Mr birling Flashcards
‘Titanic – unsinkable’
L= metaphor for upper middle classes. Reflects Mr B’s complacency and that of his class that their position of privilege will remain unchallenged. R = in 1946 knows the class system has changed irrevocably following two world wars & dramatic irony: Titanic sank. R = makes him figure of ridicule for audience
‘She’d had a lot to say…she had to go’
C = WC and women not allowed a voice, Challenged by rise of unionism and suffragette movement.
If you don’t come down sharply on these people…they’d be asking for the earth’
L= adverb, hyperbole and metaphor – WC demands unreasonable to Mr B. WC demands need to be crushed.
‘Get into trouble? Go on the streets
C = reflects UMC prejudice against WC – they are considered immoral and troublesome; irony = Birlings are exposed as immoral not Eva.
‘ a man has to look after himself’
C = Mr B set up as foil to Inspector to allow Priestley to present his political debate. He represents capitalist individualism.
‘a socialist or some sort of crank…he talked like one’
L = noun. Mr B mocks socialists as ‘cranks’ R = by end of play it is Mr B who is exposed as a fool, and implicitly his capitalist principles as well
‘like bees in a hive’
L = simile. D = suggests Mr B feels socialism strips people of their individuality and makes them drones of the state working together for the common good of society (represented by the hive).
R = performed first in Russia in 1945. Priestley = socialist. Audience lack of sympathy for Mr B =increases sympathy for P’s socialist argument.
‘There’ll be a public scandal’
L = noun ‘hoax’ – Mr B thinks he is off the hook if I is not real. Irony = nothing is different including Mr B. He does not change his behaviour and attitudes or learn responsibility for his actions
