CliffsNotes on

A Streetcar Named Desire

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About the Playwright

About the Play

Introduction
List of Characters
A Brief Synopsis

Summaries and Commentaries

Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scene 9
Scene 10
Scene 11

Character Analyses

Blanche DuBois
Stanley Kowalski
Stella Kowalski
Harold Mitchell (Mitch)

Study Help

Quiz
Essay Questions

Cite this Literature Note

Would you rather . . . ?

Have a third arm.
Have hair down to your toes.
Have no nose.

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Study Help

Quiz

1:  What early warning does Stella give Blanche about her husband, Stanley?

a. Stanley values his privacy.

b. Stanley snores loudly.

c. Stanley’s friends are not the type of people Blanche is accustomed to.

d. Stanley has bouts of insomnia.
2:  Who says the following:“. . . a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion.”

a. Stella

b. Mitch

c. Blanche

d. Stanley
3:  What is Blanche’s first impression of Mitch?

a. He is as crude as Stanley.

b. He is sensitive.

c. He reminds her of her father.

d. He is hiding a secret.
4:  When Blanche begins dancing to a waltz on the radio and Mitch tries to follow, what does Stanley do?

a. He invites Stella to dance with him.

b. He cuts in on Blanche and Mitch.

c. He changes the music to a faster tempo.

d. He throws the radio out the window.
5:  What happens after Stanley’s friends force him under the shower?

a. Stella goes to stay with Eunice.

b. Blanche and Mitch resume dancing.

c. Eunice reports domestic violence to the police.

d. Stanley writes a note of apology.
6:  The morning after her fight with Stanley, Stella tells Blanche

a. to find a new place to live

b. to stop being so excitable

c. that Stanley has agreed to seek counseling

d. that she and Stanley frequently have fights
7:  Unaware that Stanley is overhearing her conversation, Blanche tells Stella

a. to leave Stanley

b. to teach Stanley a lesson by taking a lover

c. to ask Mitch to talk to Stanley

d. to not “hang back with the brutes”
8:  While Blanche is writing a letter to Shep Huntleigh, Stanley appears and

a. tries to make amends with her

b. asks her to dance with him the way she did with Mitch

c. indicates he is checking into her background

d. invites her to come bowling with him
9:  What happens when Stella questions Blanche about her interest in Mitch?

a. Blanche says she has only been flirting.

b. Stanley arrives and begins to mock any possibilities of Mitch liking her.

c. The newspaper deliveryman interrupts before Blanche can answer.

d. Blanche admits that she does want Mitch.
10:  Blanche was once married to a young man who

a. reminds her of Stanley

b. abandoned her when she became pregnant

c. was having an affair with an older man

d. was jealous of the attentions she got from other men
11:  While Stella is preparing a birthday celebration for Blanche, Stanley comes home and tells her

a. he has been given a raise at work and they are moving to a new city

b. he has changed his mind about Blanche and wants to find a larger place for them to live together

c. he has warned Mitch about Blanche’s past

d. his investigations into Blanche’s past have not revealed anything negative
12:  What is Stanley’s birthday present to Blanche?

a. A bus ticket to the one destination she cannot return to

b. A set of expensive bathing soap

c. A new bathrobe

d. A gift certificate at a restaurant
13:  What does Stanley do when he returns home from the hospital where Stella is having her baby?

a. He calls his friends for a poker game.

b. He rapes Blanche.

c. He takes a long, hot bath.

d. He begins to build a nursery.



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