Scenes 7-11 of A Streetcar Named Desire

The ending scenes of A Streetcar Named Desire provide a lot of insight into the life of Blanche which helps the audience understand why she acts the way she does.

The audience learns that Stanley has been investigating Blanche's past and has found out a lot of dirty details that she hasn't told anyone before.  According to Stanley Blanche slept with many men in Laurel and she even went as far as to sleep with one of her 17 year old students.  This act was what cost her her job, which is understandable.  Once Stanley learns all of the details about her past he feels obligated to tell his friend Mitch and Stella.  Stella reaction is disbelief.  She can't believe that Blanche would engage in those kind of activities.  Mitch is very upset when he learns about Blanche.  He was thinking about possibly marrying her, but now that he knows the truth he says she is "too unclean."  That doesn't stop him from trying to have sex with her though.  It seems like he feels she owes him at least that.

Stanley's actions prove to hit Blanche very hard, but I believe that the actions she took earlier in her life led to her demise more.  In my opinion marrying that boy at such a young age was her biggest mistake.  Even though times were different back then, 16 is still such a young age to get married.  People at that age don't even know who they are themselves, let along what they are looking for in a long term relationship.  The boy killing himself proves to continually haunt Blanche.  She has flashbacks of the nights events quite frequently.  It's as if she can't move on from being 16.  This might explain why she seems to have an affinity for young boys such as her ex-husband and the paper boy.  She probably feels like that is the right kind of man for her and they also make her feel good about her herself.  She is always worried about her age so if she is able to attract a young man it proves to herself that in a way she still has "it".

The reason Stanley is important in Blanche's life is because he pushes her over the edge.  He is constantly rude to her and belittles her all the time.  He didn't have to dig into her personal life, but he did anyway.  He didn't stop there though, he even told Blanche's boyfriend about her past.  By exposing her past Stanley takes away a lot of her credibility.  The meanest and most horrible thing Stanley does to Blanche is rape her.  That was completely uncalled for.  It is even worse that he did it while his wife was in labor.  When Blanche tells Stella about it she doesn't believe her.  She says that she can't continue to live with Stanley and believe Blanche.  She must choose one or the other and she decides to stay with Stanley.  Stanley has now taken away the most important person in Blanche's life.

The play ends with Blanche being taken to a mental institution.  The audience never finds out how her life unfolds after that.