MR BIRLING Flashcards
“Rather provincial in his speech”
ACT 1
Alludes to Mr Birling’s identity as a self-made man who still carries traces of his lower-class origins.
WHY?
Priestley proves that although Mr Birling is a member of the ‘nouveau riche’ and expectedly should have sympathy towards the working class, those who benefit from the capitalist caste system are quick to dismiss feelings of sympathy and take on an arrogant, selfish attitude - as long as they make their money, they can ignore the corruption of the class system.
‘heavy-looking, rather portentous man’
ACT 1
Heavy-looking: over-weight and looks as though he lives a life of excess and presumably doesn’t take part in any labour intensive work.
Portentous: pompous and overly grand in all his speech and gestures (we see this often as Mr Birling enjoys making speeches and voicing his own opinions) - suggests pretentiousness.
WHY?
Priestley wants to present Mr Birling in a saliently unlikeable way since he is the embodiment of capitalism - if the audience grow angry with Birling’s characterisation, perhaps this can evoke an anger towards the principles of capitalism which Birling is s fond of.
“Are you listening Sheila? This concerns you too. And after all I don’t often make speeches at you-“ ACT 1
Mr Birling is selective about what Sheila should be concerned with since women, especially at the age of Sheila, were often never involved in ‘serious’ topics such as politics or business as it was thought of as inappropriate or beyond their understanding to do so.
WHY?
By the end of the play, the audience understands that Sheila could be perceived as the most intelligent, and sympathetic out of the Birlings. She is one of the only characters along with Eric who could appreciate the Inspector’s important message, and understood her wrong-doings whereas Mr and Mrs Birling continued to be ignorant and oblivious to what the Inspector was trying to teach them. Here, Priestley is demonstrating that due to the Patriarchal attitude of society, many women with great potential and intellect like Sheila, were excluded and simply wasted. Through Sheila’s dynamic character, Priestley shows the audience why views on women such as Mr Birling’s were deluded, faux and simply incorrect.
“hard-headed business man” ACT 1
On a surface level, this is Priestley describing Mr Birling’s close-mindedness and inability change due to the solidity of his beliefs that come with the environment he exists in, the upbringing of men at the time, and also his age. He’s a pragmatic business man but not a sentimental or merciful one.
WHY?
This is ironic since Priestley clearly uses this to criticise the way of capitalist men like Birling, whereas Birling describes himself in this way boastfully.
Moreover, this quote is selected from the twice elected prime minister between the World Wars, Sir Stanley Baldwin of the socialist Labour Party. Baldwin used the words ‘hard-headed’ for business owners who were unforgivingly willing to sacrifice people’s livelihood during the wars for profits. Birling specifically conforms to this description but is despicably proud of the money he makes through exploitation of workers like Eva Smith. This shows the audience the sheer scale of the impact people like Mr Birling have on the working class and alludes to real-life issues represented in the play to remind viewers that although Mr Birling is a frustrating and perhaps even cruel character, real-life Mr Birling’s are peppered in abundance in their society as well.
“you’ll hear some people say war is Inevitable … fiddlesticks!” ACT 1
The lexical choice of ‘fiddlesticks’ in relation to the war would have been especially infuriating for a post-war audience, further building on Mr Birling’s aggragating character.
He is dismissive of ideas that do not fit within his beliefs and is extremely wrong in his declarations, and through this dramatic irony easily proves to the audience that capitalists are not to be trusted and are ill-informed.
Constant repetition of the unlikeliness of war also conveys Mr Birling’s confidence in his own opinions once again presenting him as arrogant and smug.
“Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” - referring to the titanic ACT 1
1) The Titanic sank on it’s maiden voyage.
2) Higher class escaped and vastly lower class passengers and workers drowned due to the lack of boats and their positioning at the bottom of the ship.
