A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 4-5: Blanche's Secret

Although in the beginning of the play Williams illustrates Blanche to arrive at Stella’s house and behave haughtily, in scenes four and five of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche’s rivalry with Stanley ultimately gives insight to her secrets. Because Stanley is determined to figure out what happened to Belle Reve now that it is “lost,” he discovers that a man named Shaw believes he knows Blanche from “Hotel Flamingo.” When he asks Blanche if she knows Shaw, Williams’s scene directions reveal that she “laughs breathlessly” before she responds (Scene 5, 89). By describing her laugh to be breathless, Williams depicts Blanche to be overcome with worry and concern, and one begins to question what she is hiding from Stella and Stanley. When Stanley leaves, Blanche aggressively questions what gossip Stella has been hearing about her, but there is none. Blanche then admits that a “good deal” of gossip arose in Laurel as a result of her not being “so good the last two years” (Scene 5, 91). By declaring that she has not been “so good,” Blanche begins to divulge that her strong desire for men is the cause of her naughtiness. She later shows that she cannot help but attempt to seduce the young man from the local paper, and soon after she meets Mitch. One starts to question the connection between Blanche’s promiscuity and the loss of Belle Reve.