Eric Birling Flashcards
‘Just let me finish eric’
Birling adopts a patronising and belittling tone, revealing his desire to suppress his signs voice so that the birling household will serve as an echo chamber for his bigoted, capitalist views.
Constantly silenced and berated by his father leading to a fractious and dysfunctional relationship, so Eric turns to drinking and reckless behaviour to fill that void
‘Just the kind of son-in law I always wanted’
His contempt towards Eric is juxtaposed with this respect and affection he affords to Gerald.
Compliment undoubtedly bruised and fostered deep routed insecurities in Eric, who appears to be being usurped as heir to the family business.
Lack of investment in relationship from birling, he only cares about his social advancement with Gerald, so he would rather have a good relationship with Gerald than his own son.
Half shy half assertive - stage direction
Half suggests that he has not yet fully matured yet, connotations of being incomplete. He is the by product of a sheltered capitalist upbringing.
Contrast between shy and assertive alludes to his insecurities as he he confused and uncertain with himself.
‘Half shy’ is an endearing quality, despite his many flaws this encouraged the audience to like the character and be hopeful for his change and transformation
What effect does his factors relationship with his father result in Eric feeling?
Eric feels redundant and spends his time and money carousing
He continually seeks validation and approval for, his father and is met with condescension and contempt, creating a void he attempts to fill with wild and reckless behaviour.
He is constantly berated, patrionised, and silenced.
Introduction
Priestley uses the character of Eric Birling as a vehicle to expose the damaging impact capitalism has on family life, whereby his fractious relationship with his father results in deep- routed insecurities that he attempts to overcome through reckless and wild behaviour. Though the audience view his treatment of Eva Smith as morally repugnant, he redeems himself through genuine remorse and his receptive response to the Inspector’s message, suggesting that even the worst members of society are capable of redemption. Through Eric, Priestley reveals his hope that the younger generation will abandon the capitalist values of their parents and adopt a socialist desire to create a much more egalitarian society predicated on welfare and civic responsibility.
What do we learn about Eric’s behaviutn
His behaviour is presented as symptomatic of fat deeper and more sister problems within the class system. When he forces himself on Eva he is presented as egocentric and entitled: characteristics developed as a result of his privileged upbringing made possible by the exploitation of the working class
Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages
- morals differ from fathers
- he is empathetic and understanding of the lower classes due to his own personal oppression from his father allowing him to be empathetic with lower classes
- he recognises others faults but not self aware of his own, and how he is just as guilty
- some socialist values
‘When a chap easily turns nasty’
Attempts to justify his actions by blaming it on his drinking, in order to avoid accepting responsibility for his actions
Through the euphemistic term ‘chap’ Eric clearly misjudges the severity of his predatory and aggressive behaviour by using this generalisation also creates distance between himself and his crime
And suggests that this kind of behaviour is common, and therefore acceptable.
Ambitious and evasive to deflect blame
Could I have a drink first?
- reveals his lack of confidence
- reveals his dependence of alcohol as a result of deep routed insecurities
- he medicates his feelings of guilt with alcohol, to escape reality
‘Wasn’t in love with her or anything’
Priestly presents Eric as the only character in the play to make amends for his moral fro,e against Eva before the inspector arrives and forced them to face the consequences of their actions. His continual drinking is perhaps also an indication that Eric has something playing on his conscience and feels guilty long before the inspector arrives..
Claims he wants in love bye has enough of a conscience to return to her time and time again and tries his best to support her when he learns she’s pregnant
“She didn’t want to marry me”
- implies that he posed the question
- ## sense of chivalry from a young upper-class man is unexpected and unnecessary, as we see from Gerald’s prior experiments
‘Fifty pounds’
he also had the means to pay off Eva like Gerald, mr birling horrified that Eric would have proposed such a mésalliance, especially after his attempt to climb the ladder
Although his decision to steal ‘fifty pounds’ from his father to give money to Eva was misguided, it does portray Eric as a sympathetic character who genuinely wished to right his wrongs
‘Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And Mather did what she did’
- he has internalised the teaching and heeded the warnings of the inspector
- demonstrates he has developed a moral integrity and no longer wishes to evade responsibility
- instead he faces up to the ‘facts’ of what he has done, even when he is offered an easy way out.
Conclusion
Though his acts are, both morally and criminally, the most heinous of all his family, priestly firmly positions us on Eric’s sides by the end of the play, when we see his genuine penitence.
Overall, the change in Eric presented priestly’s faith in the post-war generation to accept responsibility and do what is right, moving away from Edwardian values of their parents in order to create a fairer, more just society for all
