class

Question 1

describe class as a theme in the play:

Answer 1

• before war, Britain divided by class. wealthy, and the poor workers.
• war helped bring two classes together, rationing meant everyone ate same and everyone dressed same.
• war effort meant all classes mixed together.
• priestley wanted to highlight there still class divide in post-war Britain, that upper class still looked down on lower class.

Question 2

how is eva smith symbolic of the lower classes as a whole?

Answer 2

• never appears on stage. audience’s perspective is altered by Birlings’ classism and personal bias. Priestley shows how easy it is for the upper classes to influence the narrative surrounding the lower class.
• when it’s revealed that Eva was most likely different women, she becomes a symbol of all lower class people - it doesn’t matter who she is, just that she was treated immorally. every member of this ‘respectable’ family has acted cruelly towards the working classes, thus, every member of the elite is implicated in the oppression of the lower classes.

Question 3

how has the theme of class developed across the play?

Answer 3

• at beginning, values of upper class outlined. protect their own, believe they’re superior, view lower classes as criminals.
• by the time the inspector leaves, those values have been changed - they’re no longer a ‘perfect, well-behaved family’ - they’ve turned against each other.
• in the end, Eva Smith (the working class) is more moral than any of the Birlings. she refuses stolen money from others, protects Eric rather than save herself.
• not only are the upper classes wrong in their prejudices, but really they are worse than the ones they distance themselves from.

Question 4

how is class portrayed at the beginning of the play?

Answer 4

• stage directions describe lighting as ‘pink and intimate’ symbolising Birlings’ optimistic, rose-tinted perspective. ‘intimate’ atmosphere - undisturbed by others.
• Birling says ‘if you don’t come down sharply on these people, they’d soon be asking for the Earth.’ thinks it’s his personal obligation to put lower classes in their place. hyperbolic metaphor implies they’re greedy and unreasonable, and that someone needs to keep them in check.
• upper classes saw any attempt by the lower classes to stand up for themselves as outrageous and disrespectful. purposefully continue cycle of poverty and widen class divide. they do this because of vanity - think they’re being righteous.

Question 5

how is class portrayed in the main body of the play?

Answer 5

• mrs birling makes assumptions about eva because she’s a working class girl, and this leads her to deny Eva any help from the charity.
• ‘i don’t suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. girls of that class-‘
• verb ‘understand’ suggests the working class are so different that their actions are incomprehensible to the upper class. she won’t be empathetic to them, and won’t try to ‘understand’ them.
• noun ‘girl’ infantilises Eva and portrays her as weak and foolish.
• generalises ‘all girls of that class’ and doesn’t believe eva deserves any of her time or attention. prejudice deeply ingrained.

Question 6

how is class portrayed at the end of the play?

Answer 6

• Sheila tells her mother, ‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.’ shows her desperate upper classes were to distance from others.
• ‘wall’ metaphor demonstrates extremity of separation, implies there’s physical boundary that kept lower classes in poverty.
• identifies how Sybil builds a wall to desensitize herself, to remain unsympathetic and untroubled.
• barrier imagery also used when inspector tells Mrs birling, ‘you slammed the door in her face.’ implying upper classes were deliberate and violent in their rejection of lower classes.
• • ‘the door’ is symbolic of systems and establishments that allow the upper class to exclude or deny the lower class.