What was Blanche DuBois past?
When the play begins, Blanche is already a fallen woman in society’s eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social pariah due to her indiscrete sexual behavior. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly.
What insinuation does Stanley make regarding Blanche’s past?
Stanley is unusually rude to Blanche. He insinuates that he has acquired knowledge of Blanche’s past and asks her if she knows a certain man named Shaw. Blanche falters immediately at the mention of Shaw’s name and answers evasively, replying that there are many Shaws in the world.
What did Stanley find out about Blanche’s past?
Stanley has learned the shady details of Blanche’s past from Shaw, a supply man he works with who regularly travels to Blanche and Stella’s hometown of Laurel, Mississippi. Stanley surmises that Blanche, having lost her reputation, her place of residence, and her job, had no choice but to wash up in New Orleans.
Where does Blanche go at the end of the play?
The ending to A Streetcar Named Desire is all about cruel and tragic irony. Blanche is shipped off to a mental institution because she can’t deal with reality and retreats into illusion—yet Stella is doing the very same thing by ignoring her sister’s story about Stanley.
What does the streetcar symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?
The Streetcar Symbol Analysis Williams called the streetcar the “ideal metaphor for the human condition.” The play’s title refers not only to a real streetcar line in New Orleans but also symbolically to the power of desire as the driving force behind the characters’ actions.
What is the last line of A Streetcar Named Desire mean?
During the final scene of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the audience witnesses Stella adopting the delusion that her husband is trustworthy—that he did not, in fact, rape her sister. When Eunice says, “No matter what happens, we’ve all got to keep going,” she is preaching the virtues of self-deception.
Is Blanche older than Stella?
Stella Kowalski (née DuBois) is one of the main characters in Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. She is the younger sister of central character Blanche DuBois and wife of Stanley Kowalski.