Mr Birling Flashcards
1
Q
Who is Mr Birling?
A
- Owner of Birling and Co.
- The head of the Birling family
- He is a successful businessman
- Rich, irritable, traditional, self-centred, impatient
- He likes to be in control
- He is a public figure- obsessed with social status
2
Q
Is Mr Birling a real person?
A
No- He is used by Priestley to discredit capitalism
3
Q
What do Mr Birling’s stage directions tell us about him?
A
- “hard headed”- adjective “hard” implies he won’t change. His beliefs are narrow minded
- “Portentous”- adjective very serious and significant, especially with regard to future events, excessively serious or pompous
- “Provincial”- adjective, unsophisticated and unwilling to accept new ideas or ways of thinking
- All this foreshadows his inability to change his mindset and beliefs. He is a one-dimensional and undergoes no significant changes
4
Q
How is he presented through Sheila’s engagement?
A
- Sees it as a business arrangement, “you’ve brought us together”
- Capitalism as exploitation and monopoly, “lower costs higher prices”- punctuation over- emphasises the disparity between the classes. Control pay and charges- everyone is exploited. Immoral actions.
- Priestley’s point- The endgame and whole point of capitalism is to make as much money as possible
5
Q
What is dramatic irony and when does Mr Birling use it?
A
- Historical
- Audience know everything that has happened
- “soon it’ll be an even better time”
- After WW1 there was an industrial unrest
- Whole country destroyed in 1926- Great Depression 1929
- “labour trouble”- 1945 Labour Party landslide victory over conservatives and capitalists
6
Q
When does Mr Birling use dramatic irony? 2
A
- Suffering of the wars
- Priestley criticises the idea that capitalist believers understand human nature
- Thinks there won’t be a war “everything to lose and nothing to gain”
- Does Birling even understand war? The Great Depression meant that people were too poor to buy products, so capitalism breaks down.
7
Q
How does Priestley imply Birling has excessive pride?
A
Capitalists don’t realises horrors of their own business
- His speech about “aeroplanes” and “ships” actually shows us advancements in business and technology
- Irony- it makes war easier. Is the only end to capitalism through war
- Titanic- ridicules Birling- pride before a fall. Do the ruling classes sees themselves as indestructible/”unsinkable”?
- “let’s say in 1940”- low point of war, The Blitz, Dunkirk, before America enter war- Britain very low
8
Q
How does Priestley use language to present Mr Birling?
A
- As the play progresses his language breaks down under the pressure of the Inspector’s questioning. Shorter sentences with lots of hesitation and punctuation.
- “She’d had a lot to say- far too much- so she had to go”
9
Q
How is Mr Birling used to show capitalism?
A
- Used by Priestley to represent the callousness of capitalism
- His character is used to criticise the complacency of capitalist prosperity
- As the play progresses he is described as “panic stricken”- Priestley indicates here that Birling’s defiance and bravado are gone and the audience see someone who is so blindly wrong we wonder if he was ever really in control in the way he would like to think
10
Q
How does Priestley use stage directions to present Mr Birling?
A
- By the end of the play, Mr Birling has reverted back to the callous man from Act One, “you’ll have a good laugh over it yet”
- The stage directions reflect his inability to sympathise/empathise: “triumphantly”- what have they achieved?
- Presented as the villain- capitalism is the villain in Priestley’s eyes
11
Q
Things to remember about Mr Birling:
A
- Mrs Birling is presented as Mr Birling’s “social superior”
- Social position is important to Mr Birling and this stage direction foreshadows his behaviour and attitude
- Almost reminding us why the engagement is so important to him
12
Q
What language does Mr Birling use?
A
- His language is dismissive when he says “fiddlesticks” and “silly”- he belittles other people’s opinions and displays ignorance
- It is this ignorance which shows disregard for the poor
13
Q
How does Priestley use The Titanic to describe Mr Birling?
A
- Symbolises his own family
- He believes they are untouchable
- He uses exclamatory sentences “absolutely unsinkable!” - dramatic irony
14
Q
How does Mr Birling’s language change throughout the play?
A
- His language changes when the Inspector arrives
- He goes from long drawn out speeches to sentences which are short and fragmented- “horrid business”
- Shows hesitation, guilt, powerlessness in the Inspector’s presence
- It also becomes a more colloquial “y’know” showing his authority is breaking down
