The play opens in a shabby district of New Orleans where Stanley Kowalski lives with
his wife Stella. After they leave for the bowling alley, where Stanley is to play with
his friend Mitch, a well−dressed woman arrives carrying a suitcase. This is Blanche
DuBois, Stella's sister. Hardly believing that this is Stella's home, Blanche
ungraciously accepts the invitation of the landlady, Eunice, to wait inside. She appears
nervous and highly strung and searches out a supply of alcohol, supposedly to calm
her nerves. When Stella returns they greet each other fondly, but there is a hint of
unease between them.
On his return home, Stanley meets Blanche and they talk amicably, but as the
conversation develops and as details of Blanche's past come outparticularly her
marriage to a husband who is now dead, and the loss of Belle Reve, the family's
property we see Stanley beginning to distrust her. Blanche makes herself very much
at home, taking long and frequent baths and drinking Stanley's alcohol, even whilst
making disparaging comments about Stanley and Stella's standard of living.
The tension in the house continues in the next scene when the sisters return after an
evening out to the house where Stanley is holding a poker party. Resenting the interest
that Mitch, one of his friends, shows in Blanche, the now drunken Stanley shows his
jealousy of Blanche and becomes violent with Stella, who we now know is pregnant.
After retreating briefly upstairs to the Hubbells' apartment, Stella returns to Stanley
and they go off to bed together.
Despite this brutality and Blanche's attempts to persuade her to leave him, Stella
insists that she loves Stanley and will not leave him. Overhearing Blanche's hostile
comments about him, Stanley determines to follow his suspicions about her and to
find out more about her recent past. He discovers that she left Laurel, her home town,
because of rumors about her promiscuity and her relationship with a young student.
When Stanley hints to Blanche about what he knows, she is clearly terrified that it will
all come out and tries to present a glossed−over version to Stella, focusing on her fear
of growing old alone and hinting at a possible future with Mitch, After Stella's
departure, Blanche flirts with a young man who arrives to collect newspaper
subscriptions.
Blanche and Mitch's date in the next scene is not a success, but when they return home
they speak more openly and Blanche tells Mitch of her dead husband who, we gather,
was homosexual, and shot himself when she discovered him in bed with another man.
Mitch comforts her and they discuss marriage. Shortly afterwards there is a birthday dinner for Blanche, but Mitch, having been told by Stanley about Blanche's past, does not show up. The meal is awkwardly silent and, to make it worse, Stanley presents Blanche with a bus ticket back home as a supposed birthday gift. Stella complains at his cruelty, but then goes into labor. Stanley takes her to the hospital.
Mitch then visits Blanche, who is alone in the apartment. In a drunken state he tells
her that he knows about her past and, when she tries to explain, dismisses her
explanation as lies. He tries to force her to have sex but she resists and threatens to call
for help. Left alone again, she drinks more alcohol and loses herself in delusions of a
rich millionaire who will look after her. Stanley returns from the hospital to find Blanche dressed up in a ball gown and tiara, trying to pack her suitcase. He mocks her, tells her what he thinks o fher, and allows his anger to be transformed into sexual violence as he carries her off to bed to rape her.
A scene change denotes the passing of time at this point and we next see Stella,
returned from the hospital, unwilling to believe her sister's story and in agreement
with Stanley that Blanche should be certified as insane. Blanche packs her things,
believing that she is to leave with a rich admirer. While she is taking another bath and
Stanley and his friends are again playing poker, a doctor arrives with a nurse from a
mental hospital. Realizing what is about to happen, Blanche tries to escape, but is
calmed by the gentle doctor. She leaves on his arm, stating that she has always placed
her trust in the kindness of strangers. Stanley's friends are horrified and Stella is
almost hysterical with tears, but Stanley remains calm and soothes his wife into
acquiescence. Life, it is suggested, will continue.
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