BLANCHE: Yes. [During the pause she looks up at the sky.] There’s so much – so much confusion in the world… [He coughs diffidently] Thank you for being so kind! I need kindness now.
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 3. A terrified Blanche finds comfort in Mitch who offers her a cigarette after the Stanley’s violent outburst in which he strikes Stella. Blanche is a woman who is dependent on the kindness of others. She is drawn to Mitch, who provides a softer version of masculinity than the insensitive and bullish Stanley. This passage shows her mental fragility and need to escape into her fictional world of fantasy, as she gazes towards the sky and is confused by the real world. Foreshadowed is Blanche’s descent into madness at the end of the play when Stanley directs his sexual violence against her.