When I was sixteen, I made the discovery—love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me.
 Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). copy citation

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Author Tennessee Williams
Source A Streetcar Named Desire
Topic love youth
Date 1947
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.metropolitancollege.com/Streetcar.pdf

Context

“I loved someone, too, and the person I loved I lost. MITCH: Dead? [She crosses to the window and sits on the sill, looking out. She pours herself another drink.] A man?
BLANCHE: He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery—love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me. But I was unlucky. Deluded. There was something different about the boy, a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn't like a man's, although he wasn't the least bit effeminate looking—still—that thing was there. . . .” source

Meaning and analysis

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