A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 11

Scene 11 This scene is a downbeat coda ( a concluding passage which provides a satisfying ending) to the melodrama of the rape in the previous scene The mood is subdued, a mood intensified by the fact that the previous scene with the poker players was loud and noisy (scene 3)

Differences between Scene 3 and Scene 11 Stella has been crying All the poker players apart from Stanley have lost their boisterous good humour They rise in an act of courtesy when Blanche passes through the room Stanley again tears down the paper lantern. Blanche cries out as though in physical pain - his action can be seen as a symbolic replay of the rape

Why is this scene particularly effective? Like Blanche, the audience too is kept in the dark about what is going to happen It is only gradually that the audience are made aware that Blanche is being committed to a mental hospital Blanche’s quiet dignity at the end is in sharp contrast to her earlier displays of vanity and fussing over her appearance The trivia of Blanche’s wardrobe and her costume jewellery is to heighten the dramatic tension of what is about to happen

Why is this scene particularly effective? Blanche’s final words, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” reveals the sad truth that there has been very little kindness in Blanche’s life Blanche’s behaviour towards the poker players conveys the way in which being raped by Stanley has scarred her. At the start of the play she performs for his friends, by the end she hides from their gaze and hopes they won’t notice her

Why is this scene particularly effective? The roles of the two sisters reverse as Stella admits that she may have entered a world of make-believe when she acknowledges that she cannot believe Blanche’s story about the rape and continue to live with Stanley. Stella explains that, quite simply, if she is to go on living with Stanley she must believe that the story of the rape is the invention of a mentally unstable woman. Blanche’s descent into madness saves Stella from the truth

Why is this scene particularly effective? Stella’s tears at the end are shed not only for her sister but also for the complexity and tension between illusion and reality, between Blanche’s story and Stella’s own understanding of her life She also cries because part of her is glad to see Blanche go

Why is this scene particularly effective? The offstage announcement that another poker game (“seven card stud”) is about to commence ends the play with a symbol of the deception and bluffing that has taken place in the Kowalski house The image of Stanley and Stella together at the end symbolises Stanley has won – he is the triumphant victor

Literary Study Question For Wednesday 22nd February Discuss the effectiveness of staging, lighting and sound in the dramatic presentation of the central concerns in A Streetcar Named Desire.