Kelso High School

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Kelso High School

• A Streetcar named Desire
• by Tennessee Williams

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Scene Four

• Although this scene is short it is very important
  in the drama.
• Why?

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Turning Point

• Turning Point -

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Why is Scene 4 the turning point?

• When Stanley returning home unheard by either
  Blanche or Stella overhears Blanches
  condemnation of him, it is clear that Blanches
  fate is now sealed as Stanley will only rest when
  she is completely removed from his life

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Why is Scene 4 the turning point?

• By the end of this scene the audience is now
  aware that Stella has chosen Stanley over
  Blanche, a decision which leaves Stanley
  triumphant and Blanche isolated

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Why is Scene 4 the turning point?

• Finally the scene introduces the metaphor of the
  streetcar. This in itself suggests that there is
  now no turning back for Blanche and that she is
  now headed for disaster

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CharacterisationBlanche

• Blanche tells Stella that sheer desire is no
  basis for a marriage. She invokes the streetcar,
  that bangs through the Quarter, up one old
  narrow street and down another as a metaphor for
  what she believes Stella feels
• Blanche fails to understand Stellas passionate
  relationship with her husband. It seems that
  with all her sexual experience she has never
  experienced true love

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Characterisation Blanche

• Stella asks whether Blanche has ever ridden the
  streetcar. Blanche replies, It brought me here,
  where Im not wanted and where Im ashamed to
  be This is true both literally and
  metaphorically. Literally, it was indeed a
  streetcar named Desire which brought her to
  Stellas. Metaphorically, Stella, Stanley and
  Mitch soon learn that Blanches search for sexual
  desire led to her expulsion from Laurel, while
  her familys need to shroud desire and cover up
  epic fornications led to the break-up of the
  Belle Reve estate and the impoverishment of the
  present generation

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Characterisation Blanche

• This scene also reveals Blanche to be entirely
  calculating when it comes to relations with men,
  I think of money in terms of what it does for
  you
• Blanches threat to laugh in Stellas face if
  Stella tries to claim that her attraction to
  Stanley is just one of those electric things
  shows that Blanche does not truly believe in
  love. Throughout the play she claims to possess
  romantic notions but this scene reveals her to be
  a cold cynic

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Characterisation Blanche

• Scene Four also contains one of Blanches most
  famous speeches in which she describes how human
  kind has evolved too far past the beast that
  Stanley represents for Stella to reduce herself
  to his level, Theres even something sub-human
  - something not quite to the stage of humanity

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Characterisation Stella

• Although Stella technically condemns Stanleys
  propensity for violence, it is clear that his
  violent nature heightens Stellas desire for him
  e.g. she finds the light bulb incident on their
  honeymoon thrilling
• The stage directions at the beginning of the
  scene which liken Stellas face after a night
  with Stanley to an Eastern idol suggest that
  there is something mystical about their
  relationship

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Characterisation Stella

• Stella has lost patience with Blanches
  hysterical plans and her irritation shows in her
  dry, ironical comments. She begins to resent her
  sisters disapproval and harsh criticism of
  Stanley
• Indeed the difference in the sisters attitudes
  to passion, shows that despite their common
  background and social values, they are very
  different characters and this influences Stellas
  decision to choose Stanley, Im not in anything
  I have a desire to get out of and Stella has
  embraced him with both arms, fiercely and in full
  view of Blanche

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Characterisation Stanley

• Having overheard Blanches condemnation of him as
  a brute and as an ape-man, Stanley now has
  even more reason to dislike Blanche and an even
  greater wish to find a way to get rid of her.
  His triumphant grin at the close of the scene
  promises ill for Blanche

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Stagecraft

• The use of the locomotion is clever as its noise
  means that Stella and Blanche are unaware that
  Stanley has returned. It also symbolises the idea
  of fate as once Stanley overhears Blanches
  condemnation of him, her fate is now sealed and
  he will not rest until she is gone
• The constant sound of the Blue Piano symbolises
  sadness and loss. It plays again at the moment
  that Stella chooses Stanley