Mr Birling Flashcards
Words to describe mr birling
Flippant Bigoted Conceited Obstinate Egotistical
‘You’re Just the kind of son in law I’ve always wanted’ ‘look forward to a time where Croft’s and birlings are no longer competing but are working together’
From this we learn that birling main priority is his social advancement as he relegates love and happiness. His happiness for his daughters engagement is self seeking and superficial, as he prioritises his own financial gain over the well-being of his daughter.
He lacks paternal affection as he views everything through a capitalist lens, rather than a parental lens, thus presenting him as an egotistical man.
Gerald is Birlings social superior as Gerald was born into aristocracy, so mr birling neglects his children to make his relationship with Gerald stronger.
Lower costs, higher prices
He dehumanises and objectifies his workforce as he doesn’t identify them as human beings but rather as objects that he can exploit to benefit him financially and socially.
Repitition of ‘us together’
Collective pronouns are ironic as he only truly cares for himself. When saying “together” he refers to himself and those he identifies himself with, he wants a community, but only a community which would benefit him financially showing his bigoted ideology.
“As if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive”
He uses the simile to satirise socialist ideology of working together. He uses the insectoid association of ‘bees’ to ridicule socialism. He advocates for segregation. Referring to everyone ‘together’ as a whole is disgusting to him, but together to refer to people of the same class as him is great for him which shows Mr Birlings hypocrisy. It is ironic as ‘bees in a hive’ are effective, productive, and efficient, which suggests that mr birling has not thought through what he has said, but is very adamant about his views. He undermines his whole viewpoint emphasising that he is obstinate, but above all he is wrong, priestly does this so that we lose credibility towards mr birling
“Fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war. nobody wants war”
Through the use of the nones word “fiddlesticks” we find that he is being flippant and dismissive as he is wilfully ignorant to the issues around him. Priestly uses this dramatic irony as a vehicle to undermine Birlings authority and credibility so we are more inclined to side with the younger generation. For the post war audience his flippancy would have made them outrage in disgust having experienced the inordinate suffering during the two world wars, further emphasising Birlings conceitedness as he is condescending towards the issue as he acts like he knows it all and oversimplifies the whole situation further aggravating the contemporary audience.
“Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
The use of the repetition of ‘unsinkable’ intensifies how bigoted his views are. Dramatic irony used to undermine his credibility. Reference to status quo and class system as Edwardian people thought it truly was unsinkable. Contemporary audience would be annoyed
“I was alderman for years - and Lord Mayor two years ago - and I’m still on the bench”
Birling lists his accolades and as a result he expects nepotism due to the friends and associates that he has Exposing the corruption which is rife in the judicial system.
“Look inspector, I’d give thousands, yes thousands”
Ironic as now he is willing to exchange huge sums of money to protect himself his reputation but previously during the workers strike he wouldn’t even offer a penny to the working class. The exclamations “yes thousands” suggests that he himself his shocked, suggesting that he feels that he is being generous. We learn that he has no moral integrity as despite everything that has happened and he has been told he still tries to use corrupt ways like bribery to get out of it rather than accept his mistakes.
