Man vs. Self Blanche is insecure with herself throughout the Play. The conflict centers around the idea of fantasy and reality. Blanche has surrounded herself with illusion and fantasy as a mechanism of self-defense against the cruel reality of the world. Blanche’s known line, “I don’t want realism. I want magic” is her way of coping and working through everything. Blanche has had a hard time ever since her young husbands death and the lost of belle reve. Blanche desires magic and fantasy in an attempt to shield herself from the darks and evil of the world. She hopes for a world based on fantasy because it allows her to hope for something better. Stanley picks up on Blanche’s idea of building a life that is full of fantasy and constantly is pushing for that realism against Blanche. Blanche believes if she makes herself appear attractive to new men she will find someone to marry and can escape poverty and her past reputations. She uses endlessly drinking and hot baths as a way to wash away her problems. Bubble baths and satin dresses represent Blanche trying to hold on to that innocence she no longer has. She hides her age, her wrinkles, and her real personality. Blanche wants to feel attractive and loved by men and others around her. So she creates a fake image of herself the way she wish it was and works very hard to match up to her fake image. Man vs. Man The man vs. man conflict in streetcar is between Stanley and blanche. Most of their conflict is verbal, physical, and a fight for power and control over the other characters. Stanley and Blanche’s conflict starts when Stanley tells Stella that Blanche must be lying about losing the plantation and instead sold it for money. And when Stanley starts to go through Blanche’s stuff Blanche comes out of the shower and asks him to help her button up the dress(flirting). When Stanley becomes more suspicious of blanche and opens her dead husbands letter’s she says “now that you have touched them she must burn it” to Stanley. It shows how Blanche thinks of Stanley as a much lower status than she is. In the scene of the “poker party” the conflict switches form verbal to physical. Stanley gets upset when Stella chooses blanche as company rather than Stanley which drives him mad and he hits Stella to show who is dominate. In later scene 5 Stanley overhears blanche talking bad about him stating that his actions are like animals to stella. And when he casually enters the room Stella rushes over to greet him which pleases Stanley because he knows who she loves more. At dinner when they were celebrating Blanche’s birthday, Stella openly scolds as Stanley for his messy fingers and his actions like animals and Stanley looses it and start yelling and chatters the plate of meat to the floor, reminding the to women who is the king of the household. Stanley before leaving the table also give Blanche her “birthday gift” which is a ticket back to Loreal. In scene ten blanche had a rough night due to Stanley spreading rumors about blanche(mostly true), Mitch breaking up with her, and Stella having a baby. Later that night both blanche and Stanley are slightly drunk and Stanley invades Blanche’s space in the bedroom and rapes her. In the final scene Blanche tells Stella about what Stanley has done to her, Stella doesn’t believe her husband would do such thing and believes Stanley that Blanche is going crazy. Stanley shows he has won over blanche by convincing to send her away to a mental hospital and he once again has that full control over the household.
