Peaky Blinders: How Tommy Shelby's post-war depression led to his eventual rise (& redemption)? Explained 

Tommy Shelby’s (Cillian Murphy) battle with post-war trauma forms the emotional core of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight's widely acclaimed and popular 2013 crime series that ran for six seasons on BBC before making its impressive debut on Netflix.

Returning from the trenches of the First World War, Tommy is not simply a decorated soldier turned gangster but a man profoundly shaped and scarred by what he has survived. His depression, survivor’s guilt and emotional detachment are not narrative background details but the driving forces behind nearly every major decision he makes throughout Peaky Blinders.

For Tommy, danger is not something to be avoided but rather a welcome distraction that silences the traumatic voices inside his head. His ambition to expand the Peaky Blinders empire and insert himself into politics is fueled as much by numbness and despair as it is by intelligence or greed. The show refuses to treat depression as a weakness to be overcome through power alone. As Tommy rises, his mental health deteriorates further, symbolizing how they go hand-in-hand.

More on this in our story.

Peaky Blinders transformed Tommy Shelby's post-war depression into a coping mechanism

Tommy Shelby has become synonymous with one of the most nuanced and widely popular anti-heroes on the small screen. But Tommy's journey from being a shell-shocked war veteran to the leader of his Peaky Blinders gang was not simple. The ruthless soldier was confronted with the demons from his past and literal visions of the trenches. But he continued to move forward and eventually transformed his war-induced PTSD into a coping mechanism, paving the way for his criminal empire and social mobility for the Shelby family.

Tommy's time in the war made him an expert in risk-taking. The earlier seasons of Peaky Blinders hinted at how Tommy believed that he was living on 'borrowed time', a clear sign of survivor's guilt and war-induced PTSD. While each of his comrades perished in the war, Tommy returned in one piece, physically unscarred but silently carrying multiple battlefield wounds on his psyche. As Aunt Polly revealed to Grace, the war changed Tommy's worldview and made him into a nihilistic man, unafraid to look death in the eye.

While Arthur Shelby succumbed to the pressures of war, Tommy Shelby took charge of his family. Tommy's years in France honed his leadership skills and ability to remain calm under pressure. His calculating and often silent presence in Peaky Blinders was a result of his military precision gained in the trenches. The gang leader eventually used his depression and PTSD as a coping mechanism and transformed his very weakness into strength. While characters like Danny and Arthur failed to turn their life around, Tommy emerged as the true winner.

Lastly, Peaky Blinders explored Tommy's harrowing mental health after the war, which was often accompanied by hallucinations, night terrors about the trenches and sleepless nights. While the situation became precarious, Tommy drowned himself in work and built an empire for the Shelby family. When his post-war depression threatened his survival, he converted it into ruthless ambition, utilizing it to elevate his family's status from working-class.

Tommy's redemptive journey in Peaky Blinders

While Tommy Shelby was a master of disguise in Peaky Blinders, he was not 'God, yet.' Throughout the six seasons of Knight's crime series, there were several moments when his facade gave in. The audience was reeled in to witness some rare, vulnerable moments, especially after Tommy lost both Grace and Aunt Polly, the two guiding lights in his life. On the one hand, Aunt Polly acted as Tommy's practical anchor and on the other, Grace provided him with much-needed emotional stability. Their tragic deaths, combined with Tommy's descent into politics, forced him to confront his post-war depression and morally corrupt actions.

Peaky Blinders featured a turning point in Tommy's arc when he discovers his 'terminal illness' from his doctor. However, when he realized that the diagnosis was a lie orchestrated by his enemies, he had an epiphany. Tommy decided that he was finally free from his self-imposed death sentence and could choose to live a different life. The series finale offers redemption for the anti-hero as he burns all his possessions & remnants of his previous life and rides off on a white horse into the sunset, potentially to a new (and hopeful) life.

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