Study Questions

 Scenes 1-3

 Scenes 4-6

 Scenes 7-11

1. Describe the setting of the play.  What does the house where the play is set look like?  What does the Kowalski apartment look like? What city is the play set in?  As you are introduced to each of the major characters in the first three scenes, how does the setting help you to understand them and their situation more?
2. Are there symbolic meanings suggested by the names of places (e.g. Desire, Elysian, Cemeteries) in the play? If so, explain the symbolic meaning.
   

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1. Stella and Blanche respond differently to Stanley's violent actions during the poker game the previous night (at the end of scene three). What does Blanche want to do? Who is Shep Huntleigh? What does Stella want to do? On page 70 what does Stella suggest is the foundation of her marriage with Stanley? In what ways is Stella being asked to choose between her sister and her husband?
2. At the end of scene four Blanche reveals her thoughts about Stanley.  How does she describe and characterize him?  Where is Stanley while Blanche is talking?  Does he overhear her?  If so, how do you think he would respond?  When Stanley reenters the apartment at the end of the scene, Stella runs to him and hugs him.  Why is this significant?  Does it suggest something about Stella's relationship with Stanley and her relationship with Blanche?
3. Describe Blanche's relationship with Stanley in scene five.  How does this latest conflict between them end? Are their conflicts in each scene becoming increasingly more serious?
4. How would you describe the relationship between Steve and Eunice? Does their marriage provide a different view of love in the play?

5. In scene five, Blanche again mentions Shep Huntleigh.  Why does she write to him?  Is she honest?  Why does she not tell the "truth"?  Does this letter provide a good example of what Blanche said on page 41 about fibbing and illusions?
6. In scene five, we see Blanche drinking again. Why does she drink? What is she nervous about?
7. Can you explain the dynamics of Blanche's encounter with the newspaper boy? Why does Blanche flirt with him?
8. What does Blanche want from Mitch? Is she honest with him? Describe their relationship at the end of scene five and during scene six.  Is Mitch an aristocratic southern gentleman?  If not, provide examples from scene six to support your answer.  Do they love each other? How is their relationship different from the relationship between Stanley and Stella?
9. In scene six Blanche explains her relationship with her husband. What does she unexpectedly learn about him? How does she respond to this? What does her husband do? How does Blanche respond to his death? Does this explain why the polka music repeats in her mind? What does this music symbolize for Blanche?

10. Do you see any significance in the brief discussion of astrological signs on pages 76-7?
11. In scene six Blanche describes her experience with love in terms of light imagery. Yet scene six takes place mostly in the dark—in candlelight. Why? Why does Blanche prefer dim light?

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1. At the beginning of scene seven Blanche is once again taking a hot bath, though it's hot outside.  Why does she bathe so often and for such long periods of time?  How does Stanley feel about Blanche's baths?  Why does he feel that way?
2. Stanley has found out the "truth" about Blanche.  According to Stanley, what is that truth?  What are the two lies that he refutes?  He mentions the Flamingo Hotel.  What is it?  How does it relate to Blanche?  Why does Blanche in scene nine call it the "Tarantula Arms" (118)?  Why has Blanche lost her teaching job?  What are Stanley's motives for telling Mitch about Blanche's lies?
3. While Stanley is talking to Stella about Blanche, Blanche is in the bathroom and the audience can hear her singing. What is the significance of her song?  Is it, too, a description of Blanche?  Does it present one side of Blanche that Stanley (and Mitch) cannot understand?

4. Describe Blanche's birthday party in scene eight. What birthday present does Stanley give her? Why does Stanley want Blanche to leave? How is her presence changing his marriage? How does he hope his marriage will be after Blanche is gone? Discuss the importance of sexuality and desire for Stanley. The party ends with Stella being taken to the hospital. Why does she go to the hospital?
5. What changes do you see in the relationship between Stella and Stanley? Between Blanche and Stanley?

6. How does Mitch respond to the news about Blanche that Stanley told him? Why doesn't he want to marry Blanche anymore? Why does he tear off the paper lantern?  Why does Blanche not want him to tear it off? What does Mitch want from Blanche at the end of the scene nine?  How does Blanche respond?

7. What does Blanche mean when she says on page 117, "I don't want realism.  I want magic….  I try to give that to people.  I misrepresent things to them.  I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth."
8. Why did Blanche have so many "intimacies with strangers" (118)?
9. In scene ten Blanche and Stanley are alone in the apartment. Why is Stella not present? Blanche again mentions Shep Huntleigh. He, too, has taken on a symbolic meaning for Blanche. What does he represent to her? Why does she tell Stanley a lie about Shep Huntleigh? What does Stanley mean when he asks Blanche, "Shall we bury the hatchet and make it a loving-cup" (125)? Why does Blanche say no?
10. What happens between Blanche and Stanley at the end of scene ten? What results of this can be seen in scene eleven? Why has Blanche gone mad? Where is she being sent? Why has Stella decided to send Blanche there? Has Stanley and Stella's marriage changed?
11. Scene eleven begins with another poker game. This time Stanley is winning and Mitch is losing. Is this signficant? Does the card game also have possible symbolic meaning? Describe how the relationship between Stanley and Mitch has changed.
12. How does Blanche initially respond to the Doctor and the Matron? Why does she later offer her hands to the Doctor? What does Blanche mean when she says, "Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" (142)?  Describe the relationship between Stanley and Stella at the end of the play, after Blanche has left.

13. Discuss the expressionist elements that Williams uses in scene eleven. What do they suggest about what Blanche is thinking and feeling?
14. What do you think is the symbolic meaning of the Mexican woman selling flowers for the dead in scene nine?

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