Blanche's monologue on page 47 is arguably one of the most tense scenes of 'A streetcar named Desire' because of the dramatic irony used by Williams to put across to the audience Blanche's fleeting power and how Stanley has the upper-hand.
One of the most important aspects of the play is Williams's use of stage directions. In 'Streetcar', the stage directions are used to create an authentic atmosphere, to engage the audience into a whole society, rather than a few characters on a stage. This extract is no exception, after Blanche asks Stella if she may speak "plainly", a stage direction follows: "Under cover of the train's noise Stanley enters from outside". Williams uses dramatic irony to heighten the drama, because although the audience can see Stanley is eavesdropping, Blanche and Stella cannot. Therefore, the one time that Blanche speaks "plainly" and gives up her facade of a southern belle, Stanley is there to hear it. This suggests that ultimately Stanley has power over Blanche despite their power struggle, because he is able to catch Blanche when she is vulnerable. Moreover, hiding under the roar of a "train" is significant because train's are industrial and mechanical - they are the future. Stanley is protected by the future, because he is the future. However, Blanche becomes a victim of the train's noise, because she represents the past.
Blanche's monologue uses the lexical field of apes and animalistic imagery to describe Stanley. This extended metaphor immerses the audience into the monologue, and creates a comical image of apes dressed up playing poker ("this party of apes"), almost undermining Blanche's credibility, because her point isn't being taken seriously. The film interpretation of 'Streetcar' reinforces this idea, as the poker scene in the film is portrayed in a lighter version of the play, Stanley's friends laughing as they stand Stanley under the shower and then him pushing them out one by one.
Blanche compares Stanley to an animal: "he acts like an animal, has an animal's habits", which coheres with Williams's stage directions for Stanley, "animal joy is implicit in all his movements". These consistent references to animals highlight Stanley's dangerous side and his unpredictability, such as in scene three where he suddenly throws the radio out of the window. Furthermore, after Blanche's monologue in this extract, the stage directions say: "Stanley hesitates, licking his lips". The action "licking his lips" suggests "an animal's habit's", it also shows Stanley's simplistic desires of revenge and passion, foreshadowing the rape scene in scene 11. However, it is ironic that Blanche compares Stanley to an animal, because when Stanley rips open Blanche's trunk in scene 2, he pulls out a white fox fur piece. Williams includes this detail to exhibit that Blanche herself has animalistic tendencies, she is sly like a fox.
Furthermore, Blanche mentions "such things as art - as poetry and music" in an effort to win Stella over Stanley. However, in scene 3 Blanche tells Mitch that her students are not interested in these things: "their literary heritage is not what most of them treasure above all else". People are no longer interested in what Blanche and the past has to offer, they are more concerned about earning things and living the American dream (Eunice: "we own this place"). So, when Blanche says: "don't hang back with the brutes" it is essentially foreshadowing Stella's decision to choose Stanley, the "Brutes" are going forward, and the audience knows this as the play was set at the same time as it was written so would have been relevant to the times.
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