Read the passage and answer the following question.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a classic of the American theater. Tennessee Williams’ work continues to resonate with audiences and readers today despite—or perhaps because of—its simplistic though layered story. Blanche DuBois, arrives at her sister’s seedy New Orleans apartment where she is tortured by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche puts on airs of class and happiness throughout the play, though internally she is miserable and haunted by her tragic and scandalous past. Stanley forces Blanche to face her dolorous reality with his vitriol and, finally, his act of sexual aggression, and in doing so, he causes her to lose her tenuous grip on sanity. Most have argued that the play is about the ways the past haunts our present or that it is about the ways class and sexuality impact our lives. However, few have seen the play for what it is: an allegory for the theater itself.

Williams created lifelike characters who spoke in realistic dialect. But to make his point that melodrama was flawed, he added an equally unrealistic character. Blanche, unlike the other characters, speaks theatrically, acts larger than life on stage, and uses floral language and heightened mannerisms. Blanche is a character not to be trusted. She lies about everything, and the only thing that finally exposes her lies is reality itself: Stanley. He finally forces her off the stage and into the insane asylum by forcing himself on her sexually. And with that, realism forcibly removed melodrama from the stage.

Which word in the passage signifies 'a hospital where people who were mentally ill could be cared for, often for a long time'?

Asylum

'Asylum' is a hospital where people who were mentally ill could be cared for, often for a long time.