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Blanche and Stella Blanche Dubois and Stella Kowalski, the main female characters of A Streetcar Named Desire, seem throughout the play to be at two opposite ends of the spectrum in their approach to life and in dealing with the people around them, Blanche appearing to be romantic and refined and Stella appearing to be straightforward and blue-collar, much like her husband Stanley, but while they seem different on the surface, they are sisters who both possess the same passionate drive, being different only in personality. Stella left Belle Reve, their childhood home, a few years before the play opens and married Stanley Kowalski, a brutish and dominating prize rooster who is a travelling salesman for a machine-parts company. His sexual drive appeals to her and her submissive nature enables her to survive a marriage that would be unimaginable to someone like her sister Blanche, who interacts with people in the context of the old code of Southern chivalry, which involves masking ones true feelings and desires with verbage and games. Stella seems to be more comfortable with the type of straightforward and often insensitive method of communication of a life with Stanley because it leaves no doubt as to what his intentions are, an