How Does Priestley Present The Character Of Mr Birling
Priestley implies that higher social class makes people greedy, through creating Mr Birling as a symbol of pomposity of capitalists in Edwardian society. He is constantly insecure in his own position and comes from the nouveau riche, making him socially inferior to the Crofts. Priestly illustrates how even Mr Birling experiences class prejudice despite being middle-upper class which provokes him to work harder and explains why he cares so much about being a ‘practical man of business’ and expanding his business to earn more money to decrease his insecurity. This is displayed when he says ‘There’ll be a public scandal... and who here will suffer for that more than I will’ indicating how significant money and his business is to him that he cares for his reputation before anything else. The desire of being associated amongst a higher class is the crucial reason for Mr Birling’s perspective on life, he is constantly striving to make more and more money to be able to live happily.
In An Inspector calls, Priestley uses The Inspector to present injustice in society through his questioning of the Birling family and Gerald Croft. The Inspector gradually uncovers the selfish and unjust acts which the family enacts upon the lower classes through their abuse of their power and status over people, not showing the slightest bit of care for their wellbeing, barely treating their workers as individual beings with their own lives and emotions, just caring about the money they are making for them, and treating the lower class in general as lower beings in general, not being worth the time to understand or sympathise with. The Inspector exposes the acts of injustice by the upper class towards the lower classes through his questioning
J.B. Priestly, presents the character of Mr Birling to show how business was an important aspect of life, ' hard-headed business man'. The alliteration 'hard-headed' has dual meanings of both ruthlessness in terms of business and 'hard-headed' as in arrogant. This presents a capitalist society and how Priestly wants the audience to understand that business was practically the heart of a man's life. Also, Priestly wanted to infer how the capitalist view was wrong. There is an atmosphere of misplaced optimism during 1912.
How does Priestley Present Gerald in An Inspector Calls In his didactic play ‘An Inspector Calls’, Priestley presents Gerald, and the upper class as a whole, to be extremely callous and unwilling to accept the opportunity for redemption. He explores themes and ideologies such as patriarchy in order to excoriate those for living protected in an ‘ivory tower’ of wealth, luxury and, most significantly, denial. The methods used by Priestley to do all of this encourages the audience in a contemporary society to look at themselves with an inverted eye and strive for equality.
The repition of "I am a hard headed man of business" shows his arrogance and his capitalistic and emotionless mentality. "I say there isn't a chance of war" show his stubborn and arrogance. Priestly uses this dramatic irony to persuade the audience to side against Birling as they will think that he is foolish, unsympathetic and untrustworthy. As of portraying their stubborn and heard headed personality was not enough, Priestly makes it sure that the audience is able to clearly see mentality and coldness that capitalism brings to a human by making men emotionless and unsympathetic. "Well, we've several hundred young women there, y'know, and they keep changing.
“An Inspector Calls” is a play written by the social commentator, J.B. Priestley, speculating the morality of the class system back in 1945 and dramatizes it by setting it in 1912, just before the First World War. Priestly focuses on one family and their involvement in the death of a young girl, to outline the importance of social responsibility and flaws of the upper class. The Birling family is introduced in the first act as the curtain opens. We are told that the head of the family is Arthur Birling who is a manufacturer.
In the play An Inspector Calls written by J.B Priestley, the use of morality and double standards gives us an insight into the society of the early 1900s; which remains relevant in social stratification, cultural and deviance aspects. Through the story of Arthur Birling, Mrs. Sybil Birling and their children Eric and Sheila. The upper-class family, with untouchable reputation, enjoy of an intimate party soiree in honour of Sheila's engagement to Gerald Croft. Son of a well-known business man, Sir George Croft from Crofts Limited. When Inspector Goole pays a mood-changing visit, resulting in the systematic manipulation of the presumably respectable characters.
Priestley builds her character via words and deeds, emphasising her contempt for the working class and her commitment to upholding societal systems. For instance, Mrs Birling's classist attitude is made clear when she refers to Eva Smith as "girls of that class" in Act Two. The language used by Mrs Birling reflects her haughtiness and attitude of entitlement. She states in Act Two, "I consider I did my duty", suggesting that her conduct is above reproach and that she is not accountable for the results of her decisions.
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In an Inspector Calls, responsibility is the prime subject. Priestley is mainly interested in our individual actions and our social responsibility, toward society. The play analyzes the effect of hierarchy, gender, and generations; approaching people's attitude to responsibility. He presents how animosity can prevent certain people from acting more responsible and it is also his intention to show that it is wrong to treat people in the way that the Birling’s and Gerald has treated Eva/Daisy.
How does Priestly present the theme of social responsibility? In the play, An Inspector Calls, Priestly presents the theme of social responsibility through the behaviors, attitudes and actions of the characters; Mr Birling, Mrs Birling and Shelia. The theme of social responsibility is mainly shown through Mr Birling’s character. Mr Birling is shown as having a self – centered and pettish attitude whereas Shelias behavior changes from being immature and childish to an increase in maturity as shown at the end of the play.
Mr. Birling is a metaphor for capitalists in general. The way he treats Eva Smith is ruthless. He fires Eva just because she wanted a small raise in salary. Mr. Birling is a character who looks down at everyone because he thinks he is above them all, showing true qualities of a capitalist. He tells the inspector that he doesn’t ‘like his tone’, almost as if he was talking to a child.
Discuss the significance of money in An Inspector Calls. You must consider language, form and structure in your answer. In the play ‘An Inspector calls’ J.B. Priestley utilises the significance of money and its effects on varying classes by emphasising how money can corrupt and distort societies priorities and sense of moral character in order to prove money is the root of society's problems. His characterisation of the Birlings and how they affected Eva Smith highlights the detrimental effects of class inequality.
He does this by using a didactic style whilst talking to the Birlings; “You’re offering money at the wrong time, Mr Birling.” The word ‘wrong’ suggests to the audience that there was a correct time to be offering money, for instance when Eva Smith was protesting for a higher salary when working for Mr Birling. However this quote also shows us that the Inspector isn’t looking to punish the Birlings in a typical legal way, like how they expected, but in a moral way where they have to think about what they have done. Another way we can see the Inspector moral role is how he feels sympathetic towards Eva Smith; “a young woman, just out of her teens, pretty, and
Priestly attempts to exemplify in Mr Birling’s character into the type of mentality that majority of upper class capitalist business men had in the early 1900s in England. It is extremely ironic that the Inspector rings the bell of the house just as Mr Birling is telling Eric and Gerald that people must look out solely for their own interests ("a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and - “ act 1): throughout his interrogation, the Inspector champions the very opposite idea - that "we are all responsible for each other.” The Inspectors view on community as a whole is considered a very socialist view. Notably, Priestly was socialist after all and used the play as a more socially acceptable way of stating his opinion on social responsibility, politics and labour rights. The
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