While watching A Streetcar Named Desire, the character of Blanche Dubois at first seemed to be a weak and self-centered southern woman, when in reality what she was starting to emerge from his character it was a personality flaw. What is not known is whether this is something familiar or has only manifested itself through Blanche. Given that this was a time when mental illness had not yet been thoroughly studied, the way Blanche was treated as she succumbed to her illness and the way she was sent to a mental hospital was quite archaic. Blanche is the central character, and the film shows her falling into the abyss of mental illness seemingly exacerbated by the loss of her family, her home, and Stanley's care. Inside, Blanche had the wanton, sexual desire to which she apparently often gave in during the later period. Hotel Flamingo. Although it was never directly stated in the film, the assumption placed before the audience was that Blanche had been involved in a form of prostitution. This may have been a factor in his worsening mental health or it may have been a side effect of his condition. Mental illness presents differently in every person. What may have seemed like a choice to Blanche to other characters may have been something she was unable to control. It is unclear whether this was the case before the marriage.Bryan 2The way the character of Blanche was written shows a strong tendency towards a mental health problem known as histrionic personality disorder. The characteristics of this disease are as follows: excessive emotionality, need for public, superficial and rapidly changing emotions, inappropriate sexual or provocative behavior and does not form strong relational bonds between a... middle of paper... ....sed, Stella used the same defense mechanism that Blanche resorted to, to help Stella endure the pain in her life. The emotional response was to believe how life should be and not how it actually was the result of a fairytale-like expectation of one's world. Works Cited Bryan 5Griffies, W. Scott, A Streetcar Named Desire and Tennessee Williams' Object-Relational Conflict, DOI: 10.1002/aps.127, September 1, 2007, Retrieved from, http://web.aaebscohost.com.cwi. idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7260b208-7178-43fa-8426-400cfc364c1b%40sessionmgr4002&vid=2&hid=4114, March 14, 2014Williams, Tennessee, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Retrieved from, https :/ /swarm.tv/t/Z2l, March 2, 2014United States National Library of Medicine, 11/17/2012, Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001531.htm, March 14 2014