Eric Birling Flashcards
Conventional view
• part of the younger generation which will change the world
• ‘But don’t forget I’m ashamed of both of you as well - yes both of you’
How does Priestley show we should not trust Eric and he is not an honourable person?
• ‘in that state in which a chap turns nasty’
• distancing himself by neglecting to use personal pronouns, ‘I’
• not an honourable person - deflecting blame
• only other crime committed in the play
How Eric symbolises the future of capitalism in 1912
• reveals it as theft
• commits only other crime but denies it as theft, replying ‘not really’
• profit doesn’t go to those who work for the company, but capitalists refuse to see this as theft
• both ‘shy’ and ‘assertive’ - fraudulent character somewhere
• refusal to accept responsibility is made worse by amount he steals
• £50 - well over 40 weeks of earnings when Eric had only been with her for about 16 weeks, showing its highly likely Eric kept most of the money for himself for drinking
• personifies the rich as thieves and capitalism as theft
• audience would have been atuned to this, figure being much more than wages
• significantly for himself - capitalists
Upper class drunkenness
• symbolises upper class drunkenness - starts at beginning of the play, ‘pass the port Edna’
• rich drink every night - capitalism is linked to greed
• ‘squiffy’
• Priestley would have witnessed this drunken rich behaviour at Cambridge
• emphasises Priestley’s disgust of hedonistic men and ignorance of social responsibility, because on his return in Act 3, Inspector gives him more ‘brandy’
• hasn’t really learn the lesson, we can’t believe his words because the second death of Eva still occurs
Ignorance of young men after WW1
• WW11 (second death of Eva) wouldn’t have happened if the lesson had been learnt
• Eric was a similar age to Priestley when WWI happened
• reflects another possible future of young men
• criticising that young men who have come back from the war have not learnt the lesson despite the horrors, and this wasn’t enough to change behaviour
• should have embraced social responsibility
Tragedy of lost youth
• rich young men (sons of capitalists) were officers and therefore most likely to die at war and cannot change the future
• possibility Priestley believes Eric did learn the lesson - however drunken state reflects that he would have died and could not change the future (quotes for regret)
• becomes a symbol of the upper class youth who would have learned social responsibility through fighting in the war
• lesson was lost, because their lives were lost
• older generation held onto power for too long because too many youth died in the war when they should have replaced them
Whisky
‘What we all did to her’
