A Streetcar Named Desire: Scene 6

Summary

—Blanche and Mitch return from their night out together and discuss their relationship.

—Blanche explains that she will be leaving soon and describes how rude Stanley is towards her in order to find out what Mitch knows about her and to persuade him to ask her to stay.

—Mitch and Blanche then talk about Mitch’s mother before Blanche explains everything that happened on the night that Allan died.

Key Quotations

—“The utter exhaustion which only a neurasthenic personality can know is evident in Blanche’s voice and manner.”

—Blanche is exhausted from trying to deceive Mitch to make him want her. A “neurasthenic personality” is characterised by fatigue, anxiety, aches and pains, insomnia and a poor appetite which are often clearly visible in Blanche.

—“The one that says the lady must entertain the gentleman- or no dice!”

—Blanche believes that it is the lady’s job to “entertain” or to have sex with the man otherwise there will be no “dice” or relationship. This reinforces Blanche’s old-fashioned ideals and although we do not know whether or not she actually feels this way, it demonstrates her view of a stereotypical woman’s role.

“Can I- uh- kiss you- good night?”

—Despite being in a relationship for some time now, Mitch still has to ask Blanche for permission to kiss her. This shows that he feels inferior to Blanche and that he sees her of someone with such importance that he cannot act without her permission. This suggests that Blanche’s façade, of appearing to be “prim and proper”, is having almost reverse effects and now Mitch doesn’t feel like he is worthy of Blanche’s love. 

—“I want you to have a drink!...now for these few last remaining moments of our lives together- I want to create- joie de vivre!”

We already know that Blanche relies heavily on alcohol and here she makes and excuse that Mitch needs a drink so that she can have one herself. She then becomes quite hyperbolic and talks about spending their final moments together in order to make Mitch ask her to stay. Her use of exclamatives show her desperation and makes her words more dramatic. 

—“Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir? Vous ne comprenez pas? Ah, quel dommage!”

Here Blanche talks in French to express her real feelings as she knows that Mitch won’t understand her. She asks if he would like to sleep with her that evening which demonstrates her desire towards Mitch and that she really likes him. However, her use of the formal “vous” reinforces her façade of being proper and formal and it also implies a sense of distance as at this stage in their relationship, she should be using the informal “tu”. She then exclaims “quel dommage!” which is slightly sarcastic as Blanche is extremely glad that Mitch cannot understand what she is saying, however in some ways she wishes he could so that he understands how she truly feels. 

—“Samson! Go on, lift me.”

—This line has a very biblical allusion as in the bible, Samson is a very strong character who loses his strength after Delilah cuts off his hair. In ‘Streetcar’ Mitch could be the representation of Samson and Blanche the representation of Delilah as ultimately, Blanche is the cause of Mitch’s un-doing. 

“He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery- love. All at once and much, much too completely.”

—Blanche implies that love is naïve and innocent as she was so young when she first discovered it. She uses anadiplosis on “much” and an intensifier to try and convey her feelings towards her experience. She now realises that she was so in love that she didn’t see the consequences of it all. 

—“Polka music sounds, in a minor key faint with distance… Then the polka resumes in a major key.”

The polka music is used as a sign of Blanche’s mental deterioration and plays in Blanche’s head whenever she talks about Allan. When the music is in a minor key, it creates a tense atmosphere which reflects Blanche’s feelings just before she found Allan dead. When the music resumes in a major key, it presents the resolution to the tension and here Blanche describes the aftermath of Allan’s suicide in a very factual way which is completely devoid of emotion. This contrasts to when the music was in a minor key, where her monologue was entirely about her emotions. 

—“Sometimes- there’s God- so quickly!”

—This final line is extremely ambiguous as it could have multiple meanings. It could mean that people are sent from God (Mitch) so quickly and that God answers Blanche’s prayers before she even asks them, or it could mean that God takes people away (Allan Grey) so quickly and that there is nothing you can do to stop it.