Delusions In A Streetcar Named Desire

In the play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, by Tennessee Williams, the protagonist Blanche Dubois faces grandeur delusions when moving into her sisters house. Her sister, Stella Kowalski is married to a Polish man named Stanley who has many issues with Blanche’s personality and many conflicts arise. Throughout the play the author portrays more and more of Blanche’s inner personality and flaws. The author brings this out through Stanley, who constantly over powers her and is always trying to figure out more and more information about Blanche’s past and bad things that she has done. She is always on a defensive mode and is constantly trying to cover up her past.
As time went on in the play we revealed more and more about her past. Many clues and

poorly covered up lies led to Stanley revealing that Blanche was a prostitute when she lived down south. She always kept a grandeur lifestyle, constantly trying to look her best. She wore the finest clothes, bathed in the finest perfumes, and constantly pampered herself. Dubois lived in a constant struggle of her past affecting her future. She feared people’s perception of her if they were to find out about what she has done for a living back home. Stanley constantly tried to get to the bottom of the situation and was determined to catch her in her own lie.
Blanche was in a constant delusional state of mind where she would constantly deny and try to cover up her past.

She was at a point in her life where she believed her own lies. Many of the things she did were symbolic as to why she did them. For example, Blanche would always keep the light dim wherever she stayed, which was later on obvious that she did that to try her best to hide her imperfections. Another reason she did that was so that people wouldn't see her ‘aging’ skin. Her appearance was always the most important thing to her and her biggest agenda was to keep up that look. Towards the end of the play Stanley got Blanche to her breaking point and after she gets raped by him, she gets committed into a mental

institution.
Blanche’s type of personality is a very sensitive, weak personality. If I were to be her psychologist I would take a very calm, simple approach as to her treatment. When very aggressive personalities approach her, such like Stanley’s; she breaks down and easily becomes weak. My first method of approach would be the biographical one. I would slowly have her open up about her life, starting very early in her childhood. This way I would be able to get her to loosen up a bit. Knowing that she is a pathological liar, I would keep in mind any reasons that may have created this light switch in her head. I wouldn't be surprised if I found a past experience earlier in her life that made her who she is today. I believe that getting a person to open up an speak about their life would take her out of her delusional state of mind and she would finally realize and remember the things that she has done and why she has done them. Getting a person to acknowledge their mistakes or even to accept them is a vital aspect of recovery.
In the play, Blanche had a constant obsession with covering the light lanterns.

Later on there was shown that there was symbolism because covering the light was a way of her covering the rays of the ‘bad’ world from penetrating into her skin. She believed that by covering the lantern she was more secure and less receptive to being hurt. Blanche was at a point in her life where the delusions created a person in her life that she constantly spoke about that apparently had gold spouting out of his pockets and was willing to take her in when in reality the guy was a made up character in her mind. Blanche was also a dependent drinker. She constantly drank from morning to night because the buzz that she received from the alcohol was her way of coping with her preexisting stress and tension between her and Stanley in her sister’s house. The constant fear of them finding out the truth about her past also created a constant fear and a serious case of

anxiety.
As previously mentioned, as a psychologist my number one goal would be using the Resistance therapy method to get her to open up and let out all of her built up emotions. The build up of all of her feelings and emotions led her to where she is today. Resistance therapy is a psychoanalysis technique where a patient’s unwillingness to describe freely some aspects of his/her life. After this, I would use the cognitive therapy method. I would use a variety of techniques to help change these cognitions to more appropriate ones. In other words, I would try to make her feel less embarrassed and more accepting of her past. I would try and point the positive reasoning’s behind her decision in participating in prostitution to financially support her. I would also create a plan for her in which she would have a positive future and have something to look forward to daily. Creating a clean sleet is very important in her shoes. It has been scientifically proven that in the last two decades many psychotherapists have incorporated a cognitive orientation into their therapy practices, both in long and short term.