(Character) Mr Birling Flashcards
Role in the family
He is the head of the household and family in a patriarchal (male ruled) society.
He is in charge of the finances (money).
He is the owner of a factory.
He encourages Sheila’s marriage to Gerald to secure his links to the upper-class Croft family.
Role in the play
He portrays a stereotypical upper-class pre-war attitude – people should only help themselves and not take responsibility for others.
His priorities are to make money and cement his high social status.
He is only concerned about himself – he wants the knighthood and the marriage to take place so he can improve his social status.
He believes that people have to make their own ways in life, and that everyone should look after themselves.
Connection to Eva
Mr Birling fired Eva Smith because she led a group of workers in seeking a pay rise and going on strike.
He takes no responsibility for his actions.
Foolish
Priestley highlights Mr Birling as an ultimately foolish character, who likes to tell everyone how great their future will be.
Priestley uses dramatic irony (when the audience knows something the characters don’t) here to show the audience that Birling was naïve and idiotic.
Obsessed with power
Mr Birling is shown as being in control and in charge right from the start of the play.
Mr Birling tries to intimidate Inspector Goole into leaving or changing his questioning. He doesn’t know how to cope with the fact that Goole isn’t impressed, or intimidated, by him.
Obsessed with social status
When Inspector Goole challenges his power, Birling struggles with this and becomes angrier and angrier. He is furious that a man of a lower social class treats Birling like everyone else – he doesn’t receive special treatment because of his higher social class, something he cannot accept. Mr Birling is obsessed with his future knighthood, as he feels that this will increase his social status and make him look great among his upper-class peers.
Unwilling to change or learn from actions
When the family discover that Inspector Goole does not work for the local police force, Birling is very happy to forget the whole thing and to forget any possible consequences of his actions.
Mr Birling does not learn from the story of Eva Smith – instead, he only cares about it when he fears that the story might be made public, which could damage his reputation.
He cares about himself, not about how his actions affect others.
By the end of the play, Mr Birling has not changed at all – is this why they get a second visit from a real police inspector? Does Inspector Goole act as a warning, which they do not take?
Bad father
We also learn that Mr Birling has alienated (isolated) his son – when he tells Eric he should have come to him for help, Eric replies that Birling isn’t the type of father a son could ask for help.
Even within their family, their relationships are fragile (could break easily) and fake – Birling seems to be the caring father so he looks good, but is actually not.
Significance of Mr Birling
Priestley uses Mr Birling to show the negative aspects of wealth and capitalism. Mr Birling represents the older, upper-class generation that caused many deaths in war. Priestley also uses Mr Birling’s character to explore ideas such as the oppression of women and the consequences of our actions.
Actions have consequences
Priestley uses Mr Birling to present the initial idea that every action has a consequence – something as seemingly simple as firing someone can have a huge impact on their life.
Priestley makes the audience dislike Mr Birling because he will not accept that he did anything wrong.
Dangers of capitalism
Mr Birling represents higher class, wealthy businessmen who only care about making money.
Priestley created him as a villainous character to highlight the dangers of selfish capitalism.
Exclusion of women
Birling also talks about business with the men and tries to avoid speaking about business or real life in front of the women.
This is characteristic of pre-war society, which tried to shield and protect women because they were viewed as less intelligent than men, more emotionally unstable, and more fragile.
Older, upper-class generation
Mr Birling represents the older, upper-class generation, who would go on to cause numerous deaths in World War One and Two. They did not care about the welfare of the lower-class, even though the lower-class men were the ones fighting the war for them.
‘Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down, and if I’d agreed to this demand for a new rate we’d have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs.’ (Act 1)
Negativity of capitalism
Mr Birling is used to show the capitalist viewpoint throughout the play.
His primary aim is to succeed in business, and so he cares about money more so than people.
He argues with Inspector Goole that he could not have raised Eva Smith and the others’ wages, as he needs to run his business effectively – he needs to earn all the money that he can, which he cannot do if he pays the workers more.
This highlights the selfishness of capitalism. Capitalism was designed to reward the business owners, not those actually doing the work.
‘Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you, Inspector?’ (Act 2)
Patriarchal head of the household- This quotation highlights Mr Birling as the patriarchal (male ruling) head of his household. Mr Birling assumes a protective role over his wife. He tries to defend her while treating her as if she cannot defend herself. This power struggle returns between the two men, while Mrs Birling is not directly addressed, even though the conversation is about her. Entitled upper-middle-class man- Alternatively, this could be more about Birling highlighting his expectations as a member of the upper middle class – he does not feel that the Inspector’s questions deserve any sort of response from his upper-class wife.He feels that she is above this interrogation. The tone of this seems quite condescending on Birling’s part, and is designed to put the Inspector in his place.Mrs Birling will not even respond to him herself because he is beneath her.
