How Is Mr Birling Presented In An Inspector Calls

An inspector calls is a morality play that challenges the ideas of an upper class Edwardian audience,preistley achieves this both through the attitudes of the play but also through his implementation of personal morals. Sheila is initially presented as the stereotypical Edwardian daughter but soon freely presents her emotions, without the need for approval from her parents.

This is evident in “We are responsible for each other.” The inspector implies that everyone is responsible for one another, utterly contradicting Mr. Birling’s speech before he came in. The inspector is the most conflicting character in the entire play as he stands cool and hard before the Birlings and the audience and unveils the consequences of their actions on those below them. The dramatic irony reinforces that the inspector is in fact voicing Priestley’s message out, therefore emphasizing the effect. Furthermore, the inspector is presented as the figure of authority in the play. This is reinforced in "massively taking charge as dispute erupts between them." He is the only character that calms down the household when an argument breaks. He also expresses no interest towards Mr. birling’s authoritative friends and disregards his threats. The stage directions reinforce that when capitalism destroys everything, socialism is the only answer. Both contemporary and modern audience is left in a conflicting situation as he creates conflict in the play between other

“But take my word for it, you youngsters - and I've learnt in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and - We hear the sharp ring of a front door bell.”This shows the power of Mr.Birlings and how he is a capitalist he always thinks that he is correct no matter what but when the moment when the inspector arrives it's now accidentally it arrives at that time to cut Mr.Birling's speech so he could stop with his capitalism, the inspector, the contrary of Mr.Birling decides to arrive at the perfect time to make tension in the family.

In the play An Inspector Calls, Priestley uses different characters to portray women. At the start of the play, Sheila is seen as fragile, materialistic and inferior to the men in her life, which is typically the view of higher-class women. This is followed by the perspective of lower class women having excellent morals yet being disposable, which is seen through Eva Smith’s character. This contradicts to Mrs Birling’s control on others and her strong social class views.

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.

The events of the play reveal that most people in the upper-middle class (Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald) look down on the lower class with derision (‘girls of that class’) and the only middle class person in the play (the Inspector) seems to detest the upper-middle class because he believes in socialism.

As in the first few speeches we hear from Mr Birling, none of it seems to be true. Priestly does this in order too show that if greedy business men like Mr Burling remain in positions of power the Eva Smiths of the world will continue to suffer suggesting quite early on in the play a movement of a more socialist society. Through Mr. Burling’s speeches looking at the word unsinkable, we can see that Mr. Burling’s optimism makes him seem foolish and short sighted to the viewer, which immediately undermines his authority. Mr Burling uses provincial language as accent and social class were closely linked, making it clear he was not lower class. Priestly writes Mr Birling to have the most continuous speech in the play, this is to point out that often capitalists like to talk and voice their opinions and views but dislike being interrupted by people they don’t believe to be as high a status as they are.

In An Inspector Calls, JB Priestley uses the character of Mrs Birling to portray a typical higher-class woman. On multiple occasions in the play, Mrs Birling (Sybil) is presented as dismissive and a snob. This behaviour is evident from the very start of the play where she tells off her husband for thanking the chef in front of a guest, Gerald. She says “Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things.” This authoritative tone from Mrs Birling shows that she takes pride in her social respectability and so wants her whole family to not ruin it.

An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the

How does the Inspector’s visit affect Sheila Birling in ‘An Inspector Calls’? ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley is an allusive, morality play set in 1912 England, and first performed in 1945. The play is a critique of the presiding capitalist, and unjust society from the perspective of a socialist author. In this indictment of the classist system, Sheila Birling is used to symbolise the privileged, and stable lifestyle of the wealthy, and influential upper class. Priestly uses Sheila as a device to present how her luxurious life has prevented her from being in touch with reality, and how the consequences of her actions are unbeknownst to her.

Priestly uses Birling as an important figure of the play as he is the one who started the chain of events that led to Eva’s death. He is used as a symbol of the callous and heartlessness of capitalism. Priestly uses him to criticize the complacency of capitalist prosperity. Birling is a representative of the older generation who values tradition, capitalism and the unwillingness to change. He only cares about money and business and believes that Sheila and Gerald’s marriage is only beneficial for his and the Croft’s rival company as he hopes ‘[Birlings and Crofts] are no longer competing but are working together-for lower costs and higher prices!’ His views of future prosperity are shown to be naive, suggesting that is political and ideological

A major inequality that has been highlighted in the play is gender Inequalities. Before the unexpected arrival of Inspector Goole, Sheila is presented to be very outspoken about her ideas to Gerald and the rest of her family. ‘I’d hate you to know all about port – like one of these purple-faced old men’ As Sheila tells this to Gerald it shows how she openly expresses her views to Gerald. The simple language emphasises how confidently she is able to voice her opinion without a second thought. This is something that wouldn’t be expected from women in the early 1900s so it shows how from the very beginning, Sheila is different to most women in the early 1900s. However, she is also quite similar to them in terms of her power because she had no power in the start of the play and despite the fact that she voices her opinion, it has no impact on anyone in the family in comparison to the effect it would have if Gerald or Birling said it. During the Inspectors visit Sheila increasingly breaks down the inequalities between

John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on September 13th 1984. The play “An Inspector Calls” was written by him in 1945, and came onstage in 1914. An Inspector calls, is a play that revolves around the apparent suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith. In the play, the unsuspecting Birling family are visited by the mysterious Inspector Goole. Priestley uses a variety of different techniques, especially language and quotations, to contrast and elicit differing responses to Mr Birling and Inspector Goole.

The author uses the Mrs. Birling character to underline how egotistical the upper class is. In Act 3, Mrs birling talks about how “I told him quite plainly... I had done no more than my duty”. This highlights how Mrs. Birling thinks that although she is the one to blame for the death of Eva she refuses to acknowledge it to avoid any possible scandal that could ruin her family reputation.

In the play 'An Inspector Calls', many contrasts and paradox's are present and at the centre of them all is the character known as Inspector Goole. However, the inspector is not any ordinary inspector. I believe that the inspector is used as a device by Priestley to explore the wider themes of the play and to depict other characters true personalities. This essay will explore some of the techniques Priestley presents the inspector in An Inspector Calls.