The nature of Stanley and Blanche’s conflict is mainly verbal (conflict is about power struggle, who has control over the other characters) Williams presents this through their verbal interactions, his use of language shows their animosity.The conflict is one in which Stanley is constantly squaring up to Blanche as if to see who has the upper hand. The conflict began with Stanley’s suspicions of Blanche when he heard of the demise of Belle Reve. Williams parallels his use of negative language with Blanche’s impressions of Stanley; with Blanche appearing to pull Mitch away from Stanley and by changing who appears have most control over Stella. Williams demonstrates the theme of conflict through verbal and physical interactions as well symbolism as shown below. The first sign of the conflict between Stanley and Blanche is at the very beginning in Act One Scene Two. Blanche has revealed to Stella that their childhood home ‘Belle Reve,’ has been lost, what she doesn’t explain is the nature of how it was lost. When Stella explains to Stanley he begins to grow suspicious of Blanche, thinking that she has sold ‘Belle Reve,’ swindling Stella of her share of the money and through her, swindled him. He begins to rummage through her stuff, looking through her clothing when Blanche appears. Blanche starts off with flirtatiously asking Stanley to do up the buttons on her dress and begins “fishing for a compliment” from Stanley. All this does is rile him up and make him more suspicious of how sincere a person she really is. When she begins to insult his intelligence he begins to react with a cutting quickness that Blanche throws back at him with more flirtation. When he begins to look through her dead husbands letters “ripping the ribbon off to examine them” it is more than Blanche can bear saying “Now that you’ve [Stanley] touched them I’ll burn them!” This first fight helps us to understand the conflict of the play as a whole as it gives the audience an insight as to how Blanche views Stanley as lesser than him and how Stanley resents Blanche for her actions in this scene.

The dramatist has been clever in ‘The Poker’ scene as he has presented the situation of the escalating conflict Stanley is facing first through verbal abuse to the inhabitants of the room, then when Stanley notices this has little effect he becomes physically violent. Stanley has already been losing his hand, his pride is wounded and because his friends are having fun and joking with each other rather than pitying him and his poor hand, he becomes agitated that they are ignoring him, so he begins to create minor arguments with the minor characters. When Stella and Blanche come in, Stella’s attention is mainly on Blanche rather than Stanley, further upsetting him so he begins to order them to be quiet. Mitch then leaves the game to talk to Blanche, undermining his dominant position in his group that one of his friends should choose her company over his, especially when his friend and his wife start dancing with the enemy to music on the radio. As verbal threats are not working in removing attention from Blanche he goes into a physical mode. He “stalks fiercely” to the “small white radio and snatches it off the table… he tosses the instrument out the window.” This physicality is shocking to the audience as throughout the play so far he has been a verbal antagonist, adding drama to the scene. When Stella tries to fight back he feels this is the perfect opportunity to show Blanche who is boss in this household and hits Stella.The dramatist presents this in a physical format for two reasons. One is because Stanley can see that verbal warnings haven't worked on Blanche to gain his control over her so he gives her a physical message by hitting Stella, a woman he does have control over. The second reason is because it will be more shocking to the audience, here is a man who is hitting a woman, its a dramatic shift from the verbal to the physical. This also enhances the understanding of the theme of conflict in the play.

Scene IV is a key moment in the play as it is the moment Blanche truly reveals what she thinks of Stanley- while Stanley listens. After Stanley hits Stella, Blanche feels anxious that Stella should leave and tries to convince Stella that he’s no good for her. “He acts like an animal, has an animals habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!” As Stanley hears all this his pride is stung, he begins to form an idea of Blanche and the desire to remove her influence over Stella drives him to form a cruel plan to get rid of her. When he enters and Stella rushes over to greet him, he knows he has won part of the battle, Stella trusts him over Blanche and this proves to him that he is loved more. This scene enhances the understanding of the play as a whole as it shows us what drives Stanley to bring Blanche’s downfall in a cruel manner whereas previously, in Scene two, it only shows the beginning of his dislike towards Blanche.

