A Streetcar Named Desire Irony Quotes

They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. There is much situational irony, symbolism and classical allusion in Blanche DuBois’s description of the journey she takes to get to Stella and Stanley’s apartment in New Orleans. Important themes of mortality and sexual desire are contained in her words to Eunice. Foreshadowed is her tragic journey to her eventual mental destruction and the fatal desire that drives her actions and those of the other characters. The streetcars Desire and Cemeteries referred to by Blanche are real and Elysian Fields is also an actual street. There is important metaphorical meaning in the three names used. In Greek mythology Elysian Fields was the final resting place for heroes and the virtuous, a heavenly reward from the gods after they died. But for Blanche it will bring no such comfort and will be the place of her emotional and mental downfall. Her trip on the streetcars symbolizes the journey of her own life to her degradation and ruin.

Open your pretty mouth and talk while I look around for some liquor! I know you must have some liquor on the place Where could it be, I wonder? Oh, I spy, I spy!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. Blanche lies to Stella about not knowing where the liquor is kept. But we know that she had already discovered a bottle of whiskey in the closet before Stella arrived and helped herself to a half tumbler. This is an example of dramatic irony. Blanche deludes herself into believing that she doesn’t have an alcohol problem. The reality is she covers up the extent of her drinking by lying about it to other people.

Just water, baby, to chase it! Now don’t get worried, your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard, she’s just all shaken up and hot and tired and dirty!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. One of the first things Blanche reaches for when she shows up at her sister’s home is the whiskey bottle, treating herself to a large helping from it. When Stella returns home, Blanche has another glass. But she attempts to conceal her alcoholism from her sister by playing down her drinking. The audience already knows about Blanche’s over-fondness for drink, an example of dramatic irony.

Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 3. Blanche says this to Mitch in an intimate moment between the two. This is after he shares the story of the silver cigarette case given him by a dying girl with an inscription from a Browning love poem. Blanche is saying that people who have felt sorrow in their lives are more sincere. However, her words are ironic. For while Blanche has felt the sorrow of losing a husband, she is playing the part of an innocent women with Mitch, while covering up a scandalous and promiscuous past.

I’m not accustomed to having more than one drink. Two is the limit – and three! [She laughs] Tonight I had three.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 3. When he comes to covering up the extent of her drinking, Blanche is an accomplished liar. She assures people that she has drunk less than she actually has, like she does here with Mitch. Here we have an example of dramatic irony, since the audience is already aware of her drinking habits. The theme of fantasy vs reality is also seen here.

It’s a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods. Like an orchard in spring!… We are French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were French Huguenots.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 3. Blanche DuBois tries to impress Mitch as she explains the meaning of her name, using a tone of superiority about her ethnic origins. In a simile she compares her name to an orchard in spring. She tells him that Blanche means white, which is ironic, because the color symbolizes purity and Blanche is hiding a promiscuous past.

There’s something downright – bestial – about him!… 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 Kowalski – 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! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! – you call it – this party of apes! Somebody growls – some creature snatches at something – the fight is on! God!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 4. Blanche breaks into a rant against Stanley and dehumanizes him to Stella. Using the language of metaphor and simile, she degrades him as an ape-like animal and unevolved survivor of the Stone Age. Blanche continues with insulting and condescending imagery about the primitive masculinity of Stanley and his poker party "apes." What she doesn’t realize, but the audience does, is that Stanley has entered the room and overhears every word. This an example of dramatic irony.

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! In this dark march toward whatever it is we’re approaching… Don’t – don’t hang back with the brutes!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 4. Blanche uses metaphorical language to depict the battle by aristocratic Southerners like Stella and herself as a "dark march" against the uncultured "brutes." She is referring to people like Stanley when she uses this animal imagery. She urges Stella to fight to save their "tenderer" way of life from the onslaught of modern America, calling on her to rally under "our flag" in another metaphor. The motif of light is used, as Blanche speaks of fighting the darkness of modernity. There is dramatic irony with Blanche not aware that Stanley is listening to her tirade against him, but the audience is. Her superior tone and references to common people like Stanley as brutes reflects the theme of social class.

I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my – experience – I have never known anyone like you.
[Blanche looks at him gravely; then she bursts into laughter and then claps a hand to her mouth.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 6. Back at the flat after their date night, Mitch is in awe of Blanche, as he candidly expresses feelings of admiration for her. He declares that he just wants her to be herself, which is ironic, because the person he has fallen for is not the real Blanche, but an illusion. A naive Mitch has been fooled by the mask of deceit she hides behind, her lies and false appearances. But Blanche’s mask slips momentarily when she bursts out laughing and then has to quickly stop herself.

[Blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapuntally with Stanley’s speech.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. While Stanley spills the beans to Stella about her sister’s sexually permissive past, an oblivious Blanche is in the bath singing a popular ballad described as saccharine – meaning too sweet or sentimental. So the bathroom becomes Blanche’s refuge from reality. Dramatic irony is used to show that she is not aware of her sordid past being exposed while she sings.

