70 pages • 2 hours read
Tennessee WilliamsA Streetcar Named Desire
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1947A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Important Quotes
“You’re all I’ve got in the world, and you’re not glad to see me!”
(Scene 1, Page 13)
When Blanche first arrives to Elysian Fields, her overbearing criticism of the lodging and of Stella seems overbearing. The audience is not aware of her struggles yet, and so when she exclaims that Stella is “all [she's] got in the world,” it translates as nervous ramblings. It turns out to be true once Blanche’s circumstances are revealed.
“You came to New Orleans and looked out for yourself! I stayed at Belle Reve and tried to hold it together!”
(Scene 1, Page 20)
This bit of dialogue introduces the core of tension between the sisters. Blanche, someone who seeks companionship as validation, feels that Stella abandoned her.
“And funerals are pretty compared to deaths.”
(Scene 1, Page 20)
Blanche was left without any funds after her the death of their parents and someone named Margaret. The deaths were messy, their proceedings fraught with struggle and fear. The funerals, as she explains, were the packaged products of death. This is an iteration of her awareness that appearances can conceal less-appealing realities.
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By Tennessee Williams
