Stanley Throws Radio Out Window

Stanley Throws Radio Out Window is the explosive turning point of the poker night in Scene Three, an act of raw, impulsive violence that shatters the fragile domestic peace and reveals the brutal, animalistic core of Stanley Kowalski's character. The action occurs in the cramped, luridly lit kitchen of the Kowalski apartment on Elysian Fields, a poor but raffish New Orleans street where the "blue piano" from a nearby barroom constantly underscores the spirit of the life that goes on there. The poker players—Stanley, Steve, Pablo, and Harold Mitchell (Mitch)—are men at the peak of their physical manhood, dressed in primary colors, with vivid slices of watermelon, whiskey bottles, and glasses on the table. The bedroom is dim, lit only by light spilling between the portieres.

The Provocation and the Act

Blanche DuBois, having returned from a show with her sister Stella, turns on a small white radio in the bedroom. Rhumba music begins to play. Stanley, already half-drunk and losing at poker, immediately demands, "Who turned that on in there?" When Blanche answers, "I did. Do you mind?" he orders her to turn it off. Steve and Pablo urge him to let the girls have their music, but Stanley jumps up, crosses to the radio, and turns it off. He stops short at the sight of Blanche in the chair, her figure silhouetted in the light, and returns to the table. The tension escalates when Mitch, who has been staring through the drapes at Blanche, is mocked by Stanley. Stanley then jumps up and jerks the curtains roughly closed. When Mitch rises to go to the bathroom, Stanley yells at him to sit down. The game resumes, but the atmosphere is charged. Blanche, now in a dark red satin wrapper, turns the radio back on. Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom, crosses to the radio, and with a shouted oath, snatches it off the table and tosses the instrument out the window.

Immediate Consequences and Violence

Stella, outraged, rushes through to the poker table and commands all the men to go home, calling Stanley a "Drunk — drunk — animal thing, you!" Blanche screams a warning, but Stanley charges after Stella. The men feebly try to restrain him, but he advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow, and Stella cries out. Blanche screams and runs into the kitchen. The men rush forward, grappling and cursing, and something is overturned with a crash. Blanche, shrilly, reveals that her sister is going to have a baby. Mitch declares, "This is terrible," and Blanche calls it "Lunacy, absolute lunacy!" Stanley is forced, pinioned by the two men, into the bedroom, where he nearly throws them off before subsiding, limp in their grasp. They speak quietly and lovingly to him, and he leans his face on one of their shoulders. Stella, in a high, unnatural voice, says she wants to go away. Mitch, sadly but firmly, repeats his earlier judgment: "Poker shouldn't be played in a house with women."

Aftermath and the Call for Stella

The men quickly sweep up their winnings and leave. The Negro entertainers in the bar around the corner play "Paper Doll" slow and blue. Stanley comes out of the bathroom dripping water, still in his clinging wet polka dot drawers. He sobs, "My baby doll's left me!" He goes to the phone and dials, calling Eunice Hubbell, the upstairs neighbor, and demanding, "I want my baby!" He hangs up and dials again, threatening to keep ringing until he talks with his baby. An indistinguishable shrill voice is heard, and he hurls the phone to the floor. Dissonant brass and piano sounds play as the rooms dim out. Finally, Stanley stumbles half-dressed out to the porch and down the wooden steps to the pavement, where he throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife's name: "Stella! Stella, sweetheart! Stella!" Eunice calls down from her door, telling him to quit howling and go back to bed, warning him that he'll get the law on him. She reminds him, "You can't beat on a woman an' then call 'er back!" and calls him a "whelp of a Polack." Stanley, humbly, insists he wants his girl to come down with him. When Eunice slams her door, he lets out a heaven-splitting "STELL-LAHHHHH!" The low-tone clarinet moans. The door upstairs opens again, and Stella slips down the rickety stairs in her robe, her eyes glistening with tears. They stare at each other, then come together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity. Her eyes go blind with tenderness as she catches his head and raises him level with her. He snatches the screen door open and lifts her off her feet, bearing her into the dark flat. Blanche, who has come out on the upper landing, slips fearfully down the steps, calling for her sister, and stops before the dark entrance, catching her breath as if struck. She rushes down to the walk, looking right and left as if for a sanctuary. Mitch appears from around the corner, and Blanche, terrified, tells him that Stella ran downstairs and went back in there with him. Mitch assures her, "Sure she did. They're crazy about each other." Blanche, not used to such violence, says, "I need kindness now."