What is PTSD?
Ptsd as also known as post-traumatic stress disorder, is known to have symptoms of Aggressive outbursts, panic attacks, depression and night terrors . Which then were known as shell-shock.
The question lies on how does peaky blinders tackle these symptoms ? And how do they portray it through one single character?
The main points:
- the series was set based after the First World War
- Depression and other mental diseases may be very taboo subjects, especially among men. which is what Steven Knight had to tackle.
- It can be difficult to talk about mental illnesses like depression, especially among men.
- The way it had to be portrayed was for it to not be cliche or too dramatic since then it will lose its purpose.
My main two characters that i wanted to focus on was Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) and Thomas Shelby ( Cillian Murphy) since they both represent some type of mental health in their own way which is indeed different , showing the contrast of two different sides and what things would affect each individual person.
These are the websites i used for more research and analysis on the two characters and what mental illness they both represent. I found more research on Arthur then Thomas since his one was rather more family based and also war based.
https://peaky-blinders.fandom.com/wiki/Oswald_Mosley
https://www.quora.com/Whats-wrong-with-Arthur-Peaky-Blinders (Enola murphy – 2021)
https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/tv/peaky-blinders-tommy-shelby-struggle-mental-health-1215407.html ( 24 October 2019- Joseph Holgate)