AIC -Mr Birling

Question 1

Mr Birling is a show off

Answer 1

“Giving us the port, Edna?”

Question 2

Mr Birling wants endear to Gerald’s family since their social possition one to which he personally aspires

Answer 2

“Finchley told me it’s the exact same port your father gets from him”
-name dropping

Question 3

Mr Birling is flawed, mislead and pompous (self-important)

Answer 3

“hard-headed business man”
“hard headed practical man of business”

Question 4

Priorities are not family, but how much wealth he can accumulate - lack of empathy for those he exploits to grow his fortune

Answer 4

“a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself”
himself - Reflexive Personal Pronoun

Question 5

what was capitalism all about?

What does Mr Birling say that suggests he is a capitalist?

Answer 5

capitalism is when a business is privately owned for the sole purpose of making profit.
They need to ensure that they:
“Keep labour costs down”

Mr Birling says the inspector is “probably a socialist”

Question 6

The Dramatic Irony of Mr Birling

And his confident, dismissive tone

Answer 6

• “The Germand don’t want war”
• claims the idea of war as “nonsense” and “fiddlesticks”
• “Abolutely unsinkable”
  intensifier
• we DEVALUE his opinion

Question 7

Mr Birling doesn’t change and refuses to take responsibility

Answer 7

“There’s every excuse for what both your mother and i did”

Question 8

description in the opening stage directions

Answer 8

“heavy looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech”

• portentous - (pompous or overly solemn)
• provincial - (unsophisticated or narrow-minded)