Mr Birling In An Inspector Calls Essay

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'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…

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

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