vulnerability also becomes clear; she has never recovered emotionally from the shock of losing her young husband to suicide years ago, and she also had to face the burden, alone, of trying to keep the old family plantation going. In the end, her hysterical tendencies, Stanley’s brutality, and Mitch’s rejection overwhelm her and she breaks down completely. It is hard not to feel pity for her by the end of the play, even if she has brought a lot of her troubles upon herself.

Stella is younger and quieter than Blanche, and generally appears uncomfortable in her sister’s presence. The main difference between the sisters is summed up in their own words when Stella remarks: ‘I never anything like your energy, Blanche,’ to which Blanche replies, ‘Well, I never had your beautiful self-control’ (scene 1)

Stella often appears rather cowed by Blanche when they are talking together, but she is quietly resolute. She never wavers in her love and support for Stanley despite Blanche insisting that he is an entirely unsuitable husband. Being of a more conciliatory and calmer nature than either her husband or sister, she attempts to mediate between them. She does genuinely love her sister, and tries to make her comfortable as she can, but in the end she cannot cope with her.

 Stanley, quite unlike his wife Stella, is of working-class background,  very much the rough, down-to-earth, plain-speaking, uncultured type. His boorish behaviour and lack of manners attract Blanche’s criticism. Being dominant and hot-tempered, he does not stand for this, and ultimately crushes Blanche for daring to challenge his control.

There does seem to be a certain unpleasantly cruel streak in Stanley in his treatment of Blanche, and he is undoubtedly crude, but he is also capable of great tenderness towards his wife Stella. Although from such different backgrounds, he and Stella are extremely compatible - something quite beyond Blanche's comprehension. It is true, though, that Blanche does appear to be somewhat attracted as well as repelled by him. 

One similarity between Blanche and Stella is their background.  Both of them grew up and experienced their youth in the "old South" and this imprint is on both of their characters.  How they deal with it, of course, is where the difference might lie.  Blanche revels in this past, demonstrating an inability to fully grasp how the function in the present.  It is in this context that Blanche tries to battle with the present, even asserting herself against it, but eventually failing and becoming victim to it.  Stella is much different, possessing what Blanche would marvel at as "self control."  She is much more practical in understanding that there is not much of a debate between the past and the present.  Human survival rests with the latter.  Yet, she does show much of her own emotional compass in expressing a certain regret for her actions regarding Blanche's institutionalization.  While she is very practical about things and does what must be done for her welfare and that of the child she carries, Stella does understand that there is some part of her past, some aspect of that imprint, that still lingers in her and haunts her.  Perhaps she does not carry the imprint in the way Blanche does, who was "too rare to be normal," as Williams would put it.  Yet, it is there, that rareness, that abnormality beneath the sheen of normal conventionality that is a part of Stella's emotional DNA.

Blanche and Stella are sisters, but their personalities are very different. Blanche is a romantic, and speaks in lyrical language that often uses figurative language or references poets or writers. She's extremely self-conscious about her appearance, especially about how she has aged. Both of these qualities--her romanticism and her fixation on being young and beautiful--relate to one of Blanche's most intense qualities: she is very nostalgic. These qualities are captured in the passage below: 

"Not far from Belle Reve, before we had lost Belle Reve, was a camp where they trained young soldiers. On Saturday nights they would go in town to get drunk... and on their way back they would stagger onto my lawn and call-- 'Blanche! Blanche!'-- The deaf old lady remaining suspected nothing. But sometimes I slipped outside to answer their calls... Later the paddy-wagon would gather them up like daisies... the long way home." 

Stella, by contrast, is less nostalgic or romantic, and more modern and sensual. She has made her home in the wild and modern city of New Orleans, and is in a passionate and sometimes violent relationship with her husband, Stanley. She explains to her sister: 

"But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark-- that sort of make everything else seem-- unimportant." 

Her sister is repulsed by this idea of love. She says: 

"What you are talking about it brutal desire-- just-- Desire! -- the name of that rattle-tap street-car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another."