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Intro 介绍
The play is set in the shabby but rakishly charming New Orleans of the 1940s. Stanley and Stella Kowalski live in the downstairs flat of a faded corner building. Williams uses a flexible set so that the audience simultaneously sees the interior and the exterior of the apartment.
该剧以 20 世纪 40 年代寒酸但又不失潇洒迷人的新奥尔良为背景。斯坦利和斯特拉-科瓦尔斯基住在一栋褪色的街角建筑的楼下。威廉姆斯使用了灵活的布景，观众可以同时看到公寓的内部和外部。
Blanche DuBois, Stella’s sister, arrives: “They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then to transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at––Elysian Fields!” Blanche is a fading Southern belle from Laurel, Mississippi. An English teacher (though hardly a schoolmarm), dressed in all white, she is delicate and moth-like. Blanche tells Stella that Belle Reve, the family plantation, has been lost, and that she has been given a leave of absence from her teaching position due to her nerves. Blanche criticizes Stella’s surroundings and laments Stella’s fall from their elite upbringing.
史黛拉的姐姐布兰琪-杜波依斯来了"他们让我坐一辆叫'欲望'的街车" "然后换乘一辆叫'墓地'的车" "坐六个街区，在'伊利森田园'下车！"布兰琪是一位来自密西西比州劳雷尔的南方美人。她是一名英语教师（虽然算不上女教师），一身白衣，娇弱得像只飞蛾。布兰琪告诉史黛拉，家族的种植园 "贝勒里夫"（Belle Reve）已经失守，而她也因为神经紧张而被调离了教职。布兰琪批评了斯特拉所处的环境，并感叹斯特拉从他们的精英教育中堕落了。
Get the entire A Streetcar Named Desire LitChart as a printable PDF.
以可打印的 PDF 格式获取整个《欲望号街车》文学图表。
以可打印的 PDF 格式获取整个《欲望号街车》文学图表。
In contrast to Stella’s self-effacing, deferential nature and Blanche’s pretentious, refined airs, Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski exudes raw, animal, violent sexuality. While Blanche flutters in semi-darkness, soaks in the bath, and surrounds herself in silky clothes and costume jewels, Stanley rips off his sweaty shirts under the bare kitchen light bulb. Though Stella still cares for her sister, her life has become defined by her role as Stanley’s wife: their relationship is primarily based on sexual chemistry. Stella’s ties to New Orleans rather than the lost Belle Reve are further emphasized through her pregnancy: she is bringing a new Kowalski, not a DuBois, life into the world.
与斯黛拉的自卑、恭顺和布兰奇的自命不凡、文质彬彬形成鲜明对比的是，斯黛拉的丈夫斯坦利-科瓦尔斯基（Stanley Kowalski）散发着原始、野性和暴力的性欲。当布兰奇在半昏暗的环境中翩翩起舞、泡在浴缸里、身着丝绸服装、佩戴古装珠宝时，斯坦利却在厨房光秃秃的灯泡下脱掉汗湿的衬衫。虽然斯特拉仍然关心妹妹，但她的生活已经被她作为斯坦利妻子的角色所定义：他们的关系主要建立在性的化学反应上。斯特拉与新奥尔良而非失落的贝勒里夫的联系通过她的怀孕得到了进一步强调：她将为这个世界带来一个新的科瓦尔斯基，而非杜波依斯。
While Blanche is bathing, Stanley rummages through her trunk, suspecting Blanche of having sold Belle Reve and cheated Stella – and thereby himself – out of the inheritance. Blanche reveals that the estate was lost due to a foreclosed mortgage, showing Stanley the bank papers to prove it”
在布兰奇洗澡时，斯坦利翻找她的行李箱，怀疑布兰奇卖掉了贝勒瑞芙，骗走了斯特拉的遗产，也骗走了自己的遗产。布兰奇透露，遗产是由于抵押贷款被取消而丢失的，并向斯坦利出示了银行文件来证明这一点"。
Later that night, in the “lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colors of childhood’s spectrum” of the kitchen, Stanley and his friends are still in the thick of their drunken poker night when Blanche and Stella return from an evening out. Stanley’s friend Mitch catches Blanche’s eye, and as she asks Stella about him, she maneuvers herself skillfully in the light to be caught half-dressed in silhouette.