BLANCHE [singing blithely]: Say, it’s only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea – But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. While taking a bath Blanche is described as "blithely" singing a song about love and fantasy. This means she is singing in a cheerful and carefree manner, creating dramatic irony. For Blanche doesn’t know that her world of fantasy is at that moment being shattered by Stanley who is telling Stella all about her sordid past.

It’s a Barnum and Bailey world. Just as phony as it can be – But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. Blanche is in the bath singing from the popular 1930s song, It’s Only a Paper Moon. At the same time Stanley is spilling the beans to Stella about her sister’s sordid past in the Flamingo Hotel in her hometown of Laurel. The words link to Blanche’s tendency to hide her real self behind a facade of purity and gentility. Her singing about "phony" and "make-believe" is ironic, because the words sum up Blanche herself.

It’s only a paper moon. Just as phony as it can be – But it wouldn’t be make-believe, If you believed in me!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. While Stanley tells Stella about Blanche’s promiscuous past in the seedy Hotel Flamingo, Blanche can be heard singing this popular 1930s song while taking a bath. It is an appropriate song. Its lyrics about "phony" and "make-believe" and "if you believed in me" perfectly sum up Blanche’s world of fantasy and poor relationship with the truth. Her carefree singing is ironic, because at the same time Stanley is revealing Blanche’s promiscuous reputation in Laurel to her sister Stella.

STELLA: I said, Is Mitch through with her?
[Blanche’s voice is lifted again, serenely as a bell. She sings "But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me."]
STANLEY: No, I don’t think he’s necessarily through with her – just wised up!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. From the bathroom Blanche sings her song about love and illusion unaware that Mitch is no longer smitten by her and won’t be marrying her. A simile describes her voice as being as serene as a bell. This is an example of the Williams using Stanley’s speech and Blanche’s song contrapuntally to build up tension by creating dramatic irony.

Yes, I do, so refreshed. [She tinkles her highball glass.] A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a new outlook on life!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 7. It’s clear from Blanche’s words to Stella that bathing serves as a cleansing ritual and tool for her. Dramatic irony is created here when she says that a hot bath and cool drink gives her a "new outlook." For we know that outlook has just been destroyed by Stanley, when he uncovered Blanche’s sordid past in Laurel.

What am I looking around here for? Oh, yes – liquor! We’ve had so much excitement around here this evening that I am boxed out of my mind! [She pretends suddenly to find the bottle. He draws his foot up on the bed and stares at her contemptuously.] Here’s something. Southern Comfort! What is that, I wonder?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 9. Blanche pretends to search for and find the liquor bottle. An obvious alcoholic who pretends that she is not, she turns to alcohol to solve her problems. Ironically there is no comfort to be had for her in the bottle of Southern Comfort.

Death… the opposite is desire.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 9. Blanche believes that desire is the opposite of death. After her parents pass and her husband commits suicide, she chooses a life of uncontrolled sexual desire in order to feel alive. She seeks "intimacies with strangers" as a refuge from all the death that has haunted her life. Ironically, instead of saving her, this leads to her own metaphorical death and self-destruction of her character. Blanche suffers ostracization, her reputation is destroyed and she eventually loses her sanity.

BLANCHE: Marry me, Mitch.
MITCH: I don’t think I want to marry you any more… You’re not clean enough to bring into the house with my mother.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 9. For Blanche marriage is a way out of her loneliness and the trap she finds herself in. When Mitch asks to have sex with her, she proposes marriage. But Mitch rejects her proposal, for in his eyes she is tarnished since he learned of her scandalous and promiscuous past in Laurel. As he speaks these words to her he drops his hands from Blanche’s waist. Mitch’s cruel behavior and dismissal of Blanche as unclean and not fit to marry display a certain misogyny and toxic masculinity, not unlike his friend Stanley’s. It is also ironic, for moments before Mitch had his hands on Blanche looking to have sex with her.

Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 10. Blanche accuses Mitch of "deliberate cruelty" in repeating slanderous stories about her told to him by Stanley. Her statement to Stanley that she has never been cruel is ironic. It ignores her guilt over her role in her young husband’s suicide. He shot himself when Blanche told him he disgusted her after he slept with a man. Blanche’s description of Stanley to his wife Stella as bestial, ape-like and survivor from the Stone Age could also be considered cruel.

BLANCHE: Why are you looking at me like that? Is something wrong with me?
EUNICE: You look wonderful, Blanche. Don’t she look wonderful?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. Blanche is completely out of touch with reality and doesn’t know what is going on. We have dramatic irony here, because the other characters know that Blanche is being sent to a mental institution and she is unaware of this. She also feels that everybody is staring at her and is concerned about her appearance, but Eunice assures her that she looks wonderful.

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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