Blanche quotes literature an occasionally speaks French; her language is elegant, educated. Stanley on the other hand uses coarse, sometimes brutal language. Does their speech reflect their perception of reality? Explain your answer.

The nuances of speech set the characters in their class context and show the differences of social status and education as well as of character. In A Streetcar Named Desire the very marked differences between Stanley and Blanche are stressed by Stanley's non-grammatical, coarse, often slangy speech as against Blanche's high-flown rhetoric which often rings false (as it is meant to), and never lets us forget that she was a teacher of English. At times there is a lyrical quality in her words, emphasising their emotional content.