当晚，在厨房 "夜色朦胧，童年光谱的原始色彩 "中，斯坦利和他的朋友们还沉浸在醉醺醺的扑克之夜，布兰 奇和斯黛拉外出归来。斯坦利的朋友米奇引起了布兰奇的注意，当她向斯特拉打听米奇时，她在灯光下巧妙地摆弄自己，半裸的身影被捕捉到。
Blanche and Mitch flirt. Blanche hangs a paper lantern over a bare bulb. Stanley seethes that Blanche is interrupting the poker game. Eventually, Blanche turns on the radio, and Stanley erupts: he storms into the bedroom and tosses the radio out of the window. When Stella intervenes to try and make peace, Stanley hits her. Blanche and Stella escape upstairs to Eunice’s apartment. The other men douse Stanley in the shower, which sobers him up, and he is remorseful. Stanley stumbles outside, bellowing upstairs: “STELL-LAHHHHH!” Stella slips back downstairs into Stanley’s arms, and Mitch comforts Blanche in her distress.
布兰奇和米奇调情。布兰琪把纸灯笼挂在一个光秃秃的灯泡上。斯坦利怒斥布兰奇打扰了扑克游戏。最后，布兰奇打开了收音机，斯坦利爆发了：他冲进卧室，把收音机扔出窗外。当斯特拉出面劝和时，斯坦利打了她。布兰琪和斯特拉逃到楼上尤妮斯的公寓。其他男人在浴室里给斯坦利浇水，使他清醒过来，他懊悔不已。斯坦利跌跌撞撞地跑出去，在楼上大喊："史黛拉，史黛拉！"史黛拉溜回楼下，投入斯坦利的怀抱，米奇安慰着痛苦中的布兰奇。
The next morning, Stella is calm and radiant, while Blanche is still hysterical. Stella admits that she is “thrilled” by Stanley’s aggression, and that even though Blanche wants her to leave, she’s “not in anything that [she has] a desire to get out of.” Blanche suggests that they contact Shep Huntleigh, a Dallas millionaire, to help them escape. The only thing holding Stella and Stanley together, Blanche says, is the “rattle-trap street-car named Desire.” Stanley, unbeknownst to Stella and Blanche, overhears Blanche criticize Stanley as being coarse and sub-human. Blanche tells Stella, “In this dark march toward whatever it is we’re approaching . . . Don’t––don’t hang back with the brutes!”
第二天早上，斯特拉平静而神采奕奕，而布兰奇仍然歇斯底里。斯特拉承认，斯坦利的咄咄逼人让她 "激动不已"，尽管布兰奇希望她离开，但她 "并没有任何想要离开的念头"。布兰奇建议他们联系达拉斯的百万富翁谢普-亨特利（Shep Huntleigh），让他帮助他们逃走。布兰琪说，唯一能把斯特拉和斯坦利维系在一起的就是那辆 "名为欲望的破旧街车"。斯坦利在斯特拉和布兰奇不知道的情况下，偷听到布兰奇批评斯坦利粗鲁和低人一等。布兰琪对斯特拉说："在这黑暗的旅途中，不管我们正在接近什么.............不要--不要和那些畜生在一起！"
Later, Stanley lets drop a few hints that he knows some repugnant details about Blanche’s past, and Blanche is nervous, but the tension does not crack just yet. While Blanche is in the apartment for Mitch to pick her up for a date, a Young Man comes to collect money for the paper. Blanche fervently flirts with him and kisses him on the mouth before Mitch arrives.
When Blanche and Mitch return from their date, she is exhausted with “the utter exhaustion which only a neurasthenic personality can know” and still nervous from Stanley’s hints. Blanche is still playing at being a naïve Southern belle who still blushes at a kiss. Mitch boasts of his strapping manliness, but by speaking quantitatively about his athleticism rather than stripping his sweaty shirt and baring his torso.
