You can’t beat on a woman an’ then call ‘er back! She won’t come! And her goin’ t’ have a baby! . . . You stinker! You whelp of a Polak, you! I hope they do haul you in and turn the fire hose on you, same as the last time.

Eunice confronts Stanley who is calling for Stella from the sidewalk. Stella, accompanied by Blanche, had escaped to Eunice’s upstairs apartment after Stanley hit her on the night of the poker game. However adamant Eunice is about what should happen next, she is mistaken. Stella does return to Stanley that same night. She forgives him. Eunice is one of the few who stand up to Stanley and tells him the truth about himself. Her words also suggest that Stanley has been violent toward Stella before.

I always did say that men are callous things with no feelings, but this does beat anything. Making pigs of yourselves.

Eunice’s lines, spoken in the final moments of the play, serve as a reminder that this drama is focused on the complex relationships between men and women. The men—Stanley, Steve, Mitch, and Pablo—are playing poker and Eunice walks through on her way to see Stella and Blanche. Eunice’s passing comment serves as a closing statement of sorts.

Don’t ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep on going.

At the end of the play, Eunice explains to Stella her philosophy of life. Blanche, unable to live in reality, is about to be taken away to a mental institution. Stella is unable to accept that Stanley raped Blanche, a stance Eunice supports with the words, “Don’t ever believe it.” Stella cannot reconcile Stanley, a rapist, with Stanley, her husband and the father of her newborn child. In a way, Stella, like Blanche, struggles with her own integrity, and chooses to sacrifice Blanche to keep her family intact.

You done the right thing, the only thing you could do. She couldn’t stay here; there wasn’t no other place for her to go.

As she is throughout the play, Eunice is the voice of reason as the drama concludes, comforting Stella as she allows Blanche to be taken to a mental institution. By the play’s tragic end, all of the characters, with the exception of Eunice, have lost track of what is right, what is true. It would seem Eunice’s role is to remind the other characters that they must each do what they had to do to survive and get through life.

Previous section Harold “Mitch” Mitchell

Popular pages: A Streetcar Named Desire

Take a Study Break