STELLA: You needn’t have been so cruel to someone alone as she is.
STANLEY: Delicate piece she is.
STELLA: She is. She was. You didn’t know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 8. Stella is strong in her defense of her sister and condemnation of her husband. She confronts Stanley for his cruelty after he presents Blanche a "birthday remembrance" of a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel. When Stanley mockingly dismisses Blanche as a "delicate piece," Stella provides us with an insight into the character of the younger Blanche. Her sister was once innocent and naive and trusting, she reveals, but people like Stanley abused her and forced her to change. Foreshadowed here is the conflict between Stanley and Blanche, which will culminate in him sexually abusing and raping her.