'An Inspector Calls' by J B Priestley is a play set in 1912 revolving around the apparent suicide of the young woman Eva Smith, and the visit of the mysterious Inspector Goole to the Birling family who slowly unravels the events leading to the woman's death. Mr Birling is the head of the Birling household and a hard-headed confident businessman from a working-class background with old-fashioned and arrogant ideas. Throughout the opening of the first act, Priestly portrays Birling as a confident and authoritative character, who enjoys being in control. This becomes apparent during his toast to Gerald and Sheila on their engagement when, although he begins talking about how “it's one of the happiest nights of my life” and that the engagement means “a tremendous lot” to him. He soon begins to drift from the subject and returns to talking about business: “we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher prices.” From this, the audience gains the impression that Birling feels most comfortable when talking about himself and his …show more content…
prominent business. This is suggested further when the Inspector arrives at the household, as he immediately attempts to impress the Inspector, informing him that he has been “an alderman for years” as well as “Lord Mayor”. However, the Inspector's uninterested reaction causes Birling to feel irritated and reply to the Inspector “impatiently”, as he feels out of control. However, despite Birling's pride, he is also depicted as an insecure character, especially about his social status.
This becomes clearest during his conversation with Gerald, as he explains “confidentially” how he believes that Lady Croft feels that her son “may have done better for [himself] socially”. He then sets about to showing off with a speech full of self-praise, and revealing that he has “a very good chance of a knighthood”. From these quotations, it is evident to the audience that Birling is not entirely confident in himself, and regularly feels that he needs to assert his authority. This insecurity is also shown when Eric innocently proclaims that the front door bell rings, but Birling immediately and sternly replies that “Edna'll answer it”, clearly feeling that he needs to immediately assert his wealth and social status to his unknown
visitor. Birling's arrogance also inclines him to have strong and ignorant views on a variety of subjects. However, this results in him being illustrated as ridiculous by the audience. The author infers this through dramatic irony since many of his opinions such as “there isn't a chance of war. The world's developing so fast it'll make war impossible” and that the Titanic is “unsinkable. Absolutely unsinkable”. Because of this, the audience loses all trust in him as a character, and so enjoy the moment when he is ridiculed by the Inspector. In addition to this, Birling possess some old-fashioned and patronising views on women and how they view their appearance, saying that “...clothes mean something quite different to a women. Not just something to wear – and not only something that make 'em look prettier.” This is done to suggest that Birling is quite sexist and objectifies women, as he thinks clothes “make 'em look prettier”, resulting in the audience growing to dislike Birling further. Priestley portrays Birling as a proud and self-centred character, with many disliking personality traits and opinions. The author has compelled the audience to think in this way, to help us agree with his own views on community and social responsibility, as we sympathise less with Birling and his old-fashioned views.
This is the concept of collective responsibility. Priestley says, 'things could really improve if only people were to become more socially responsible for the welfare of others'. We have to confront our mistakes and learn from them. The play starts off with the Birling family celebrating their daughter's engagement to Gerald Croft. The family included Mr Birling, Mrs Birling, Eric Birling, Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft.
Mr Birling is a very cruel man. I think this because of what he did to
Birling is presented as a self-centred capitalist very early on in the play. His pleasure in the marriage of his daughter is purely for his own profit. "Now you've brought us together and perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birling are no longer competing but are worki...
Priestley mainly uses the characters in the play to present his views, especially Mr and Mrs Birling, to present his ideas about class and society. In the Birling family, Mrs Birling is the most upper class, and is always referring to the lower class female factory workers such as Eva Smith as ‘girls of that class’. She seems to think that working class people are not humans at all.
A ‘sharp ring is heard of the front door bell’ interrupting Mr. Birling’s dialogue that explicates “that a man has to make his own way- has to look after himself” as though the ‘sharpness’ of the ring is opposing Birling’s ‘solemnity’ in his words. The stage direction instantly demonstrates juxtaposition between the Birling and the other anonymous individual; this also generates tension because of the fact that the individual is yet to be introduced. Eric felt very ‘uneasy’ after Edna said to Birling that an Inspector has arrived which gives the audience clues of Eric being involved in a crime, Eric’s uneasiness also makes Birling ‘sharply’ stare at Eric- this creates suspense for the audience.
talks with. He is a man who has come to the Birling's house to do his
The history of the time the play was written helps us to understand the views and the feelings expressed by Priestley in the play. The inspector transfers Priestley’s views and he shows the difference in social classes at the time. A gap which he wants to diminish. He illustrates the reason for this in the play, via the inspector, where he outlines the ways each of the Birlings have influenced someone from a completely different background and social class. This is the way Priestley viewed pre-war England.
Through a series of events, Biff gradually comes to a realization of what is necessary for success. First, we are shown a part of his childhood where Biff is told that "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead." This idea appears in direct contrast to Bernard, one of Biff's childhood friends, who works and studies hard. Biff decides that Bernard will not succeed because he is "only liked, not well-liked," and being well-liked is the cornerstone of success. Nonetheless, later in the play we see that Bernard has become very successful, underscoring one of the messages in the play, that success is not just a result of popularity. Second, we are shown a scene in Boston soon after Biff has just failed math for the year. He discovers his "heroic" father having an affair. Biff comes to the painful realization that his father's values, his views, and everything that Biff had made the foundation of his life, are all completely "fake" and "phony." Unfortunately, he has nothing with which to replace it. Lastly, Biff decides to leave to try and find himself, but an argument develops between Biff and Willy. Biff begins to see himself as like his father, "nothing," just an average man trying to make a living, and quite possibly failing. Biff's earlier image of his father's greatness has crumbled entirely, leaving a lost young man trying to find his way. Biff realized that he now needs to find his own values in life. He has finally tasted reality and now must dive head first into the pot, without any real preparation.
hand Mr and Mrs Birling are not able to do that as they think of no
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
is the first thing that Mr. Birling says in the act, and is our first
Goole. Some the Birling family are used to show how we are not to act
In this section at the end of Act Two we find out that Mrs Birling
Inspector Goole is arguably the central character in the play An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley. The inspector is first introduced during an evening event, an engagement prepared by the Birling’s (Act 1). The presence of the inspector turns the celebration into an investigation about the death of one Eva Smith, who used to work at Birling’s company. There have been numerous arguments on the reality of Inspector Goole. While some question his reality, there are many possibilities of what or whom the inspector could be. Could he be a ghost, the voice of Priestley (the author), Birling’s own imagination, Birling’s conscience taunting his actions, a dream or could he be a real inspector? This essay aims at attempting to unravel who or what exactly the inspector was which in turn will help reveal if he was real or a ghoul (ghost) figure.
Biff never kept a steady job during his young adult life, and did not possess a healthy relationship with anyone that was in his life. As the play progresses the reader sees how much Biff becomes more self- aware. An online source states, “Unlike the other members of his family, Biff grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the vicious cycles of lies.” When Biff returns home it becomes a struggle to keep a healthy relationship with his parents. Once Willy and Biff decide together that Biff will go and ask Bill Oliver for a loan is when the differences between the two characters are truly seen. Biff accepts reality for the first time in his life, and realizes how ridiculous it is to ask Bill Oliver for a loan, when he barely knows the man and worked for him about ten years ago. When Biff meets up with Willy after the ‘meeting’ Biff is talking to his Father and says, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” This quote reveals that Biff recently has just experienced an epiphany, and realizes that what he was doing was making no sense. Biff is escaping the self- deception he was caught in with the rest of his