I made this PowerPoint in preparation for my A-Level English exam, in which I achieved an A*. This document contains detailed summaries of key scenes within the play as well as quotes and literary techniques which can be applied to them.
Stanley hollers for Stella and hurls a package of meat up to her before going to a bowling alley
with Mitch. Stella follows them whilst Eunice remains
Blanche arrives dressed in contrast to the setting around her, meets Eunice and goes inside
Stella’s flat with Eunice before asking rudely to be left alone
Blanche finds a bottle of Stanley’s whisky and takes a shot and returns everything to its place
Stella returns and the pair hug in excitement. Blanche is somewhat critical of Stella’s life and then
asks is Stella has any liquor in her flat
Blanche acts nervous around stella, suggesting that her sister isn’t happy to see her and lies
about why she has come to New Orleans
Blanche makes several comments about Stanley’s lower class status and his polish background
Blanche reveals that she has lost Belle Reve and recounts her suffering through their parent’s
death and blames Stella for running off to New Orleans
Stanley and Mitch talk about hosting a poker night but Mitch refuses to host at his mother’s
house
Stanley and Blanche awkwardly make small talk, Stanley offers Blanche a drink which she
declines, insisting that she doesn’t drink
Stanley changes his shirt in front of Blanche, offending her modesty. Stanley inquires about
Blanche’s marriages to which Blanche hastily replies that he died before sitting down feeling ‘ill’
Scene 2
Blanche takes a bath to sooth her nerves whilst Stella and Stanley talk about Blanche. Stella
explains Blanche’s loss of Belle Reve and instructs Stanley to compliment her and not mention
the baby
He thinks Blanche has swindled Stella out of her rightful share of the estate, which means that he
has been swindled. In order to prove his own victimization, he refers to the Napoleonic code, a
code of law recognized in New Orleans from the days of French rule that places women’s
property in the hands of their husbands
Stanley pulls Blanche’s belongings out of her trunk, to him her costume jewellery and clothes
look expensive and thus he assumes he has spent her family’s fortune
Blanche enters the kitchen in a red satin robe in front of Stanley, she closes the drapes so she can
change and then asks Stanley to come and fasten her buttons, he refuses
He begins to question sarcastically how Blanche came to acquire so many fancy dress items, and
he rejects Blanche’s flirtatious bids to make the conversation more kind-spirited.
Blanche takes a box of papers from her trunk and hands it to Stanley to read, Stanley grabs a
second bunch of papers from Blanche’s trunk and she grabs them back, saying that they are old
love letters from her husband
Stanley realizes that Blanche has acted honestly—the estate really was lost on its mortgage, not
sold as he suspected
Stanley lets slip that Blanche is pregnant
, Scene 3- poker scene
Men play poker in Stanley’s kitchen which is bathed in a sinister green light
Stanley dominates the table with his body language and speech while Mitch frets about whether
or not he should go home to his sick mother, he goes to the bathroom after Stanley insults him
Stella and blanche return, stella politely introduces blanche to the men who show no interest in
her presence. Blanche is surprised, expecting the men to rise upon her entrance
Mitch emerges into the bedroom from the bathroom and is sheepish and awkward upon
meeting Blanche, indicating that he is attracted to her. Once he has left the room, Blanche
remarks that there is something “superior to the others” in Mitch
Stella and Blanche continue their sisterly chat in the bedroom while the poker game continues.
Stanley, drunk, hollers at them to be quiet. While Stella is busy in the bathroom, Blanche turns
on the radio, further angering Stanley. The other men enjoy the music, but Stanley springs up
and shuts off the radio.
Mitch and Blanche discuss Mitch’s sick mother, the sincerity of sick and sorrowful people, and
the inscription on Mitch’s cigarette case. Blanche fibs that she is actually younger than Stella, and
that she has come to New Orleans because Stella is ailing and needs her assistance.
She asks Mitch to put a Chinese lantern she has bought over the naked lightbulb
Stella leaves the bathroom, and Blanche impulsively turns the radio back on and begins to dance,
slyly engaging the clumsy Mitch and preventing his leaving to go to the bathroom. Stanley leaps
up, rushes to the radio, and hurls it out the window.
Stella yells at Stanley, and he advances violently toward her. He follows her as she runs offstage,
and the stage directions call for sounds of him beating her. The other men pull him off
Stanley stumbles out of the bathroom, calling for Stella. He cries remorsefully and then
telephones upstairs, but Eunice won’t let him speak to Stella. After calling again to no avail, he
hurls the phone to the floor. Then, half-dressed, he stumbles out to the street and calls for his
wife again and again: “STELL- LAHHHHH!
Stella slips out of the apartment and down to where Stanley is. They stare at each other and then
rush together with “animal moans.” He falls to his knees, tenderly caresses her face and belly,
then lifts her up and carries her into their flat.
Scene 4
Morning after the poker game, Stella is glowing whilst Blanche appears haggard and terrified and
is greatly relieved to find her safe
Stella feels Blanche is making a big issue out of nothing, claiming that she likes Stanley the way
he is. She explains that Stanley’s violence is the type of bad habit you have to learn to put up
with from other people, and she adds that Stanley has always been violent—on their
honeymoon, he smashed all of the lightbulbs with her shoe
Blanche recounts that she ran into an old suitor names shep huntleigh who would be able to
provide the money Stella needed to escape from Stanley
Blanche reveals that she is in fact completely broke. Stella offers her five dollars of the ten that
Stanley gave her as an apology that morning.
She says she has no desire to leave and that Blanche merely saw Stanley at his worst. Blanche
retorts that she saw Stanley at his best, because “what such a man has to offer is animal force”
Stella replies that her physical relationship with Stanley “make[s] everything else seem—
unimportant.” Blanche argues that sheer desire is no basis for a marriage.
A train approaches and as it roars Stanley enters the flat and listens to Blanche calling him
common, apelike, primitive and brute whilst Stella listens coldly
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