Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire

however, is very tense. I can see this in the stage directions, "She laughs but her glance at Blanche is a little anxious", "she [Blanche] is shaking all over", "Nervously tamping cigarette", "They both laugh uncomfortably", There is also a lot of stage directions informing readers that both Stella and Blanche are occasionally "frightened". I can envision the two females on stage fiddling with objects, stealing nervous glances at each other, high-strung laughing and having to deal with the awkward sporadic pauses in-between conversations. The conversation itself is strained and there is the occasional hysterical outburst from Blanche, "I know, I know. But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!" and the conversation ends with Stella in tears. This brings me to believe that there are considerable amounts of tension between the two women. In my opinion I doubt that there was ever a strong sisterly bond between the two, and with the prospect of Blanche living with Stella for a while the atmosphere is automatically strained. Throughout the play Stella and Blanches relationship becomes mush more sensitive. Both women are rivalling for Stanley's attention although Stella is unaware of this, Blanche continues to patronise Stanley's intelligence, nationality and financial lifestyle, which notably upsets Stella. She also finds it difficult to cope with Blanches attention seeking, vanity and mental state of mind. There is also a tense relationship between Blanche and Mitch, who Blanche uses to make herself feel wanted and to create jealousy from Stanley. "I don't mind you being older than what I thought. But the rest of it - God! That pitch about your ideals being so old-fashioned and all the malarky that you've dished out all summer." Mitch discovers this near the end of the play and attempts to rape Blanche so as to gain back his power, however Blanche starts to scream and he leaves. In my opinion the tensest relationship is between Blanche and Stanley. However this tension is different to the latter, it is sexual tension. This becomes apparent from when they first meet, when Stanley removes his shirt and Blanche is obviously affected by his actions, "I haven't washed of even powdered my face and - here you are!" She also begins to stutter, "I - uh -". This tension builds up to the very end of the play where it ends in a climax with Stanley raping Blanche. Victoria Lee