What happens in the scenes before and after his plaintive cries that make this sequence so memorable?

In
scene 3 of by , Stanley Kowalksi is having his friends Stanley, Steve,
Mitch, and Pablo over to his home for "poker night." The poker game was originally
scheduled for Mitch's house, but his mother is sick, and Stanley volunteered to host the
game.

Steve and Pablo arrive with a case of beer. The poker table is already
laid out with watermelon slices, potato chips, whiskey bottles, and glasses. Cards are dealt,
and the card game and the drinking begin.

At about 2:30 in the morning,
Stanley's wife, Stella, and her sister, Blanche, return home from a dinner with friends and a
night out to find the poker game still going on. Stanley hasn't been having much luck.
"He's half drunk," as Stella tells Blanche, and he's in a foul mood. Stanley is upset
by the presence of the women at the poker game and by the distractions they cause to the other
players.

Blanche turns on the radio, which enrages Stanley. He goes into the
bedroom, snatches the radio off the table, and throws it out the window.

Stella decides that it's time for the poker party to be over, and she tells the other
players to leave. This further enrages the drunken Stanley, and he charges after Stella and hits
her.

Blanche gathers some of Stella's clothes, and she ushers Stella out the
door and upstairs to Eunice's apartment.

After a cold shower forced on him by
Mitch and the other card players, Stanley sobers up enough to realize what he's done. He goes to
the phone and tries to have Eunice put Stella on the phone, but Eunice hangs up on
him.

Finally, Stanley stumbles half-dressed out to the
porch and down the wooden steps to the pavement before the building. There he throws back his
head like a baying hound and bellows his wife's name:

"Stella! Stella,
sweetheart! Stella!"

After several minutes of
Stanley bellowing "STELLLLAHHHHHHH!" at the bottom of the stairs and pleading with
Stella to come back to him, only to have the door slammed in his face, the upstairs door opens
again.

Stella slips down the rickety stairs in her robe.
Her eyes are glistening with tears and her hair loose about her throat and shoulders. They stare
at each other. Then they come together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on the
steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity. Her eyes go blind with
tenderness as she catches his head and raises him level with her. He snatches the screen door
open and lifts her off her feet and bears her into the dark flat.

The next morning, Stanley goes to get the car greased, and Blanche comes down from
upstairs to talk with Stella and tries to convince her to leave Stanley. Stella is happy to stay
with Stanley, and she tells Blanche that she's actually "thrilled" and not frightened
by Stanley's aggressive, animalistic behavior.

STELLA: ...
He didn't know what he was doing. ... He was as good as a lamb when I came back and he's really
very, very ashamed of himself.