This scene balances with the poker game in Scene 3. But where Stanley was losing in the earlier game, he is now the winner, suggesting that he is once again the undisputed master in his own house.
Williams’ position is probably best stated in Eunice’s remark to Stella after Stella says that she couldn’t go on living with Stanley if Blanche’s story is true. Eunice tells her “Don’t ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep on going.” But apparently Blanche did not have the strength to go on living in spite of everything. She was too delicate to be able to withstand the pressures of living in a brutal, realistic world.
When Blanche refuses to go with the doctor and matron, she tells them that she has forgotten something. It is then that Stanley wonders what and takes off the “magic” Chinese lantern from the light, leaving the naked light bulb glaring at Blanche. This is the final blow for Blanche who tries to escape and is trapped by the matron. Again the light symbolism emphasizes Blanche’s desire to live in a world of semi-illusion which contradicts Stanley’s world.
The play ends with Stanley’s comforting Stella in the only way he knows how—that is, by unbuttoning her blouse and fondling her breasts, again emphasizing him as the “gaudy seed-bearer.”
The last line of the play puns on the man’s world as Steve announces that the game is “seven-card stud,” a particularly wild poker game.
