A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams: Summary

    Blanche DuBois, an aristocratic highschool English teacher, moves into her sister, Stella, and her husband, Stanley's apartment for the summer after she lost her family's plantation, Belle Reve.  Upon arrival, she is shocked and disturbed by Stella's lifestyle.  She comments on how she had fully given up her wealthy, old fashioned lifestyle to live in a diverse, working class town with an "uncivilized" man like Stanley.

    Her outburst ends with her revealing that she lost the plantation because the whole family died and she could not keep up with the payments on her own, and blaming Stella for running off and leaving her to deal with the mess.
    That night, Blanche meets Stanley for the first time.  As they make small talk, he changes his sweaty t-shirt in front of her and abruptly asks her what happened to her marriage.  She says that he died and leaves, saying that she feels ill.
    The next day, while Blanche is taking a rejuvenating bath, Stanley and Stella discuss Blanche, with Stella Stella explaining Blanche’s ordeal of losing Belle Reve and asking that he be kind to her by flattering her appearance.  But Stanley is mad.  He accuses Blanche of scamming them and that she spent the family fortune on the expensive clothes and jewelry in her trunk.  This pisses Stella off and she walks away.
    When Blanche returns, she flirts with Stanley (what the heck Blanche).  Stanley responds by asking why she's so rich, accusing her of selling Belle Reve.  Blanche responds by giving him a stack of papers containing documents about Belle Reve and love letters from her old lover (whoops).  But, yippee!  Blanche was telling the truth the whole time.  Belle Reve was lost in its mortgage, not sold for a profit. 
    That night, Stanley hosts a poker night with him and his friends, and Blanche meets a man named Mitch in the bathroom.  They begin to flirt and talk, and Blanche asks Mitch to cover the lightbulb with a Chinese lantern.  However, the night does not end well.  When Stella yells at Stanley for throwing a radio out the window, he beats her up.  (he did all this knowing she's pregnant btw). After this, Stella and Blanche escape to their upstairs neighbor, Eunice's house.  This leads to Stanley remorsefully crying for her, Stella forgiving him, and ending the night by making love.
    The next morning, Blanche is horrified by the abuse that her sister goes through.  However, Stella justifies it and claims that you just have to get used to it.  Obviously Blanche is appalled, and she goes on a rant of how he acts and looks inhuman and that Stella should leave him.  But oop, it turns out Stanley heard the whole thing and Stella knew it, so she hugs him tightly when he comes home.  Blanche and Stanley are now enemies.

   TIME JUMP: now it's August.  Blanche tells Stella about a letter she wrote to her old lover, Shep Huntleigh, telling him that they've been going to rich parties and visiting country homes.  On the other hand, Stanley is being horrible to Blanche.  He insinuates that he knows that Blanche isn't virtuous but in realty sleeps around in love hotels.  This leaves her shaken up right before her date with Mitch. Right before he comes, she kisses a teen delivery boy.  Then, Mitch arrives with flowers and takes her on a date.  When they come back, they share a kiss and they try to get their freak on but Blanche refuses because of her "old-fashioned ideals" (no boombayah till marriage).  So they begin to talk about life.  Blanche asks if Stanley hates her, Mitch says they met in the military and that he doesn't, he asks how old she is, and she asks him to marry her.  She also tells him how her old lover died.  She was smitten but she caught him cheating with another guy.  Even though she accepted him and went to a club with him, she told him he disgusted her leading to him committing suicide.  She begins to cry and Mitch comforts her and essentially fully commits to loving her.

TIME JUMP: now it's mid-September.  Stella is decorating for Blanche's birthday.  Stanley tells Stella the tea he learned about Blanche and her promiscuous past.  She wasn't on break, she was fired from her job for sleeping with a 17 year old boy.  She was sleeping around in a love hotel called the Flamingo and was told to leave by the whole town.  Even though those stories don't convince Stella, who excuses the behavior due to her lavender marriage, Stanley was able to convince Mitch.  There was no way Mitch would marry her now.  He also reveals that for her birthday, he got her a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel.
During the birthday party, Blanche notices Mitch's absence and calls to no avail.  When she opens the ticket, she starts to have a nervous breakdown.  Stanley is satisfied.  He begins to explain to Stella that she's a narcissist who needed to be put in her place for ruining their lives.  Then, Stella's water breaks and baby time is upon them.
    Later that night, Mitch comes for a visit.  She begins to talk nervously, to which Mitch asks why she's always in dimly lit spaces.  To take a good look at her, he tears the paper lantern off the light.  He says that he's not mad about her age, but that she lied to him all summer and pretended that she was a virtuous woman.  After talking for a while, Mitch tries to hook up with her, despite knowing that they won't get married.  Since Mitch know sees her in the sex worker way that other people do, she kicks him out.
    A few hours later, Stanley finds Blanche being delusional and acting like she's abotu to go on a cruise with Shep Huntleigh.  He tells her that they'll be alone tonight since the baby won't arrive until tomorrow.  She begins talking about her breakup and Shep, and Stanley replies by tearing down her world of make-believe.  When Blanche tries to run away from him, he prevents her from leaving,  Sensing the danger, Blanche smashes a bottle and threatens to hurt him with it.  However, he overpowers her and rapes her.

A few weeks later, Stella is crying and Blanche is bathing.  The guys are playing poker and Mitch is blackout drunk.  Blanche has completely broken psychologically.  She is constantly in a daze and is having delusions.  A doctor and a nurse come to pick up Blanche and take her to a mental asylum.  Stanley continues to taunt Blanche and she tries to escape the nurse.  She gets caught and is almost restrained when the doctor steps in and "rescues" her like a knight in shining armor.  Blanche willingly follows the doctor out and presumably gets sent away.  Stella watches on and sobs as Stanley comforts her.  Steve deals a new hand in their poker game.  THE END.