How does William's convey the tension between Blanche and Stanley

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How does William convey the tension between Blanche and Stanley?

In “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a play formed with intertwining conflicts between characters. Two of the main characters Stanley and Blanche continually oppose each other; their differences eventually lead to Stanley's rape of Blanche.

Conflict first arises when Blanche arrives at the Kowalski household and Stanley's authority over his home is questioned. Stanley has always had authority and control of his home – “his car, his radio, everything that is his” and also his wife Stella as he. When Blanche arrives he feels that h e is being invaded and doesn't agree with it. There is sexual tension between them both, which William portrays in Scene 2, when Blanche exits the bathroom in her “red satin robe”. The colour red suggests passion and danger, and satin as a material is luxurious and seductive to touch. This is an unusual outfit to be wearing whilst alone with her sister’s husband and directly implies sexual tension and gives Blanche the look of a “scarlet woman”.

Firstly, Blanche’s own sentence structure portrays the tension present between herself and Stanley very effectively. In moments of high tension, such as when they first meet in scene 1, Blanche gives very short and monosyllabic answers to his questions, such as “yes” and “I-uh” – which shows how nervous she is during their confrontation. This returns again in scene 10, before the rape, when she repeats “oh!” many times, and finds it hard to put sentences together, for example “I would! I will if you-”. It shows her mind struggling to focus because the tension is so great and the fear is tangible. The conversation has been written as adjacency pairs giving a question answer layout to the end of the scene- creating what appear to be an interview and therefore a tense situation. Stanley presents a declarative as an interrogative when he says “you were married once, weren’t you?” which shows that he already knows the response that Blanche is likely to give, making it an unnecessary question. The fact that audience knows the response that Blanche is likely to give, making it an unnecessary question.

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The deliverance style divides them, Stanley’s declaratives; simple sentences are very effective at throwing Blanche off balance. This can be seen greatly in scene 3, where Stanley reduces Blanche’s “nerves to knots” with his bluntness. Blanche says “please don’t get up” and Stanley responds with “nobody’s going to, so don’t be worried.” This acts as a way of reminding Blanche that when she is in his home, she is no longer special.

Blanche is described as “drawing involuntarily back from his stare”. The verb “drawing” used to describe how Blanche breaks eye contact with Stanley suggests she does this very ...

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