Mr Birling Flashcards
Significance or Me Birling
Priestley uses Mr Birling to show the negative aspects of wealth and capitalism. Mr Birling represents the older, upper-class generation that caused many deaths in war. Priestley also uses Mr Birling’s character to explore ideas such as the oppression of women and the consequences of our actions.
How does Priestley present Mr Birling
Priestley created him as a villainous character to highlight the dangers of selfish capitalism.
Quotation showing negativity of capitalism
‘Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down, and if I’d agreed to this demand for a new rate we’d have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs.’
‘Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down, and if I’d agreed to this demand for a new rate we’d have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs.’
Mr Birling is used to show the capitalist viewpoint throughout the play.
His primary aim is to succeed in business, and so he cares about money more so than people.
He argues with Inspector Goole that he could not have raised Eva Smith and the others’ wages, as he needs to run his business effectively – he needs to make as much money as possible, which he cannot do if he pays the workers more.
This highlights the selfishness of capitalism. Capitalism was designed to reward the business owners, not those actually doing the work.
Patriarchal head of the household quotation
‘Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you, Inspector?’
‘Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you, Inspector?’
This quotation highlights Mr Birling as the patriarchal (male ruling) head of his household.
Mr Birling assumes a protective role over his wife
He tries to defend her while treating her as if she cannot defend herself. This power struggle returns between the two men, while Mrs Birling is not directly addressed, even though the conversation is about her.
The tone of this seems quite condescending on Birling’s part, and is designed to put the Inspector in his place.
Mrs Birling will not even respond to him herself because he is beneath her.
‘You! You don’t seem to care about anything. But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List.’
Mr Birling uses the second person pronoun ‘you’ to verbally (with words) attack his son and show how he is separating Eric’s ideas from his own – they have become ‘you’ and ‘I’, two very different people who have completely opposite ideas about life.
Eric wants the family to take responsibility for their actions and think of other people, while Birling is obsessed with his reputation and is desperate to get his knighthood.
This shows a huge crack in the façade (fake image) of the Birling family.
The irony here is clear – Mr Birling repeatedly says that Eric doesn’t care about anything; in reality, it is Mr Birling who does not care about anyone but himself.
