1. A Streetcar Named Desire
Scene 4
Ian Yule

2. Two Sisters
Scene 4 is about the contrast between the two sisters, Stella and Blanche
Stella has experienced true physical passion in her love for Stanley
“Why, on our wedding night – soon as we came in here – he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed around the place smashing the light-bulbs with it”
“I was – sort of – thrilled by it.”

3. Two Sisters Blanche claims to be repelled by this:
“Stanley Kowalski – survivor of the stone age! Bringing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle” (makes a link to scene 1)
“Don’t – don’t hang back with the brutes!”

4. The metaphor of the streetcar

5. The metaphor of the streetcar
Blanche: “What you are talking about is brutal desire – just – Desire! The name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter …”
Stella: “Haven’t you ever ridden on that streetcar?”
Blanche: “It brought me here …”

6. The metaphor of the Streetcar
The streetcar can literally mean the vehicle that brought Blanche to Stella’s home
OR it can be a metaphor for the sexual desire in Blanche which has ruined her and brought her to New Orleans to live off her sister’s charity

7. Stanley’s overhearing
Stanley overhearing the two sisters is a dramatic device (dramatic irony – the audience knows something the sisters don’t) serving two purposes
It strengthens Stanley’s dislike of Blanche (further antagonism)
It gives him good reason to get rid of her