3) Priestley uses the reference to Titanic as a symbol for the caste system in Edwardian England. The working class are sacrificed or simply not cared for as they drown in their suffering and lack of money and food, as the upper classes escape, benefit and survive no matter what it takes, even if it means leaving the workers for dead.
4) Another interpretation could be that the Titanic symbolises his own family – he believes they are untouchable until the Inspector arrives shaking them up.
Not only is this a foreshadowing through the Birling family metaphor but also a simply put explanation of the immorality and unjustness of the social class system.
“We can’t let these Bernard Shaws and H.G Welles do all the talking” ACT 1
Bernard Shaw = famous playwright and leftist
H.G Wells = writer with socialist views
We’ve been shown that Birling is ignorant and should not be taken seriously so Mr B’s attempt to dissuade people from listening to socialist writers.
WHY?
Priestley’s way of telling us that we should in fact ignore him and indeed listen to them and that the leadership of society shouldn’t belong to hard-headed business men but to forward-thinking leftist writers and important thinkers.
“Bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense” ACT 1
‘bees’ = animalistic simile - not only does Mr Birling treat the lower class in a dehumanising way, but also views them as small and insignificant.
The world wouldn’t work without bees - we may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain.
Bees in a hive cooperate and produce honey. Although Mr Birling looks down on the idea of community, Priestley is suggesting subtly that a community would function well this way and produce abundantly.
As a middle-class businesman, Mr Birling sees himself as better than the working class - unsympathetic - he doesn’t think classes should mix even though he literally came from a lower class background - shows the way an ego develops with and increase in wealth.
“A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and -” (interrupted by the Inspector) ACT 1
The Inspector who represents socialism enters/cuts Mr Birling’s capitalist speech.
Priestley showing that capitalism needs to be cut off.
““They’d soon be asking for the Earth”
ACT 1
Hyperbole: extreme lack of empathy (“Yes, yes. Horrid business)
He views these people as greedy rather than realising that they are simply asking for what they need to support their lives.
“But you weren’t asked to come here to talk to me about my responsibilities” ACT 2
Capitalists tend to reject responsibility - SYNTAX - ‘you’ comes before ‘my’ -
reflects the way in which Birling is the first to deflect responsibility but also the last to accept it. This is exacerbated as ‘responsibilities’ is the last word of the sentence thus his last priority.
“A nasty mess you’ve made of it now, haven’t you?” (directed to the Inspector - saying he ruined their family celebration) ACT 2
Mr Birling places blame for this ‘nasty mess’ on the Inspector simply because he confronted their wrong doings (high-class capitalists are not used to being confronted or questioned in their actions), bit in reality, it’s the consequences of his actions reflecting back on him.
If the Inspector hadn’t arrived, what Mr Birling recognises as a ‘nasty mess’ wouldn’t have occurred and the Birlings would have continued living their supposedly perfect lives.
He doesn’t understand that his family and him have made a nasty mess of Eva Smith’s “nice little promising life”
“I’d give thousands - yes thousands”
ACT 3
He refused to pay Eva Smith a few extra shillings for her livelihood, yet is willing to pay ‘thousands’ to bribe the Inspector to cover up the case. Capitalists believe that they can clean their often dirtied hands with money - don’t care about morality.
“You’re the one I blame for this”
(directed at Eric after Inspector leaves)
ACT 3
Birling isn’t troubled by his wife’s refusal to help Eva, or Sheila’s selfishness leading to her sacking, but is angry with the only person who actually tried to help Eva, with MONEY. He is angry because he lost his money, and is in debt - indifferent and selfish.
“There’ll be a public scandal”
ACT 3
Rather than feeling sorry for Eva’s fate, he’s almost forgotten about his wrongs, and cares only about reputation.
‘Scandal’ connotes impropriety. This is ironic since Mr Birling fails to recognise his impropriety and immorality in the context of the Eva Smith incident, but still worries that a scandal might only make him ‘look’ bad. For him, emotions only matter on a surface level, where in-lookers can see. His reality revolves around others’ opinions.
