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Definition
Blanche: "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!"
Stanley: "Tiger–tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!" |
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Definition
Blanche: "I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action."
Blanche: "It is for me then! [Looks fearfully form one to the other and then to the portieres. the 'Varsourviana' faintly plays] Is it the gentleman I was expecting from Dallas?" |
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Term
| Interior and Exterior Appearance |
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Definition
Blanche: "After all, a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion."
Blanche: "Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them."
Blanche: "I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth." (with Mitch). |
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Term
| Masculinity and Physicality |
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Definition
Stanley: "Catch."
Stella: "what?"
Stanley: "Meat!"
[He heaves the package at her.]
Stanley carries “a red-stained package from the butcher’s”
Blanche [wildly]: "Stella, watch out he's - " [Stanley charges after Stella.] [She backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out.]
Williams describes him as a "richly feathered bird among hens" |
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Term
| Femininity and Dependence |
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Definition
Stella: "I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley."
Eunice: "Don't ever believe it. Life has to go on. No matter what happens, you've got to keep going."
Stanley [voluptuously, soothingly]: "Now honey. Now, now love." Image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. Wrongfulness of representation.
Blanche: "Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." |
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