Summary

Scene Nine

Scene Nine begins a while later the same evening. Blanche is dressed in her scarlet satin robe and has been drinking as Mitch comes around the corner in work clothes. Mitch is unshaven and had stopped to have some drinks on his way over as well. Blanche frantically rushes about, dabbing her face with perfume and hiding the liquor bottle before letting him in. Mitch pushes past Blanche into the apartment as she chastises him for his uncouth appearance and cold behavior, saying that she shouldn’t have let him in after having stood her up earlier.

Blanche begins to feign searching for the liquor she hid, offering Mitch a drink, and he rebuffs her gruffly. The sound of polka music, the same that has played previously when Blanche discusses her young husband’s suicide, begins to swell and Blanche describes the song...