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…”
·
“I
need kindness now”
·
“I
took the trip as an investment”
·
“I
have- old fashioned ideal! [She rolls her eyes]”
·
“You
need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be- you and me, Blanche?”
·
“It was foolish of me to think that we could
ever adapt ourselves to each other.”
·
“I
have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
Characters:
Blanches’ arrival
p.117 Eunice: “What’s the matter, honey? Are you lost?
p.117 Blanche: “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”
Loss of Belle Reve
p.126 Blanche: “I know, I know. But you are the one that abandoned
Belle Reve not I! I stayed and fought for it, almost died for it!”
Blanche’s drinking
p.129 Blanche:
“No, I rarely touch it.”
After Stanley beats Stella
p.154
Fighting in Elysian Fields
p.157 Blanche: “And that- that makes it all right?” Stella: “No, it
isn’t all right for anybody to make such a terrible row, but -people do
sometimes.”
The Coke
p.170 Blanche laughs shrilly and grabs the glass, but her hand shakes
so it slips from her glass. Stella pours the coke into the glass. It foams over
and spills. Blanche gives a piercing cry.
Blanche’s Discovery of Allan’s Homosexuality
p.184 Blanche: “‘I know! I know! You disgust me…’ And then the
searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never
for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this
–kitchen- candle…”
p.191
p.195
Stanley and Stella’s past
p.199
Mitch’s confrontation with Blanche
p.207 Mitch:
“You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.”
Stanley and Blanche’s final confrontation
p.213
p.215
Blanche’s exit
p.219 Her (Blanche) rising voice penetrates the concentration of the
game. Mitch ducks his head lower but
Blanche:
What’s happening here? I want an explanation of what’s happened here.
The ending
p.226