Stanley Reveals Blanche's Past to Stella

Stanley Kowalski's revelation to Stella of Blanche DuBois's concealed past is the pivotal turning point of the play, the moment when the carefully constructed illusions Blanche has built around herself are shattered by the brute force of fact. Armed with information gathered from a supply-man who travels through Laurel, Stanley sits Stella down in the kitchen of their Elysian Fields apartment in mid-September and methodically dismantles every lie his sister-in-law has told. The scene is staged contrapuntally: as Stanley delivers his devastating report, Blanche can be heard singing "It's Only a Paper Moon" from the bathroom, her saccharine ballad about make-believe providing a grotesque counterpoint to the reality being exposed in the next room.

The Accumulation of Proof

Stanley begins by telling Stella to "set down" and announces that he has "the dope on your big sister." He frames his exposé as a response to Blanche's insult—"That girl calls me common!"—and proceeds to enumerate what he calls "Lie Number One": all the squeamishness Blanche has put on, particularly the line she has fed to Mitch that she had never been more than kissed by a fellow. Stanley reveals that their supply-man, who has been going through Laurel for years, knows all about her, and that she is "as famous in Laurel as if she was the President of the United States, only she is not respected by any party." He discloses that after Belle Reve slipped through her fingers, Blanche moved to the Flamingo, a second-class hotel accustomed to all kinds of goings-on, but that even its management was so impressed by "Dame Blanche" that they requested her to turn in her room-key permanently, just a couple of weeks before she showed up in New Orleans. As Stanley speaks, Blanche's voice from the bathroom continues to sing about a "Barnum and Bailey world, just as phony as it can be."

The Dismissal from the School

Stanley then moves to what he calls "Lie Number Two": Blanche is not going back to teach school. He asserts that she never had any idea of returning to Laurel, that she did not resign temporarily from the high school because of her nerves, but was kicked out before the spring term ended. The reason, he reveals with evident relish, is that she had gotten mixed up with a seventeen-year-old boy. The boy's father learned about it and got in touch with the high school superintendent, and Blanche was called on the carpet. Stanley imagines the scene with satisfaction: "I'd like to have seen her trying to squirm out of that one!" He concludes that they told her to move on to some fresh territory, that it was "practically a town ordinance passed against her." Throughout this recitation, Blanche's singing continues, and the sound of water running in the bathroom is heard along with little breathless cries and peals of laughter, as if a child were frolicking in the tub.

Stella's Response and the Aftermath

Stella initially resists, calling the stories "contemptible lies" and insisting that her sister lived at Belle Reve. But as Stanley piles on detail after detail, her resistance crumbles. She admits that there are things about her sister she doesn't approve of, things that caused sorrow at home, and that Blanche was always "flighty." She tries to offer a mitigating context, telling Stanley about Blanche's young husband who wrote poetry and whom she worshipped, but Stanley dismisses this as ancient history. The revelation has immediate and concrete consequences: Stanley tells Stella that he has already repeated everything to Mitch, his best friend and fellow member of the Two-forty-first Engineers, and that Mitch is now "wised up" and will not be coming over for Blanche's birthday cake and ice-cream. He then delivers the final blow: Blanche is not staying after Tuesday, and he has already bought her a bus-ticket on the Greyhound. Stella, dazed, asks what Blanche will do, and Stanley replies flatly, "Her future is mapped out for her." 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.