Shep Huntleigh Quotes

Do you remember Shep Huntleigh?… Of course you remember Shep Huntleigh. I went out with him at college and wore his pin for a while… I ran into him on Biscayne Boulevard, on Christmas Eve, about dusk… getting into his car – Cadillac convertible; must have been a block long!… You’ve heard of oil-wells?… He has them, all over Texas. Texas is literally spouting gold in his pockets.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 4. Blanche, speaking to Stella, claims to have ran into an old college boyfriend during her Christmas trip to Miami. Her recollection and resurrection of the oil-rich Shep Huntleigh reflects Blanche’s materialism and her need for a man to rescue and take care of her. Shep, who never appears in the play, is also a symbol of Blanche’s world of fantasy. We never know if he is a real person or an imaginary friend that Blanche has conjured up.

Darling Shep. Sister and I in desperate situation… Would you be interested in – ?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 4. Blanche begins to write a telegram message to send to an old college beau Shep Huntleigh asking him to come to the rescue of her and Stella. Lost in her fantasy world, Blanche thinks that Shep can provide financial support for her and her sister to get away from Stanley. Huntleigh is a married millionaire who never actually appears in the play. We don’t know how much or little Blanche says about him is real, or simply created by her imagination in order to cope with reality. One of the themes addressed here is women’s dependence on men in a patriarchal society. Blanche’s frantic efforts to escape and desperate cry for help to an old flame are signs of a woman on the edge of a mental breakdown.

STELLA: What are you laughing at, honey?
BLANCHE: Myself, myself, for being such a liar! I’m writing a letter to Shep.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. Shep Huntleigh represents Blanche’s perfect man and the unattainable. He is a symbol of American success and wealth and Blanche’s refuge and means of escape from reality. Her old boyfriend in college, he is now married in Dallas and a millionaire owner of oil wells. Shep never actually appears in the play. As Blanche writes a letter to him, she admits to being a liar. Generally economical with the truth, Blanche is given to fabricating stories and the details of her life to suit her purpose – which she does in her letter. She fantasizes that he will provide her the cash to rescue her from her current situation and set her up in a shop.

Darling Shep. I am spending the summer on the wing, making flying visits here and there. And who knows, perhaps I shall take a sudden notion to swoop down on Dallas! How would you feel about that? Ha-ha!… Most of my sister’s friends go north in the summer but some have homes on the Gulf and there has been a continued round of entertainments, teas, cocktails, and luncheons.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. Blanche reads from the letter she is writing to Shep Huntleigh, an old college boyfriend, asking for financial support for her and Stella to escape Stanley. She lies about what she has been up to for the past few months. She enhances the details of her life by pretending that it has been an endless round of cocktails and meals with wealthy friends on the Gulf. This is to impress Shep so that he will be more inclined to give her money for a new start. Shep is Blanche’s knight in shining armor, who never actually comes to her rescue.

What he wants is my companionship. Having great wealth sometimes makes people lonely! A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life – immeasurably! I have those things to offer, and this doesn’t take them away. Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession. But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart – and I have all of those things – aren’t taken away, but grow! Increase with the years! How strange that I should be called a destitute woman! When I have all of these treasures locked in my heart. I think of myself as a very, very rich woman! But I have been foolish – casting my pearls before swine!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 10. Blanche explains to Stanley what her old college boyfriend Shep Huntleigh wants from her and what she has to offer him in return. She tries to convince Stanley that there is more to a woman than physical beauty and appearance. Blanche may be a fading beauty who is financially impoverished, but in her fantasy world she believes that the married Texas oil millionaire will want her for her beautiful spirit and mind. Her speech is a deluded hymn to herself, where in a metaphor she compares such riches she has to offer to treasures. When she uses the animal metaphor "casting my pearls before swine" she admits to foolishly giving what she has to offer to those who don’t appreciate it. Her use of "pearls" and "swine" link to the theme of social class and Blanche’s social snobbery. Stanley takes the animal imagery as a personal insult.

There wasn’t no wire at all!… There isn’t no millionaire! And Mitch didn’t come back with roses ’cause I know where he is.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 10. Stanley exposes Blanche as a liar and fantasist, who invents stories and twists the truth in order to hide from reality. He dismantles her story about receiving a telegram from Texas oil millionaire Shep Huntleigh. He also reveals that he is aware his friend Mitch did not come back to bring her roses and beg for forgiveness, as Blanche claimed.

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.

EUNICE [returning, brightly]: Someone is calling for Blanche.
BLANCHE: It is for me, then!
[She looks fearfully from one to the other and then to the portieres. The "Varsouviana" faintly plays]
Is it the gentleman I was expecting from Dallas?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. Blanche’s madness and detachment from reality are apparent when Eunice announces that someone is calling. It is the Doctor and Matron who have come to take Blanche to the mental institution. But Blanche believes her old college boyfriend Shep Huntleigh has arrived to rescue her. The polka tune she and her young husband danced to before he shot himself and has haunted Blanche ever since plays faintly.
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