Relations with Diseases

What do bipolar disorder and obsessive disorder have in common? They are both diseases that three authors have given to their characters in order to develop a great story. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide (Stoppler). Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as an anxiety disorder. It is characterized by distressing intrusive thoughts and/or repetitive actions that interfere with the individual’s daily functioning. The DSM-IV criteria for OCD are as follows: The individual expresses wither obsessions or compulsions. Obsessions are defined by the following four criteria: recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images are experienced at some time during the disturbance as intrusive and inappropriate and caused marked anxiety and distress. The thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply worries about real-life problems. The person attempts to suppress or ignore such thoughts, impulses, or images or to neutralize them with some other thought or action. The person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his/her own mind (not imposed from without as in thought insertion). Compulsions are defined by the following two criteria: the person feels driven to perform repetitive behaviors (e.g. hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g. praying, counting, repeating words silently) in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly. The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts are either not connected in a realistic way with what they are meant to neutralize or prevent or they are clearly excessive (PsychologyToday). Tennessee Williams’ character Blanche DuBois, from Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and May from Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees all suffer from these two illnesses in their own ways like by lying and believing their lies to escape reality, lying and acting crazy to seek revenge on another character, and getting really upset by the world’s problems and then start singing.

Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Blanche Dubois, Hamlet, and May all suffer from bipolar disorder in his/her own way. Blanche Dubois is so happy at times and than she is dramatically upset all of a sudden because she does not want anyone to get mad at her and find out about her true self and background. For example, she is having a wonderful conversation with Mitch and when he starts to ask her questions about her age and why she only comes out after dark Blanche gets upset and goes on with a long, sad story. Another example is Blanche is fine but when Stanley finds out the truth about Blanche and confronts her about the situation she gets all defensive and upset. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet suffers from bipolar disease also but in a different way than Blanche. Hamlet starts out fine in the beginning of the play but when the ghost of his father comes to visit him and tells him the truth about how he died Hamlet comes up with a plan in order to seek revenge on Claudius. Hamlet is bipolar because he acts fine around some people, like Horatio, but when he is talking to Claudius and his mother he acts like he is “mad” so they do not find out that Hamlet knows that people are spying on him and that he is coming up with a plan to kill Claudius. Hamlet's behavior is often explained using Freud's theory of sexual behavior; however the symptoms of bipolar disease explain Hamlet's behavior. Bipolar disease is defined as: This disease causes symptoms like mood swings with periods of both depression and mania. They have consequent changes in thinking and behavior. Bipolar means the sharing of two poles, or high and low, having to do with mood. This shows in Hamlet’s attitude towards his mother. He is mad at her because she married his father’s brother almost immediately after his father dies but he wants to get close to her to gain control. Another example of Hamlet having bipolar disorder is his feelings towards Ophellia because he claims that he does not love her but suddenly he does when he finds out that she is dead and jumps into her grave and declares his love for her. May’s situation, from the Secret Life of Bees, situation is a bit different from Blanche and Hamlet. Ever since May’s sister April died May thinks that all the problems in the world