Stanley Exposes Blanche's Past

In late afternoon in mid-September, with the temperature at 100 degrees, Stanley Kowalski returns home to find Stella decorating for Blanche's birthday supper. He immediately begins mimicking Blanche's habits—her long baths, her demands for cokes—and orders Stella to sit down, declaring, "I've got th' dope on your big sister, Stella." This moment marks the decisive turn in the play: Stanley, who has simmered with suspicion since Blanche's arrival, now possesses concrete information gathered from his supply-man at the plant, a man who travels through Laurel and knows the town's gossip intimately. The scene is structured contrapuntally, with Blanche singing "It's Only a Paper Moon" in the bathroom while Stanley delivers his revelations in a low, relentless voice to Stella in the kitchen.

The Flamingo Hotel and the Town Scandal

Stanley's first revelation concerns Blanche's stay at the Flamingo Hotel. He explains that after Belle Reve slipped through her fingers, Blanche moved to this second-class establishment, which was "used to all kinds of goings-on." Yet even the management of the Flamingo was so impressed by Blanche's behavior that they requested her to turn in her room-key permanently, just a couple of weeks before she arrived in New Orleans. Stanley emphasizes that the supply-man has been going through Laurel for years and that "everybody else in the town of Laurel knows all about her." He describes her as "as famous in Laurel as if she was the President of the United States, only she is not respected by any party." As time went by, Stanley continues, she became a "town character," regarded as "not just different but downright loco—nuts." For the last year or two, she has been "washed up like poison," and the mayor practically told her to get out of town. Stanley adds a further damning detail: there was an army camp near Laurel, and Blanche's place was one of the locations called "Out-of-Bounds."

The Dismissal from Teaching

Stanley then moves to what he calls "Lie Number Two." He asserts that Blanche is not going back to teach school and that she never had any idea of returning to Laurel. Her resignation was not due to her nerves; rather, she was kicked out of the high school before the spring term ended. The reason, which Stanley delivers with evident relish, is that she had gotten mixed up with a seventeen-year-old boy. The boy's father learned about the affair and contacted the high school superintendent. Stanley imagines the scene with grim satisfaction: "Boy, oh, boy, I'd like to have been in that office when Dame Blanche was called on the carpet! I'd like to have seen her trying to squirm out of that one!" He concludes that they had her "on the hook good and proper" and that it was "practically a town ordinance passed against her." Throughout this recitation, Blanche continues singing in the bathroom, her voice serenely rising with the lyrics "But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me," creating a devastating ironic counterpoint to Stanley's demolition of her carefully constructed facade.

Stella's Response and the Aftermath

Stella initially resists, calling the stories "contemptible lies" and accusing Stanley of inventing them. But as Stanley insists he has thoroughly checked the information, Stella's resistance crumbles. She admits, "I don't believe all of those stories and I think your supply-man was mean and rotten to tell them. It's possible that some of the things he said are partly true." She recalls Blanche's youthful marriage to a beautiful, talented young man who wrote poetry—a man who turned out to be a degenerate. Stanley dismisses this as ancient history, focusing instead on the recent past. The conversation then turns to Mitch. Stella reveals that she and Blanche had hoped Mitch would marry her, but Stanley has already told his friend everything. "You're goddam right I told him!" Stanley declares. "I'd have that on my conscience the rest of my life if I knew all that stuff and let my best friend get caught!" He then reveals that he has already bought Blanche a bus ticket back to Laurel, and she is not staying past Tuesday. Stella, now fully aware of the catastrophe, asks helplessly, "What'll—she—do? What on earth will she—do!" Stanley's cold reply—"Her future is mapped out for her"—underscores his complete control over Blanche's fate. The scene ends with Blanche emerging from the bathroom, feeling "so good and cool and—rested," while Stella can only look at her with sad, doubtful eyes, and the distant piano goes into a hectic breakdown.