They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer
to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off atElysian
Fields!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche DuBois to Eunice and Negro woman
upon arriving at Kowalski apartment, Scene 1. |
I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be
alone!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to her sister Stella Kowalski,
Scene 1. |
But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed
and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stella, telling she has lost
their childhood home, Scene 1. |
BLANCHE: No, I rarely touch it.
STANLEY KOWALSKI: Some people rarely touch it, but it touched
them often.
A Streetcar Named Desire
On Alcohol, Scene 1. |
In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according
to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and
vice versa.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stanley, upset over loss of Belle Reve
property and possibility of Stella being swindled by Blanche,
explains Napoleonic Code to Stella, Scene 2. |
I dont go in for that stuff ... compliments to women
about their looks. I never met a dame yet didnt know she
was good looking or not without being told. And Ive met
some of them who give themselves credit for more than theyve
got.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stanley to Blanche, Scene 2. |
I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is fifty
per cent illusion, but when a thing is important I tell the
truth, and this is the truth: I haven't cheated my sister or
you or anyone else as long as I have lived.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stanley, who asked her bluntly
about the loss of Belle Reve, Scene 2. |
There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds
of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident
grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the
land for their epic fornications to put it plainly! .
. . The four-letter word deprived us of our plantation, till
finally all that was left and Stella can verify that!
was the house itself and about twenty acres of ground,
including a graveyard, to which now all but Stella and I have
retreated.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stanley, after he accuses her
of having swindled Stella out of her inheritence, Scene 2. |
These are love-letters, yellowing with antiquity, all from
one boy.....Poems a dead boy wrote. I hurt him the way that
you would like to hurt me, but you can't! I'm not young and
vulnerable any more. But my young husband was.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stanley, Scene 2. |
Oh, I guess he's just not the type that goes for jasmine perfume,
but maybe he's what we need to mix with our blood now that we've
lost Belle Reve.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stella about Stanley, discovering
that Stella is pregnant, Scene 2. |
No. Stanley's the only one of his crowd that's likely to get
anywhere.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stella to Blanche who asks about Mitch
and whether his job is a good one, Scene 3. |
And if God choose,
I shall but love thee better - after - death!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Inscription from Browning sonnet on Mitch's
silver cigarette case, Scene 3. |
Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Mitch, Scene 3. |
It's a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white,
so the two together mean white woods. Like an orchard in spring!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche tells Mitch the origins of her
name, Scene 3. |
I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude
remark or a vulgar action.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche asks Mitch to cover bulb with colored
paper lantern, Scene 3. |
Poker shouldn't be played in a house with women.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Mitch leaves stage following Stanley's
outburst of violence, Scene 3. |
Stella! My baby doll's left me!...I want my baby!...Stella!...Stella!
A Streetcar Named Desire
A tearful Stanley screams up the stairs
to Eunice's where his pregnant wife has fled after his brutality,
Scene 3. |
Thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Mitch who offers her a cigarette,
after Stanley's violent outburst, Scene 3. |
He didn't know what he was doing....He was as good as a lamb
when I came back and he's really very, very ashamed of himself.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stella defends husband Stanley to Blanche
after what happened that night, Scene 4. |
You take it for granted that I am in something that I want
to get out of.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stella to Blanche, Scene 4. |
He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like
one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something
sub-human something not quite to the stage of humanity
yet! Yes, something ape-like about him, like one of those
pictures I've seen in anthropological studies. Thousands
and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he
is Stanley Kowalksi survivor of the stone age,
bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle. And you
you here waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you
or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been discovered
yet!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stella, on Stanley, Scene 4. |
In some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have had some
little beginning! That we have to make grow! And cling to, and
hold as our flag.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Stella, Scene 4. |
And men dont want anything they get too easy. But on
the other hand, men lose interest quickly.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche speaking to Stella, Scene 5. |
What I mean is he thinks I'm sort of prim and
proper, you know! I want to deceive him enough to make him
want me.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche admits her feelings about Mitch
to Stella, Scene 5. |
Now run along, now, quickly! It would be nice to keep you,
but I've got to be good and keep my hands off children.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to young man who calls to door
to collect money for The Evening Star after she seduces him
with a kiss, Scene 5. |
You know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone
in the world, has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or
she'll be lost!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Mitch, refusing his request
for a kiss, Scene 6. |
You're a natural gentleman, one of the very few that are left
in the world. I don't want you to think that I am severe and
old maid schoolteacherish or anything like that....I guess it's
just that I have old-fashioned ideals!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Mitch, Scene 6. |
The first time I laid eyes on him I thought to myself, that
man is my executioner!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche to Mitch, about Stanley, Scene
6. |
And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world
was turned off again and never for one moment since has there
been any light thats stronger than this kitchen
candle.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche speaking about the effect on her
of her husbands suicide, Scene 6. |
You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be
you and me, Blanche?
A Streetcar Named Desire
Mitch, Scene 6. |
Sometimes there's God so quickly.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche, finding herself loved by Mitch,
Scene 6. |