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Inspector calls inspector analysis
Inspector calls inspector analysis
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Mr Birling is the father, and leader of the Birling family. He is described by Priestly as a ''Portentous'' man. Throughout the first act, we see Arthur Birling being conveyed by the play write as a rather pompous and foolish character. He shows no remorse or concern for his wrongful actions, unless they affect his reputation. Birling is also portrayed as a defiant capitalist and extremely narrow minded. Priestly presents Mr Arthur Birling and a ignorant and foolish character with us use of Dramatic Irony. As Mr Birling was delivering his speech at his daughter, Sheila's engagement, he mentioned that the titanic, was ''unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable''. As the play was written in 1945, we know that this bold statement is far from correct.
This caused workers to become better organised and strikes were becoming more frequent as they demanded better conditions and higher pay. J.B. Priestley was writing the play for a middle class audience and was trying to speak up for the working class by showing how the Birlings and Gerald Croft were all involved in making a young working class girl's life a misery. Priestley wants to show us that we have a responsibility to others to act fairly and without prejudice and that we do not live in isolation. Our actions affect others.
The speaker respects the Titanic by using words with positive connotations; ironically, she shows her greater reverence towards the “Iceberg” (24) without positively connotative words surrounding its descriptions.
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.
The first impression of Arthur Birling is in the initial stage directions, when he is described as ‘a heavy looking, rather portentous man in his fifties.’ The fact that he is described as ‘heavy looking’ and ‘portentous’ suggests that he has a fairly comfortable lifestyle, and has an inflated opinion of his own importance. Priestley has done this to fit the typical man of the house during the 1910’s.
Wells, both of whom references are made to in the opening pages of the play. A lot of the tension in the play is between Birling and the Inspector, both of who are powerful figures in the household and are both vying for dominance, creating a lot of tension. This is symbolic of the global struggle between capitalism and socialism, the Inspector represents Priestley's socialist views, and Birling, the antithesis of the Inspector represents capitalist views, which is made clear through his speech "the interests of Capital steadily increasing prosperity." When the Inspector is there, Birling is very fast to drop the blame on someone else, insisting "I can't accept any responsibility" which is a complete contrast of what the Inspector says, telling the family to "share the blame among yourselves when I have left" This constant conflict, which is often at the heart of the dramatic genre itself, makes sure there is tension whenever the two characters are talking to each other. This conflict is not the only one within the play.
The play starts with the Burling family celebrating Shelia Birling's engagement to Gerald Croft. Mr Burling speaks on this happy occasion about his daughter's engagement although he only touches upon the topic of his daughter's future and happiness he seems more interested in the business side of his daughter's engagement. This shows that he is money orientated as he talks about his daughters future as though ... ... middle of paper ... ... an see that J.B. Priestly was a very political writer who had very strong socialist views.
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.
The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in the North Midlands, the industrial city of Brumley in 1912. The play revolves around the death of a young girl named Eva Smith and the wealthy, middle class Birling family. The Birling family consists of four main members. In addition, there is Gerald Croft who is engaged to the daughter of the family, Sheila Birling, and the maid Edna who plays a small role in the play.
Goole is presented, by Priestley, as an intrusion. Birling initially has a sense of foolish optimism. Birling refers to the Titanic as ‘absolutely unsinkable.’ This single quote highlights Birling’s complacency and ignorance as the play was first performed in 1946 and so the audience know the outcome of the Titanic: due to complacency the captain abandoned the ships bow to take a drink in a bar whilst letting the glorious steamer power into an iceberg. Birling’s foolishness is reiterated when he refers to the, future, great war
In this section at the end of Act Two we find out that Mrs Birling
The tragic history of the Titanic, the sinking of the “unsinkable” giant of a ship shocked the entire world and contributed to important shifts in the mass consciousness of the people who lived at that period and assessed the achievements of new technologies and their role. However, one would have been hardly able to predict in 1912 that this tragedy, no matter how significant and meaningful, would leave such a deep imprint on the history of human civilization. The continuing interest in the fate of the great vessel has taken the form of various narrations and given rise to numerous myths enveloping the true history and, in this way, often obscuring the facts related to the tragedy. In recent years, this interest has been emphasized by the dramatic discovery of the wreck and examination of its remains. The recovery of artifacts from the Titanic and the exploration of the site where it had sank stimulated new speculations on different issues of the failure to rescue the Titanic and the role of different factors contributing to the disaster. These issues have been traditionally in the focus of discussions that caused controversies and ambiguous interpretations of various facts. They also often overshadowed other parts of the disaster story that were confirmed by statistical data and revealed the impact of social realities. The social stratification of passengers that reflected the social realities of the period and its class interests determined the chances of survival, with most of those perished in the Titanic disaster having been lower class individuals.
“Just because the Kaiser makes a speech or two, you’ll hear some people saying that war is inevitable. Well I say to that - fiddlesticks” This play was first published after the second world war and so the audience will know just how wrong Mr Birling really is. Mr Birling also makes a statement about the ill-fated Titanic.
higher prices - meaning that he would have more money. This really highlights how greedy and selfish Mr. Birling is - he does not consider the impact higher prices would have on anyone else; he just wants more money. This is in great contrast to the inspector who believes that everyone should act as a community and all have responsibility for their actions against anyone.
Priestley presents Birling as an ignorant business oriented social climber, who is obsessed with bettering himself in the industrial city of Brumley. This claim is backed up by the fact that on page 7, act one, Birling says that war will be impossible, and the Titanic is unsinkable, which leads the audience of the 1940s to view him as a fool who holds forth about subjects that he does not know about. He is known to be a social climber as on page 8, act 1, he is talking to Gerald about his social status which he obviously cares more about than truth or law.