Plot development

A Streetcar Named Desire

Scene Eight Analysis

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

STANLEY

PLOT DEVELOPMENT

BLANCHE

• Strong, dominant, boastful
• Constant need to be in power
• No tolerance for assertive women
• Caring

• Longing to love
• Weak, vulnerable and helpless
• Constant confusion
• Insanity

STELLA

• Attempting to gain some control over Stanley [but failed]
• Subservient and weak wife

SUMMARY:

• Stanley, Stella and Blanche are at home having a birthday supper for Blanche. Mitch, although expected has not arrived.
• The mood is gloomy, so Blanche attempts to tell a ‘funny story’ about a parrot and a preacher. Stanley was not amused.
• Stanley replies to the girl’s insults by implying that he is the king.
• Blanche attempts to call Mitch but is unable to get through.
• Stanley comforts Stella - He tells her “It’s gonna be all right again” (pg.196) after Blanche leaves and, after a further argument Stanley gives her a ‘Birthday Remembrance’.
• Stella goes in labor

Quote 2

QUOTE ANALYSIS: 5

Quote 6

“Mr. Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself to think of anything else!”

• Stella tries to assert some power over Stanley by siding with her sister.
• Stella does this again in the next line “Your face and fingers are disgustingly greasy. Go and wash up and then help me clear the table.”
• This undermines Stanley status as the dominant figure in the house and here we have Stella at her most assertive, which creates tension between the two genders.

“Wasn’t it all okay till she showed here?”

• This is something which Stanley and Stella’s relationship is built upon.
• Stanley mentions about “them nights we had together” and making “noise in the night the way that we used to and get the coloured lights going” .
• Stanley longs for Stella in this way and Blanche’s presence makes this impossible.

QUOTE ANALYSIS: 3

Quote Analysis: 4

“QUIET IN THERE! - We’ve got a noisy woman on the place.”

• Stanley’s control have been firmly re-established.
• When the phone rings he prevents Blanche from answering it by saying “I’m not sure. Keep your seat.”
• Stanley is displaying in his freshly reconquered dominance through his volume.
• This is a tool to help him illustrate his power over the women in the household.

“That’s how I’ll clear the table!” [He seizes her arm.] Don’t ever talk that way to me!”

• Stanley, being the dominant powerful male quickly reasserts himself against his wife reflecting the stereotypical balance of power in a husband and wife relationship.
• This is reinforced when Stanely says “Remember what Huey Long said - ‘Every Man is a King!’ And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!”. The conflict between men and women is based on this simple structure.

"I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is one-hundred-per-cent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don't ever call me a Polack."

• Blanche makes derogatory and ignorant remarks about Stanley’s Polish ethnicity throughout the play.
• Stanley declares his proud American nationality, implying that he is part of the new Americans.
• Blanche is a relic in the old America.

QUOTE ANALYSIS: 1

Stanley: “Don’t know any refined enough for [her] taste”

• In the quote, Stanley tries to mock Blanche's upper class background which reflects the conflict between social classes.
• There is less conflict between the two characters in this scene.
• Stanley “pays no attention to the story” . This act of rudeness shows Stanley’s hatred for Blanche.
• Their hostile relationship represents the lingering discriminating relationship between the old and new Americans.