Blanche melodramatically tells Mitch about her tragic love life: when she was sixteen, she married an effeminate young man who turned out to be homosexual. Blanche reproached her husband while they were dancing the Varsouviana Polka, and her husband committed suicide. Blanche is still haunted by his death (and the play will become increasingly haunted with the background music of the polka).
About a month later, Blanche is offstage soaking in the bath while Stella prepares Blanche’s birthday dinner. Stanley tells Stella all about Blanche’s sordid history in Laurel, as Blanche sings “Paper Moon” from the bathroom (“It’s a Barnum and Bailey world / Just as phony as it can be / But it wouldn’t be make-believe / If you believed in me!”). After losing Belle Reve, Blanche moved to the dubious Hotel Flamingo until getting kicked out for her promiscuous ways. Blanche is not taking a leave from her school due to her nerves: she has been fired for having an affair with a seventeen-year-old student. Stella, rushing to defend Blanche, is horrified, and she is equally horrified when Stanley tells her that he has also told these stories to Mitch. Stanley informs Stella that he’s bought Blanche a one-way bus ticket back to Mississippi.
Mitch does not show up for Blanche’s birthday dinner. Blanche senses that something is wrong. Stanley and Stella are tense. Blanche tries to telephone Mitch but doesn’t get through; Stanley, Stella, and the audience know what Mitch knows, though Blanche does not. Stanley presents Blanche with the bus ticket. As we hear the faint strains of the polka, Blanche rushes out of the room. Stanley and Stella nearly begin a huge fight, but Stella goes into labor.
Later that evening, Blanche is alone in the apartment and drunk; the Varsouviana is playing in her mind. Mitch, also drunk, arrives and confronts Blanche. She admits that Stanley’s stories are true – that after her husband’s suicide, she had sought solace in the comfort of strangers. A Mexican Woman comes to the door and offers “Flores para los muertos.” Mitch tries to have sex with Blanche but without agreeing to marry her, though he then stops himself. She cries “Fire! Fire!” and he stumbles away.
It’s several hours later the same night, and Blanche has been drinking steadily since Mitch left. Stanley comes home from the hospital to get some rest before the baby comes. Blanche has put on an absurd white evening gown and a rhinestone tiara. Blanche makes up a story about Shep Huntleigh sending her a telegram from Dallas, and then tells Stanley that Mitch came back on his knees with roses to beg for forgiveness. Stanley shatters her stories, saying, “You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile! Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor! I say––Ha!––Ha!” He bursts out of the bathroom in his brilliant silk pajamas, and advances on Blanche. She attempts to resist him, but Stanley overpowers her with physical force: “Tiger––tiger! Drop the bottle top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” She sinks down, and he carries her limp body to the bed; the swelling music indicates that he rapes her (offstage).
Weeks later, Stella and Eunice are packing Blanche’s bags while the men play poker in the kitchen and Blanche takes a bath. They have made arrangements for Blanche to go to a mental asylum, but Blanche believes Shep Huntleigh is coming at last to take her away. Blanche has apparently told Stella about the rape, but Stella refuses to believe her. When Blanche emerges from the bath, she is delusional, worrying about the cleanness of the grapes and speaking of drowning in the sea. A Doctor and Matron from the asylum arrive, and Blanche sweeps through the poker players to the door. When she realizes that this is not Shep Huntleigh come to take her away, she initially resists, darting back into the house like a frightened animal, but she cannot hide from the Matron’s advances. Stanley yanks the paper lantern off the light bulb. The Matron catches Blanche and drags her out. The Doctor treats her more calmly, calling her by name, and Blanche is mollified, grasping at her final shreds of dignity: “Whoever you are––I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” The Doctor leads her offstage. Stella, holding her baby in her arms, breaks down in “luxurious sobbing,” and Stanley comforts her with loving caresses.
