Sheila Birling Essay

extent to which Eva is exploited is when we discover she was fired from Birling and Company in September 1910. In industrial cities like Brumley, common jobs for women were working in large

time the play was set. J.B Priestly uses the characters to express his views on the issue of social responsibility, morality and about class divisions with many themes including greed, regret, guilt and blame. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is about the Birling family who are quite wealthy. They are celebrating their daughters engagement with her fiancé, Gerald. An Inspector arrives and breaks up the party, questioning the family on

An Inspector Calls is a play written by J. B. Priestley in 1945 about the prosperous Birling family being confronted by a Police Inspector who reveals during the play each family member's involvement in a young woman's suicide. The play has socialist undertones, as Priestly was a prominent socialist himself. The play is set in spring 1912 in the dining room of the Birlings house in Brumley, just before the First World War. It was first performed 1 October 1946 to an audience who had just lived through

Written in 1945, J.B. Priestley’s didactic, moralistic play seeks to expose the selfish individualism of Edwardian capitalism, dramatically exemplifying its corrosive effects through the interactions of the Birling family with the working-class Eva Smith. Within An Inspector Calls, Mr. Birling is presented as the archetypal capitalist: patriarchal, corrupt, arrogant, possessive and inconsiderate. Moreover, in particular, he is portrayed as condescending. This is illustrated through his propensity

prey to the evil villain, who is rich and powerful. Birling is a caricature of the grasping capitalist. Eva Smith is a caricature of the poor, downtrodden victim who retains her dignity and nobility of spirit. She is too good to be true .Mr and Mrs Birling remain the archetypical villains to the end because they fail to learn the moral lesson of the play. In contrast to Mr and Mrs Birling, Priestley sets up the younger generation (Eric and Sheila) as reformed characters to contrast with the older

"I've done nothing wrong - and you know it!" Mrs Birling exclaims, refusing to take responsibility for her actions, which is just one of the reasons why the audience may not see Mrs Birling as a very likable character. This essay is going to explore how J.B. Priestley creates such a disagreeable character and why the audience feels this way about her. Priestley represents Mrs Birling, as a very posh and high class woman. She, like her husband, can be very self-important, for example, when the

The Use of Dramatic Devices in An Inspector Calls By J.B Priestly In An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestly an inspector is introduced who wants to show and teach the Birling family. He wants to teach the Birlings about being responsible for their actions and that their actions can severe consequences. Priestly's main concern is to make to make the world a better place to live in for everyone. The date 1912 in which the play is set in is important because two years later World

see is through the appearance of Mr Birling when Priestly describes him at the start of the play. Mr Birling is described as a ‘thickly built’ man, which gives us a sense of power due to his size. The audience (only being able to see the actor playing Mr Birling) may respect Mr Birling due to his appearance,

privileges outside the family. For women like Sheila, a decent life rested with the chance of marrying a wealthy man. Mr Birling sees Eva as just one of “several hundred young women”. But times where starting to change, in 1912, political and social unrest where massive problems, at the time, women where campaigning for equal rights. It is likely that this impacted of Sheila, more than her mother, Ms Birling accepts the role and her position in life. Sheila shows a greater independence of the mind, and

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