In Scene 1, Blanche DuBois arrives from Belle Reve (claiming to have lost their mansion) to New Orleans, where her younger sister Stella is living with her husband Stanley who are living in a small apartment. She comes intending to stay with Stella without giving Stella notice of her arrival. She comes dressed extravagantly and wearing attractive jewellery. Stella, having not seen Blanche for a while and without the faintest idea of her arrival, is surprised to see her older sister Blanche after several years. Straightaway Blanche tells Stella about her poor lifestyle and how things have completely changed since Stella left.
In Scene 2, Stella's husband Stanley starts to not like Blanche in this scene, as he demands for some proof of the loss of the old mansion in Belle Reve. “I’m talking of legal papers. Connected with the plantation”. Stanley thinks that Blanche has obscured all of the wealth.
Later on during the play Blanche comes across one of Stanley’s good friends, Mitch, whom she starts to like. Blanche really wants to get together with Mitch as she knows he would be able to get rid of all her problems (insecurity). She has also tried to flirt with him and to get a few answers out of him; Blanche found out that he owns a house, in which he is currently living in with his sick elderly mother. Stella notices something going on and asks her sister if she needs Mitch, she replies by saying “Yes-I want Mitch...very badly! Just think! If it happens! I can
leave here and not be anyone’s problem.
In scene 6, Blanche tells Mitch about her relationship, which includes her marriage at the age of 16 to a young man she thought was a true gentleman. Her previous partners name was Allen and later she found out that he was a homosexual. One evening when she arrived home she caught her husband in their house with another man who was older than him. Later on that evening when the two of them where dancing, she told him what she had seen earlier and how traumatised she was when she had seen him with another person particularly the fact that he was with a man who was older than himself.
In scene 7, Stanley finds out some forgotten truth about Blanche and her previous teaching career. Blanche had a habit of dealing with men of all ages especially men that are younger than her. Blanche was thrown out of her teaching career as she got mixed up with a youth of seventeen years of age. “They kicked her out of that high school before the spring term ended and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken! A seventeen-year-old-boy-she’d gotten mixed up with!” All is lost for Blanche when Stanley informs Mitch of her past life as a prostitute
