A Streetcar Named Desire Femininity and Dependence Quotes

He hasn’t gotten a thing but a goodnight kiss, that’s all I have given him, Stella. I want his respect. And men don’t want anything they get too easy. But on the other hand men lose interest quickly. Especially when the girl is over – thirty. They think a girl over thirty ought to – the vulgar term is – "put out."

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. The stereotypical genders roles of the period are shown here as a nervous Blanche prepares for her date with Mitch. She tells Stella that she wants Mitch’s respect, revealing that she has only given him a goodnight kiss because she doesn’t want him to think her "too easy." But the flip side of that is Mitch could lose interest in her, she admits. Blanche sounds desperate and lonely.

I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! Yes – I want Mitch… very badly! Just think! If it happens, I can leave here and not be anyone’s problem.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. Asked by Stella did she want Mitch, Blanche provides this revealing response to her sister. Blanche wants to marry Mitch not out of love but for security and safety reasons. This is in contrast to the passion that underpins Stella’s marriage to Stanley. Blanche is attracted to the idea of Mitch and the escape he can provide for her.

MITCH: You are light as a feather.
BLANCHE: Ha-ha!
[He lowers her but keeps his hands on her waist. Blanche speaks with an affectation of demureness]
You may release me now… [giddly] I said unhand me, sir.
[He fumblingly embraces her. Her voice sounds gently reproving]
Now, Mitch. Just because Stanley and Stella aren’t at home is no reason why you shouldn’t behave like a gentleman.
MITCH: Just give me a slap whenever I step out of bounds.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 6. Mitch and Blanche share a moment of awkward closeness when he asks what she weighs. She invites him to guess and he lifts her up, using a simile to compare her lightness to that of a feather. She lets him know the kind of man she wants, reminding him he must behave like a gallant gentleman. But Blanche’s air of the coy and virtuous Southern Belle is very much a role that she plays. Her display of feminine demureness is an "affectation," a pretense. Blanche likes to wear the mask of illusion and make-believe, so that she can bear the ugly reality of her own troubled life.

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 school-teacherish or anything like that. It’s just – well – … I guess it is just that I have – old-fashioned ideals!
[She rolls her eyes, knowing he cannot see her face.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 6. Blanche pretends to be old-fashioned when it comes to romance and virtue, asking Mitch to "unhand me" when he embraces her. Her reluctance to allow Mitch to touch or kiss her is to create the illusion of purity so that Mitch will marry her. She makes much of Mitch’s good manners and high moral quality as a natural gentleman. But Blanche’s feigned modesty is contradicted by her behavior in the previous scene when she passionately kissed a newspaper boy on the mouth.

Sometimes – there’s God – so quickly!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 6. Blanche sobs as she utters this exclamation when she is embraced by Mitch and they share a kiss. Amid the fear of growing old and alone and haunted by her troubled past, Blanche suddenly sees hope and redemption for herself. She has just shared the story of her tragic marriage with Mitch who responded with a display of affection for her. Blanche yearns for a man to protect her from the harshness of the world around her. When she finds herself loved by Mitch, she sees him as that protector and answer to her prayers.

My youth was suddenly gone up the water-spout, and – I met you. You said you needed somebody. Well, I needed somebody, too. I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle – a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 9. Blanche’s metaphor of Mitch being "a cleft in the rock of the world" shows how much she is dependent on a man to protect her. Even after he turns up to confront her and accuse her of lying to him, she desperately wants Mitch to be her savior.

Operator, operator! Give me long-distance, please… I want to get in touch with Mr. Shep Huntleigh of Dallas. He’s so well-known he doesn’t require any address. Just ask anybody who – Wait! I – No, I couldn’t find it right now… Please understand, I – No! No, wait!… One moment! Someone is – Nothing! Hold on, please!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 10. As Blanche’s mental instability increases, she clings more and more to the fantasy that Shep Huntleigh will come to sweep her away from reality and her problems. After Stanley attacks her as a liar and goes to the bathroom she is terrified of what he might do. In a panic she flees to the telephone to call Shep for help, but doesn’t know his number or address.

I don’t know if I did the right thing… I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. As Stella packs Blanche’s things for her trip to the mental hospital, she chooses the world of fantasy over reality just like her sister. Blanche has accused Stella’s husband of raping her. But Stella decides to believe her lying husband instead of her sister. She refuses to have her fantasy world with Stanley and their new baby shattered by accepting the Blanche’s word and leaving her violent and predatory husband. Yet she indicates here that she suspects Blanche may be telling the truth. Stella’s dependence on men is shown in this quote.

[Blanche turns wildly and scratches at the Matron. The heavy woman pinions her arms. Blanche cries out hoarsely and slips to her knees.]
MATRON: These fingernails have to be trimmed.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. When the Doctor and Matron arrive to take Blanche to the mental asylum she initially violently resists. She lashes out wildly with her fingernails to scratch the Matron, who pins back her arms to restrain her, and Blanche gives up and falls to her knees. In preparation for her incarceration for insanity, the Matron orders the patient’s nails to be trimmed. So Blanche loses one of the outward signs of her beauty and femininity.

Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. Blanche depends on strangers to fill the void she has felt in her life ever since her husband committed suicide. She acknowledges this in her final words in the play, spoken to the Doctor. There is a double irony in what she tells him. For sadly the Doctor is not the gallant Shep Huntleigh she was hoping would come to rescue her. Far from being her rescuer, the Doctor is about to take her to a mental asylum. Also the strangers in her life have been kind to her only in exchange for sex, or they have abused and abandoned her. This shows how delusional and detached from reality Blanche is and is now completely immersed in her fantasy world.
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