When Mitch enters, we see Blanche’s fairytale wish come to light again, in that she describes Mitch standing her up as ‘utterly uncavalier.’ Here we also see a good use by Williams of alliteration to emphasise this particular part of her speech. Mitch, in this scene, becomes an embodiment of all that Stanley has been; animalistic and judgmental. We see that Mitch ‘stalks into the bedroom,’ an action we most definitely would not have seen Mitch perform previously. His intentions are clear to the audience from the outset, he has gone straight to the bedroom, so we feel a sense of predetermination to the upcoming events that we see Blanche blindly miss. Or perhaps she does not miss his intentions and manner and merely tries to hide it all away once again. We see Blanche’s excitement at Mitch’s arrival as many of her sentences end in ‘!’, which would be depicted in a hysterical tone by any actress playing out this scene. Blanche seems to talk quickly and excitedly jumping from short sentence, such as ‘And a face like a thundercloud!’ to short sentence, such as ‘And such uncouth apparel!’ and we can see her emotion getting the better of her, while she still attempts to play her game of leading Mitch on. Mitch is filled with the themes of the book in this scene, raw emotion and desire that are metaphorically visible when he comments, ‘I don’t like fans.’ He is a representation of the ‘heat’ felt throughout the book, in this scene.
In this scene we are brought back to the imagery used previously in the book of Stanley lighting a cigarette and allowing the light to play on his face, when here Mitch ‘plumps himself down’ impolitely and ‘lights a cigarette.’ We almost feel Mitch has become Stan in his actions and he has gone from his polite self to an animal. Mitch lets on here that he knows at least some of the truths about Blanche when he immediately refers to the liquor as ‘Stan’s liquor.’ Unfortunately, we still see Blanche keep up her façade when she says, ‘I don’t know what there is to drink.’ After Mitch announces this remark, Blanche’s feeling of dread felt at the start of the scene returns. She ask hastily, ‘Isn’t your mother well?’ as this is the only other thing she can think of that would make Mitch be this way with her, without Blanche actually having to confront the truth of what has happened. However, Blanche knows what is wrong with Mitch when he does not announce his mother’s illness and merely replies ‘Why?’ and so the ‘Varsouviana’ which is representative of all the feelings of loss and unhappiness in Blanche’s life starts up in her head. ‘A distant revolver shot is heard’ in Blanche’s head, and she plays out the scene in which she lost love over and over again in her head, as she feels she has once again lost any chance of comfort and safety. The audience are unsure whether Blanche hears Mitch when he announces ‘I wasn’t going to see you no more,’ as she comments ‘I can’t hear what you’re saying.’ If she didn’t hear him, then this is simply another thing Blanche is unaware of, as she is in her own world, totally unaware of what is really happening to her. If she did hear him, then she is once again covering up the truth, putting a ‘paper lantern over the light,’ in an attempt for protection.
The audience feel a great sense of pity for Blanche at this point, as she continues to ‘pretend’ to find the bottle and says, ‘Southern Comfort! What is that I wonder?’ We know this pathetic charade cannot keep up for long with all Mitch knows, and the audience feel that ‘Southern Comfort’ is the only ‘comfort’ that Blanche will receive from now on in her life. Mitch again exemplifies his likeness to Stan in this scene by replying in short retorts, as Stanley so often does when he is being condescending to Blanche. In this scene, Mitch recites sarcastically, ‘if you don’t know, it must belong to Stan,’ in reference to the alcohol.
The themes of light and darkness are brought in to play again in this scene, as Mitch reveals ‘I don’t think I ever seen you in the light,’ to Blanche. Blanche fears the light, not only because it will show Mitch that she is older than he thought, but also because she cat face the bare truth, and hides in shadows. The last time Blanche let a blinding light of love in, she lost it tragically, and she finds no comfort in harsh reality now. Blanche tries to avoid the subject that she is fearful of the light but when Mitch says he ‘let’s turn the light on in here,’ Blanche replies ‘[fearfully]: Light? Which light?’ and it seems to the audience that she is almost hysterical. Here, Mitch ‘tears’ off the paper lantern from the bulb, just as Blanche’s dainty façade is so easily broken, as is her will and we see this as an event that is close to climax as the blinding light would fill the room, and leave Blanche recoiling, like a wild animal herself, as it does later, when Mitch finally turns the light on.
The tone is taken down again after this event, with Blanche admitting, ‘I don’t want realism,’ a statement that must be hard for her to admit, as it is the truth. Blanche then goes on to become resentful to Mitch and liken herself to a ‘Tarantula’ that lured ‘victims’ to its lair. Then Blanche admits that she only ever looked for comfort and love in life, a ‘cleft in the rock of the world’ that she could hide in, and we feel a great sense of sympathy and empathy again for her character. As she admits the truth to Mitch, she comes closer to insanity and lets out ‘convulsive, sobbing laughter.’ When Mitch accuses Blanche of lying to him, she tells him ‘I didn’t lie in my heart,’ which is true as Blanche always lived inside a make believe world, just like the song she sings in the bath earlier.
The ‘blind Mexican woman,’ appears like a ghost, like an image of death itself, and her blindness can refer to Blanche’s blindness as she hides away in darkness, away from truth and light. The announcement, ‘flores para los muertes,’ meaning ‘flowers for the dead’ is a reference to the loss of Belle Reve through death, and the death of Allan and just all that Blanche has lost in her life. These words, combined with ‘the polka tune’ bring the scene a great feeling of loss, and of ending, just as Blanche’s last chance for love has ended. The Mexican woman speaks at key points in Blanche’s speech about Belle Reve, her ‘beautiful dream,’ peppering the speech with death and flowers, a great contrast of beauty and of loss. Blanche’s speech talks about ‘desire’ being the opposite to death, and Blanche wanted to get away from death so experienced as much ‘desire’ as possible.
This speech leads us on to our climax event, in which Mitch is ‘[fumbling to embrace her]’ sexually so he can get what he wants out of her. He now believes she is ‘not clean enough to bring in the house’ with his mother so simply wants what he believes he is rightly owed for his summer of devotion to her. This shatters all of Blanche’s illusions, and she is becoming overcome with ‘hysteria’ and tells Mitch to get out. Her scream of ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ is a reference to the themes of sex and desire in this play in a sharp contrast to the ‘soft summer light’ outside of the window. Blanche almost pollutes this scene of tranquility with desire and passion. As Mitch runs away, the ‘slow and blue’ music returns as this is how Blanche now feels, defeated and depressed. The climax has passed, and now the audience feels only sadness for Blanche, who is left alone.
