Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Mental Illness - Coggle Diagram
Mental Illness
Blanche
- Signs of PTSD & Borderline Personality Disorder are shown in her character & are significantly shown throughout the play as her character suffers many challenges
- BPD causes intense mood swings, impulsive behaviours & severe self-worth problems
- Can lead to troubled relationships in every area of a person's life
Scene 10: 'A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence & breeding can enrich a man's life - immeasurably! I have those things to offer, and this doesn't take them away. Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession. But beauty of the mind & richness of the spirit & tenderness of the heart - and I have all of those things [...] But I have been foolish - casting my pearls before swine!'
- Blanche's fear of her mental state, first hinted in Scene 1: 'I can't be alone! Because - as you must have noticed - I'm not very well'
- Shattered by circumstances of husband's death & guilty of the part she played in it.
- Her preoccupation with cleanliness & bathing > the act of washing appears to rinse away guilt
- Her fear of dirt is so strong that she fears it will lead her to her annihilation 'I shall die of eating an unwashed grape'
- Harrowing deaths at Belle Reve, she coped with on her own
- By this time, she had begun her decent into promiscuity & alcoholism
Scene 7: Stella's remark that Blanche's behaviour caused distress at home indicates that Blanche's deterioration began earlier, while her parents were still alove
- As her promiscuity increased & she drank more, she began to create her fantasy world of adoring, respectful admirers; of romantic songs & fun parties to provide an escapism
Histrionic Personality Disorder
- Characterised by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking emotions
- including inappropriate seductive behaviour & excessive need for approval
Scene 2: 'And admire her dress and tell her she's looking wonderful that's important with Blanche'
Scene 5: 'It isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be soft & attractive. And I - I'm fading now'
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
- Anxiety & worry that is hard to control, causes distress or impairment in daily functioning
- Throughout whole play Blanche has anxiety & its mostly seen before she gets herself a drink
Psychosis
- lost contact with reality
Scene 9: 'The music in her mind; she is drinking to escape it & the sense of disaster closing in on her'
Scene 10: 'Lurid reflections appear on the wall around Blanche. The shadows are of grotesque & menacing form'
-
Blanche's sexual dear of Stanley paves the path for her final decent into mental destruction as Stanley rapes her
-
- Sexual assault plays a part in the final degradation of Blanche's mental state
- Stanley's cruel disregard of her fragile mental state & his rape of Blanche pulls her to face reality, her promiscuity - the loss of her husband & family home > psychotic state
Throughout Williams life
- Had many encounters with mental illness in his family
- Projecting many of these disorder he encountered in his life onto his characters
- Play indicates that characters could have some of these mental illnesses, particularly Blanche
- Williams father was abusive which could have lead him to use the same qualities that his father in Stanley
- His sister was schizophrenic which is where he could have come up with Blanche's delusions & unstable behaviour
- Dealt with & drew inspiration from his own mental illnesses such as anxiety & severe despression
- used his own life experiences with mental illness to create characters such as Stanley & Blanche
Stanley > Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- inflated sense of his own importance, deep need for admiration & lack of empathy for others
- Has have a fragile self-esteem which is vulnerable to the slightest criticism
Scene 2: 'Oh, I guess he's just not the type that goes for Jasmine perfume' (Blanche to Stella)
Scene 8: '... and I'm the king around here, and don't you forget it'