Please can someone mark this to give me an idea of what i'd get, Mr birling has never come up so I thought i'd give him a try in preperation. Thank you!!
An Inspector calls is a play crafted by J.B Priestley in1945, however it is set in 1912; the epitome of a hierarchal society and a completedivide between socialist and capitalist ideologies. The divide betweensocialism and capitalism is very much a prominent aspect of today’s society asmany left wing, socialist political parties have emerged to combat capitalism. Priestleyhas constructed each character as an archetype and a symbol of a typicalcapitalist amongst Edwardian Britain. A significant character who perpetuatesan institutional form of injustice towards lower members of society is the callousand arrogant Mr Arthur Birling, a character who is extremely absorbed withhimself and his business that he fails to think about anything – or anybody –else. From the outset, Priestley describes Birling as a ‘hardheaded business man’. He is immediately labelled as a capitalist as he is veryserious about business, therefore the audience can assume he is very muchabsorbed in material wealth. ‘hard headed’ shows he is very serious aboutbusiness and he is successful, this is show a lot throughout the play as he isportrayed as both capitalist and narcissist, enjoying talking about hisachievements and successes. Birling thinks he has a high authority however thisis later contradicted. ‘hard’ headed could have connotations of the way he isharsh and hard on those who are lower on the social hierarchy, we see anexample of this in the play when he fires Eva Smith because she requestedhigher pay. Birling is also very optimistic for the future as he thinks thatstrikes won’t be a problem for his company and dismisses any fear of war asjust some ‘silly little war scares’. Priestley uses dramatic irony to make Mr Birling’soptimism seem foolish and short sighted which undermines his authoritytherefore the audience will no longer trust or listen to what he says. This isan important technique used by Priestley as he doesn’t want the audience tolisten to him as he’s a capitalist and Priestley is very much againstcapitalist ideologies. From the outset, Priestley crafts Arthur Birling as a symbolof capitalism, purposefully portraying him in a negative way as he wants toshoot down capitalism as it’s the opposition to his preferable capitalist ideology.Priestleyuses Birling’s style of speech to undermine the audience’s respect for him, andto undercut subtly the outward confidence of his ‘easy manner’. Hisspeech about the good economic climate of 1912 and how war will not happen ispeppered with dashes and hesitations. The audience is well aware, throughdramatic irony that global conflict in World War One would soon follow and thatBirling is wrong which further undermines his credibility. Here, his brokendiction through the use of caesuras suggest a lack of logic and reason, hehesitates a lot which makes his views unconvincing. The overall effect is tosuggest that Birling is intellectually weak, and blusters and brags; he ischaracterised as arrogant and inept. His stumbling manner of speaking isjuxtaposed with the confident fluency of the Inspector, who seems all the moretrustworthy in comparison.DuringBirling’s pompous speech he also remarks on the titanic being ‘unsinkable, absolutelyunsinkable’. The repetition of ‘unsinkable’ shows that Birling views hisopinion as a fact and he is very reassured by his opinions, showing that he clearlythinks highly of himself and his views are totally correct. In this instance,the ‘titanic’ could be a symbol for either the Birling family or the ideologyof capitalism itself. This is because the titanic itself embodies capitalism asit is for the wealthy only, it is described as unsinkable as the capitalistbelief was thought to be very strong as many wealthy people benefit from it.However, when coiled with the dramatic irony we are aware that the titanic wasactually sinkable, it shows how capitalist ideologies won’t last. This couldalso be used as a symbol for the Birling family as Mr Birling thinks his familyare indestructible due to their class however as the titanic sunk thereforethis could foreshadow that the Birling family will be destructed. This createstension and intrigues the audience to keep reading to discover the inevitabledecline of the Birling family, the use of dramatic devices is key to Priestley’sintentions as it is a piece of drama therefore must be entertaining in orderfor the audience to take on board his crucial messages.A key deviceused by Priestly in the characterisation of Birling is bathos. When speaking ofShiela and Gerald’s engagement he says that this is ‘one of the happiest nightsof [his] life’. Love and marriage would naturally bring joy. But within a fewlines he goes on to say how it means that the Crofts and Birlings will, becauseof the marriage, be able to work together ‘for lower costs and higher prices’.The explicit focus on the mundane matter of money is at the speech’s climax,making it clear that this is the underlying reason for Birling’s excitement, hesees his daughter’s engagement to an aristocrat as nothing more than a businessopportunity. This is a clear example of how Birling only seems to care abouthimself/his business and doesn’t even have much care towards his own daughter!This is not an endearing trait to possess which makes the reader act with eyerolling disapproval. The transition from love to money is bathetic and revealsthat lurking beneath the fine dinner and ‘easy manners’ of Birling is greed andself-interest. The pattern of bathos is repeated throughout. When MrBirling discovers that Eric has stolen money, his initial fury seemsappropriate – until he reveals that the reason for his anger is how difficultit will be to ‘cover this up’. He seems at first to agree with Sheila that MrsBirling’s treatment of Eva is ‘cruel and vile’, but it turns out that he isconcerned because he fears that ‘the press might take it up’. He is shaken andangry at the end of the play, but ultimately not for moral reasons, but for hisfear for his ‘knighthood’. Priestley uses bathos to make Birling a somewhatridiculously arrogant figure who is absorbed in bourgeois pomposity and hismaterialistic business needs. Overall, MrBirling is presented as a symbol for capitalism. Priestley intentionally setshim up to be an unlikeable and foolish character as he doesn’t want theaudience to listen to him nor trust him because he strongly preaches capitalism,Priestley’s aim of this play is to move away from this ideology and make thetransition to socialism. Birling is quite clearly obsessed with materialisticneeds therefore he is blinded from societal problems such as the injustice towardslower members of society which creates a wholly negative impression of him.This teaches the audience a lesson, are we sometimes so absorbed in materialwealth that we forget about those who are in a less fortunate position to us?Hopefully, we will refrain from shelving our obligations onto those of a lowerclass as we don’t want to end up like Mr Birling.SSSSSSS���l�!