I never was hard or self-sufficient enough. When people are soft – soft people have got to shimmer and glow – they’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a – paper lantern over the light… It isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I – I’m fading now! I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick.
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. Blanche knows that her scandalous behavior over the last two years has been the subject of gossip. Using metaphors, she explains her difficulties in life to Stella as her physical looks fade through age. She had to put on a feminine facade of fantasy and illusion, her "butterfly wings", to make herself attractive to men. Her use of the double entendre "turn the trick" is interesting as she wonders how much longer she can keep up her lies and deceit. The phrase is also a reference to prostitution, with Blanche having led a less than virtuous life back in Laurel. The paper lantern over the light symbolizes how Blanche obscures the truth and conceals her real self from men and everybody else.