A Streetcar Named Desire -- Study Guide: Scene nine, ten and eleven

Analysis

Scene 9

  1. What does Blanche apparently hear that others do not? What audio hallucinations does she seem to have? What do these mean?
  1. Blanche states that the name of a hotel in Laurel is not the Flamingo Arms, but instead it is the ______Arms. What is the name she gives the hotel? Why is this significance?
  1. Mitch says that Blanche is not what enough to bring in the house with his mother?
  1. Why does Blanche scream to make Mitch leave?
  1. What might be the significance of the flower vender? Who might be the dead that the scene/line invokes?
  1. Blanche clarifies her character with the light and realism quote on page 117

Blanche: I don’t want realism. I want magic…I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them.…(117)

What are we to make of this—the fact that she is aware of her lies and that she is trying to evoke magic, and the world as it ought to be? Do we see her more sympathetically now? If so, what does this sympathy do for the play’s theme? What might Williams want us to understand about the world from this play?

  1. What does Blanche convey about her youth through her inter-cut ramblings on the last three pages of the scene?
  1. Blanche states that in contrast to death, “the opposite is desire”(120). What does this mean? Does Williams want us to agree with her on this? Why or why not?

Scene 10

1.  What do we assume Stanley does to Blanche at the end of scene 10? Is this the logical climax to the tension building all along in this play?

2.  Are we supposed to (does Williams seem to want us to) blame Stanley or Blanche for the terrible climax? In other words are we likely to blame Blanche for ignoring the open threat in Stanley, and for taunting him through insults—or are we supposed to blame Stanley for being the kind of person he is and for not better controlling his impulses? Why is this?

3.  What is, then, the fundamental difference between Blanche and her sister, Stella?

4.  What might be the purpose of the shadows and reflections of prostitutes, drunks, thieves, and violence that the stage directions call for shortly before the play’s climax? Note that Blanche is being pushed right to the edge at the point these shadows appear.

Scene 11

  1. Who does Blanche think is coming to take her away at the play’s conclusion?
  1. Where, according to Blanche in scene 11, is Blanche going to die and be buried?
  1. Who, in the end, comes for Blanche and takes her away?
  1. In the final lines of the play just after Blanche has been escorted away, Stanley soothes Stella and they end the scene in a sensual embrace. What does it mean that once Blanche is gone, Stanley and Stella are once again lovers? Fully explain your answer.
  1. Does it seem likely that Blanche will be helped by the mental institution to which she has apparently been committed? Fully explain your answer.