1. Scene 2

2. Summary

3. Theme: Resentment and Suspicion
‘How about my supper, huh?’
(Stanley)
Why is Stanley annoyed?
No hot meal
Class – Galatoire’s is a high-class restaurant
He will be paying!
But… they’re going out because of his poker party!
Is his attitude justified?
How does this set the scene for the conflicts to follow?
Theme: Resentment and Suspicion

4. ‘She's soaking in a hot tub to quiet her nerves. She's terribly upset
‘She's soaking in a hot tub to quiet her nerves. She's terribly upset.’ (Stella)
[Blanche comes out of the bathroom in a red satin robe.]
BLANCHE [airily]:
Hello, Stanley! Here I am, all freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand new human being!
What could the red robe signify? How does it contrast with Blanche’s outfit from Scene One?
Why is Blanche’s habit of taking baths significant?
It increases tension in the apartment: there is only one bathroom and the apartment is so small that it fogs up when the door is opened
Symbol of Blanche’s yearning to wash away her guilt
Symbol #1 - Baths

5. Symbol #2 – The Trunk ‘Everything I own is in that trunk’ (Blanche)
Why is Stanley’s violation of the trunk significant?
Resentment - the trunk and its contents is a symbol of Blanche’s old life and status
Class - he is ignorant about its contents, e.g. ‘a solid gold dress’
Stella mocks his ignorance, e.g. she tells him that rhinestone is ‘next door to glass’
Symbol #2 – The Trunk

6. ‘‘There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications – to put it plainly! (She removes her glasses with an exhausted laugh)….
It’s wonderfully fitting that Belle Reve should finally be this bunch of old papers in your big, capable hands!’’
Key Quotation
What does Blanche suggest has caused the destruction of Belle Reve?
Why does she then say that it is ‘fitting’ that Stanley now takes charge of Belle Reve in its new form of a ‘bunch of old papers’?
EXTENSION: To what extent can the destruction of Belle Reve, or to view it metaphorically, the destruction of the ‘beautiful dream’, be attributed to gender?

7. ‘He’s just not the sort that goes for jasmine perfume
‘He’s just not the sort that goes for jasmine perfume! But maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve and have to go on without Belle Reve to protect us…How pretty the sky is! I ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down.’
Key Quotation
What connection does this quote have to the description of Stanley as a ‘gaudy seed-bearer’ in scene 1?
Do you think this quote means that Blanche is prepared to accept the loss of Belle Reve and all it represents?

8. 1: Stella tells Stanley to treat Blanche and reveals the loss of Belle Reve. Stanley explodes with anger and gets even angrier when Stella laughs at his overestimation of the value of Blanche’s wardrobe.
2: Blanche comes out of the bathroom in her red robe. She poses flirtatiously. Stanley exclaims, ‘If I didn’t know that you was my wife’s sister, I’d get ideas about you!’
Strucuture
The function of this two-part scene is to set the tragedy in motion. A theatre audience would immediately pick up on the danger signs, with Stanley’s smouldering rage set against Blanche’s misguided flirtatiousness.