CHARACTER WORK: 1940's women and male relationships

The play focuses a lot on the power balance of male and female relationships. I thought to research the behaviour of male's and female's in the period that we have decided to set the play in. I found that women were encouraged to Wed at a very young age and promiscuity was still strongly frowned upon with religion still being a strong force of control in this time.

But also at this time in america, due to the second world war women were becoming more aware of the likely hood that their men may not return from the war. Relationship style began to change with men and women making public statements of their relationships by the males trading an item of their clothing with the woman who would wear them and reflect their current relationship status. This was called "going steady". I saw this in my research and draw a conclusion that it was very similar to the men in "LLL" giving the women "favours" to wear, as a sign of their romantic intent and possible emotional commitment
. This allowed me to rationalise what the favours would've meant in the time that we had transposed the play into and then react to them not only following the script but the time and intention.

Here was a video I found regarding dating in the 40's, It was really interesting to see a lot of the awkwardness that we feel today as girls and boys was present in the 40's, but the video also highlights a a difference in perceived dating etiquette, with one of the girls behaving in a coy and understated way. I believe the way she behaved is the way the princess of France would behave, so I will take it into my character. But the Princess is also assertive like the other girl in the video, so I will also incorporate that into my portrayal of the princess.