Mr.Arthur Birling Flashcards
Analyse the quote
“Arthur Burling is a heavy looking rather portentous man(…) With fairly easy manners”
-Heavy looking refers to his weight suggesting he lives a life of relative luxury
-Portentous shows us that everything he does, is overly Grand and showy, suggesting to the audience early on ,his arrogance.
What does the quote
“And I’m talking as a hardheaded, practical man of business”
-In his own eyes, his identity is rooted within his business
-Hardheaded could suggest he is not sentimental suggesting he doesn’t care who he has to step on to get what he wants
-Uses positive terms to describe himself shows us that he is arrogant and egotistical
-allusion of “hard headed man of business”,a phrase used by PMs to show how business owners made profits from war
-Birling represents the exploitation of the war by capitalists
Mr Burling says
“a man has to mind his own business and look after yourself and his own”
to Gerald. What does this suggest?
- the phrase a man uses the determiner “a” suggesting that mr birling believes that every man in society should do the same as him due to the generalised phrase
-“business” highlights the fact that mr birling sees everything as a part of business, even his societal views
-repetition of the word “own” illustrating a sense that mr birling is self centered and only cares about the reputation of his self rather then the wellbeing of others
Analyse the quote,
“all mixed up like bees in a hive”
-Simile implies that socialists are like mindless animals
-the verb phrase mixed up shows as he believes different classes shouldn’t mix
What were preistlys intentions as presenting Mr Burling as a unlikable and negative character?
-Mr Burling is a representation of power in 1912 presenting him in a negative way, Priestly wanted to present those who had a power in 1912 negatively
-Mr Burling can also be seen as the personification of capitalist views. He’s a business owner, who cares more about money than people. Also by presenting him negatively he is presenting capitalism in a negative way.
what does mr birling present
-embodiment of capitalism
-older generation
quotes of mr birling
-“Arthur Burling is a heavy looking rather portentous man(…) With fairly easy manners”
-“And I’m talking as a hardheaded, practical man of business”
-“a man has to mind his own business and look after yourself and his own”
-“all mixed up like bees in a hive”
-“unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
women as commodities
-he is trying to sell his own daughter for business opportunities with the croft family and ignores geralds acts in order for the business opportunity
-this shows how privileged men behaved
“unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
-dramatic irony intended to make him look stupid and as a symbol of rich capitalists he makes them look stupid as well
-also the titanic could represent the upper classes, priestly wants to show that their power and privilege will be sunk by the peace and election that occur after the world wars
