The first scene does a lot to establish the way that appearances, money, and status are important elements to the characters throughout the play. The most obvious example is Blanche, but Stella had her moments as well. From the first introduction of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, it says that “[Stella comes out on the first floor landing, a gentle young woman, about twenty-five, and of a background obviously quite different from her husband’s.]” This immediately primes the reader to understand that there will be some sort of socioeconomic conflict. Whether the issue would come from other’s perception of their relationship based on Stella marrying “below her status,” from within their relationship from some sort of insecurity either of them had with each other, or the arrival of Blanche would inflate problems between the two was yet to be seen, but it can be inferred from that one line alone how there underlying issues within the family or the married couple.
Even given the description of Blanche’s appearance, she is clearly out of her element with where she’s at. It leads the readers to wonder why she’s there to begin with, especially with how it doesn’t appear that she’s only there for a brief visit. She’s standoffish, only giving brief replies, appears appalled at the appearance of her sister’s home, and clearly doesn’t want to talk about her family’s planation. With what we later learn about what became of Blanche’s marriage, Belle Reve, her loss of job, and her numerous other problems it only adds to the irony of how much she judges her sister with how her own life is in shambles. She even goes so far as to tell her sister to turn off her lights because she detests her appearance so much, while this may only be because of Blanche’s flair for dramatics, she immediately follows it up by insulting the “disgusting place.” Within a few short lines, this play did an excellent job of establishing the characters, alluding to the problems brought to light later in the play, and the overall hypocrisy that Blanche embodies.