Blanche's Departure

Blanche's Departure is the final scene of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Blanche DuBois is taken away by a Doctor and a Matron from a state institution, ending her stay in New Orleans and completing the play's tragic arc. After weeks of deterioration following Stanley Kowalski's rape and the collapse of her relationship with Harold Mitchell, Blanche has retreated into a fantasy world where she expects a cruise with the millionaire Shep Huntleigh. When the Doctor and Matron arrive, she initially resists in panic, but the Doctor's gentle manner allows her to leave with dignity, uttering her famous line about depending on the kindness of strangers. The departure represents the final defeat of Blanche's illusions by the brutal reality embodied by Stanley, and the play's unresolved tension between Stella's grief and Stanley's possessive comfort.

Background and Context

The departure takes place some weeks after the events of Scene Ten, in which Stanley raped Blanche while Stella was in the hospital giving birth. In the intervening time, Blanche has been living in a state of psychological fragmentation, unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. She has convinced herself that she is expecting a visit from Shep Huntleigh, a wealthy former suitor from Dallas, who she believes will take her on a Caribbean cruise. Stella, aware of the truth about her sister's condition and the impossibility of Blanche remaining in the apartment, has made arrangements for Blanche to be taken to a rest home in the country, though she has not told Blanche the full truth. The poker game that frames the departure echoes the disastrous poker night of Scene Three, creating a structural symmetry that underscores the play's circular pattern of violence and domestic routine.

The Arrival of the Doctor and Matron

When the Doctor and Matron appear around the corner of the building and climb the steps to the porch, their professional gravity is exaggerated, carrying "the unmistakable aura of the state institution with its cynical detachment." Eunice Hubbell, who has been helping Stella pack Blanche's things, answers the door and tells Blanche that someone is calling for her. Blanche, still clinging to her fantasy, asks if it is the gentleman she was expecting from Dallas. Eunice, complicit in the deception, tells her she thinks it is. When Blanche steps out onto the porch and sees the Doctor, she immediately recognizes that he is not Shep Huntleigh and gasps, retreating back into the apartment. The Matron follows her inside, and Stanley, who has been playing poker with Steve, Pablo, and Mitch, rises as if to block her way. Blanche, in a moment of panic, rushes past him into the bedroom, where lurid reflections appear on the walls and the Varsouviana polka music distorts into a weird cacophony accompanied by jungle cries.

The Struggle and the Doctor's Intervention

The Matron advances on Blanche with Stanley on the other side, and Blanche retreats in panic, screaming that she does not know them and wants to be left alone. When the Matron tries to restrain her, Blanche scratches at her, and the Matron declares that her fingernails will need to be trimmed. The Doctor, however, intervenes. He takes off his hat, and the unhuman quality of his professional demeanor falls away. His voice becomes gentle and reassuring as he crosses to Blanche and crouches in front of her. He speaks her name—"Miss DuBois"—and her terror subsides. The lurid reflections fade from the walls, the inhuman cries die out, and her hoarse crying is calmed. The Doctor tells the Matron that a jacket will not be necessary, and when Blanche asks him to have the Matron let go of her, he gives the order. The Matron releases her, and Blanche extends her hands toward the Doctor. He draws her up gently and supports her with his arm, leading her through the portieres.

The Final Words and Departure

As the Doctor leads her through the kitchen past the poker players, Blanche holds tight to his arm and speaks her final line: "Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." The line echoes her earlier statement to Mitch in Scene Three, when she said, "I need kindness now," and it represents the culmination of her lifelong strategy of relying on the goodwill of others to survive. She allows the Doctor to lead her as if she were blind, walking out onto the porch without turning back. Stella, crouched on the stairs with Eunice, cries out her sister's name—"Blanche! Blanche, Blanche!"—but Blanche does not respond. She walks on, followed by the Doctor and the Matron, and they disappear around the corner of the building. The play ends with Stanley kneeling beside Stella, his fingers finding the opening of her blouse, murmuring "Now, honey. Now, love. Now, now, love," while the blue piano music swells and Steve announces that the poker game is seven-card stud.

Thematic Significance

Blanche's departure is the play's final and most devastating demonstration of the conflict between illusion and reality. Throughout the play, Blanche has insisted that she wants magic, not realism, and her final exit is a kind of tragic magic—she leaves believing she is going on a cruise, accompanied by a man who treats her with the gentleness she has always craved. The Doctor, by removing his hat and speaking her name with respect, gives her the dignity that Stanley and Mitch have denied her. Yet the reality is that she is being taken to a state institution, and the "kindness of strangers" she depends on is the professional detachment of an asylum doctor. The scene also completes the play's exploration of the fate of the outsider in American society, as Arthur Miller noted in his introduction: the play "echoed the fate of the outsider in American society and raised the question of justice." Stella's anguished cry—"What have I done to my sister?"—and her subsequent surrender to Stanley's embrace suggest that the cost of survival in this world is the abandonment of those who cannot adapt to its brutal terms. The final image of Stanley comforting Stella while the poker game resumes implies that the domestic order has been restored, but at the price of Blanche's destruction.