Charachter Analysis: Eric Birling Flashcards
What does Priestly use Eric to represent ?
The young, impulsive and ignorant middle class men who exploit working class women like Eva Smith for sexual gratification
How does Priestly use the change in Eric’s attitudes ?
By the end of the play Eric is remorseful and regretful of his actions
Prieslty uses this change in character to show the audience that young men can choose between exploiting the weak to listening to Prieslty message of social responsibility
How can we analyze Priestley’s use of stage directions of Eric ?
Not show he is not fully mature
- ‘ Half shy, Half assertive’
- adjective shy connotes nervousness and lack of confidence
- this is juxtaposed by assertive which implies confidence and dominance
- Prieslty use of conflicting language creates a sence of confusing which alludes to Eric’s secretive personality
- it is clear Prieslty wants the audience to view Eric negatively to show that capatlist patriarchal society is not trustworthy
- he encouraged the audience to reject capitalism
- however Priestly does give us hope due to the reparation of the word half which emphasizes how Eric’s character is not fully formed which indicates he is susceptible to change
What does Priestly associate Eric with ?
From the very start of the play, Alcahol when his Siter accuses him of being squiffy
This contemporary slang meaning slightly drunk draws attention to Sheila use of informal language
It highlights there susceptibleness to change and adapt to the current times
It foreshadows their attitudes to social responsibility
Why else does priestly associate Eric with Alcohol ? ( good point for responsibility)
To foreshadow the later revelations about his drunken behaviour
- When Eric is interrogated by the Inspector he admits he was ‘ in a state when a chap easily turns nasty’
- Priestly uses the determiner ‘that’ to convey how Eric is almost appealing to a common belief and event.
- his lack of responsibility is exacerbated by this and suggests he is using alcohol to justify his actions
- furthermore the third person reference to himself ‘chap’, an informal word for a boy of man, has connotations of both friendliness and class
- he seems to try to euphemise what he has done and distance himself from it
- it highlights his lack of responsibly
How does Priestly show Eric accepting Guilt ?
Short sentences and a hyphen to revel Eric’s distress
- and that’s when it happened. I don’t even remember—- That’s the hellish thing’
- his lack of detail when describing the vent suggests internalized guilt and regret at his actions
- however through the use of the intertextual metaphor to the Bible by describing it as Hellish we understand his viewpoint on his actions as deeply negative
How is Eric present as an immature man ?
- he tells Mr Birling that he is ‘not the sort of father a chap could go to when he is in trouble’
- by using the friendly word ‘chap’ to describe himself he again euphemises his actions and himself to make himself appear better off
- he makes excuses by positions himself as a victim rather than accepting guilt for his behavior
- at this point in the play Prieslty emphasizes Eric’s immaturity as he is provide a short term solution rather than seeing the long term consequences of his actions
How is Eric displayed at the end of the play ?
Like Sheila, Eric has also learned a lesson on social responsibility
- he insists that ‘ we did her in all right’
- although he euphemises their actions towards her he deliberately uses the plural ‘we’ to convey that they have, as a collective, caused her death
- this is symbolic of Prieslty socialist view of collective responsibility for the welfare of those around us
- He accepts his role in her downfall and the inspectors socialist message of collective responsibility is important
- His language therefore echos that of the inspector and therefore Prieslty
