Blanche is one of two main characters in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, which debuted in 1949. In the play, Blanche is an English teacher, though she leaves her position when the play begins and moves to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche claims that she left her job as a teacher because of her "nerves." However, it is revealed later in the play that Blanche was actually dismissed from her teaching job after having an affair with a student.
Blanche's profession is an important part of her characterization. Blanche uses poetic, lyrical, and over-wrought language, which places her in sharp contrast to Stanley, her antagonist, a Polish immigrant who speaks with coarse language. The combination of their dialects -- Blanche's poeticism and Stanley's grittiness -- are important components of the style of "lyrical realism" that Tennessee Williams pioneered in his plays.
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