Williams presents Stanley’s next moves in a verbal format, as this creates tension in the play as it is unknown when Stanley will become physical next. In Scene VIII, Blanche is meant to be celebrating her birthday, which in Stanley’s eyes show that he is losing his dominant place in his house to Blanche as it is a day for celebrating her. While Blanche and Stella are having a conversation he grows more and more agitated, becoming more sullen by the moment. Stella comments on how disgusting his fingers are, even throwing Blanches’ previous animal comments in his face, which elicits both verbal and minor physical actions. Williams has presented it in both verbal and physical as it shows how much of a loose cannon Stanley is at this moment, creating fear for both Stella and Blanche as he may harm them. By throwing plates and creating a mess he is asserting his place as the alpha male and by shouting at the two women, he is reminding them of their place. Later in the scene Stanley is about to leave but before he does he gives Blanche a birthday “gift”. His presentation of the ticket back to Lorel is a cruelly calculated move on Williams part, Stanley leaving the house at that moment shows that he can leave then return again while Blanche has a one way ticket out of the door. He does this to again assert his position in the household and try to control Blanche in some manner. This further adds to the conflict of the play, showing Stanley is slowly winning the battle over Blanche.

In scene X, the physical conflict between Stanley and Blanche is once again shown, used in a manner that allows Stanley to finally gain control over Blanche. The conflict starts much like any other with use of verbal sparring to create tension to a crueller extent. Blanche has retreated into her fantasy world and Stanley goes along with it for a time, allowing her to feel as though she has control over the situation to make her demise a more dramatic feature to the audience. In this scene Williams uses minor character s outside the apartment to foreshadow Stanley’s actions. “A prostitute rolls a drunkard. He pursues her along the walk, overtakes her and there is a struggle.” much the same thing is happening to Blanche and Stanley; he returns home drunk and her colourful background plants the idea that he can just take what he wants and it will be acceptable. The stage directions of the drunkard- he pursues her- is what Stanley does here; he lets Blanche create a fanatical reality for herself to protect herself. The final stage direction “overtakes her and there is a struggle” is exactly what happens between Stanley and Blanche. He destroys her with his words, finding holes in her plot and she has to struggle to retain the imaginative story she has created. Williams uses this Shakespearean technique of having the minor characters mirroring the main characters this way to show how the plot will play out to the audience, to create a terrible knowledge of what is about to happen. The stage directions here help enhance our understanding of the play as it shows that it was always going to come down to Stanley defeating Blanche and it was only a matter of time before he took her.

The final act of conflict between Stanley and Blanche occurs after a time lapse, where Blanche has told Stella of her rape but rather than being pitied, she is being sent away to an asylum. This shows how Stanley has finally established his position of Alpha against Blanche, proving to her that he is the one with the most control over Stella and amongst his friends. A final act of conflict is a symbolic move on Stanley’s part. At one point Blanche had placed a paper lantern over a lightbulb in the kitchen, partly to hide the light but it is also a symbolic gesture of her trying to take over Stanley’s position in the house as the dominant character. While Blanche is in a state of confusion about her leaving and her vain attempts to escape, Stanley sees an opportunity to make an example of her to everyone in the house. “You want the lantern?” is a question Stanley asks, its his way of saying “You want my place here?” The stage actions Williams uses “He… seizes the paper lantern, tearing it from the light bulb,” shows how easily Stanley has destroyed her, especially when Blanches’ reaction is one of horror and pain. The dramatist has done this to show how dominant Stanley is now that he has destroyed Blanche, to show the audience and characters in the play that he has won and to warn off any challengers to his place. When Blanche is finally taken away and Stella is crying out for her whilst trying to look after her newly born baby, Stanley sees it as him losing attention so he places himself in front of her, removes the child and shows her who her attention is meant to be on. This enhances our understanding of the play as it highlights how much control Stanley now has, yet still has the paranoia about him that this attention may slip at any point.

To conclude, the nature of the conflict between Stanley and Blanche has many variables; at times it is symbolic, other physical but more often than not it is a verbal conflict that shows the audience how Stanley deals with anyone who invades or threatens his authority over his wife and friends. Williams uses these techniques to create drama in the piece, adding tension and creating a more shocking climax.