Quotes Flashcards
The dining room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has good solid furniture of the period.
Affluent family; they would’ve had a high status and because the house belonged to a “prosperous manufacture,” they were most likely to be well regarded by all.
The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike.
This shows that the Birlings are middle-class and live comfortably, unlike Eva Smith. It also hints that not all is well in the household, despite being ‘prosperous’ the house is not ‘cosy and homelike’, suggesting that everything is done for show rather than for comfort. There is a subtle clue that the Birlings are not a truly happy family even before the Inspector arrives.
If a realistic set is used…
The key part of these instructions is ‘if’. Priestley acknowledges that the set does not have to be realistic. Different productions of the play could be creative with the staging. Directors have set the play in an industrial area for example, or have included an exterior area in which Eva Smith could be shown. Either choice would add a different atmosphere to the production.
The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.
Pink connotates love, home, warmth and is generally gives off quite a welcoming atmosphere.
The harsher lighting at the arrival of the Inspector transforms their house into an interrogative place- their warm and ‘cosy’ house is now a place where they are being questioned and interrogated- as, during most investigative questioning, police or other law enforcers shine a bright light into the eyes of the person in question. It’s also disorienting… squinting at a bright light can be very unsettling and it makes it hard to lie convincingly.
From the late nineteenth century through the 1930s, American police routinely employed “third-degree” methods of interrogation – inflicting physical or mental pain and suffering to extract confessions and other types of information from crime suspects. These techniques ranged from the direct and explicit use of physical assaults to tactics that were both physically and psychologically coercive to lesser forms of duress.
which has no cloth, of dessert plates and champagne glasses, etc., and then replacing them with a decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table.
Arthur Birling is a representation of greed; but before the audience is confronted by his gluttony, the stage set-up can be seen lavished with dessert and champagne- although it is considered one of the lesser of the deadly sins, it is apparent from the very first moment the audience is presented with this play.
MRS BIRLING “When you’re married you’ll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.”
Sheila is expected to conform to the rules of her gender - she will need to be subservient. She needs to be reminded by her mother, so is she already showing differences between the generations?
MR BIRLING “It’s a pity Sir George and – er – Lady Croft can’t be with us”
Mr birling does not remember the maiden name of Gerald’s mother and says this to save embarrassment. The crofts are aloof and do not speak to birling often.
Birling does not know her name, which shows the gender divide between men and women.
MR BIRLING “Gerald, I’m going to tell you frankly, without any pretences, that your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me. She’ll make you happy, and I’m sure you’ll make her happy. You’re just the kind of son-in-law I always wanted. Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now – though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and Company – and now you’ve brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher prices.”
- Sheila’s engagement is only important to him because he is acquiring a strong business partner, which could potentially make him more money.
- Even at his own daughter’s engagement celebration, Birling persists in talking about business and his working affairs- his mind revolves around making money.
SHEILA “Careful! I’ll never let it go out of my sight for an instant”
Gerald was let out of her sight, but the ring can’t be…
Sheila acts quite foolishly.
MR BIRLING “and I speak as a hard-headed businessman, who has to take risks and know what he’s about – I say, you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk.”
Ignorance.
The tone of pride in the adjectives ‘hard-headed’ and ‘practical’ reveals that he sees these qualities as admirable ones, and the phrase ‘man of business’ shows that Priestley is establishing Arthur Birling as a symbol of capitalism.
MR BIRLING “you’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say – fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war.”
“And I’m talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn’t a chance of war.”
“The Titanic – she sails next week – forty-six thousand eight hundred tons – forty-six thousand eight hundred tons…and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”
Birling constantly proves himself as pompous and arrogant, believing that his word should be taken as fact. The irony of course being that WWI did start in 1914 and Birling is speaking in 1912. (Remember Priestley’s audience would know this, living in 1945+)
. Priestley’s views are apparent as soon as the play begins, using oratory as an instrument to create dramatic irony when the “hard-headed” “practical man of business” Mr Birling is making a speech to the young participants of the party, vocalising the “interests of the Capital” are “properly-protected”. Birling uses his “experience” to inform the “youngsters” on how the Titanic is “unsinkable”, or how the “Germans don’t want war.” His irony is never more satirical than in these comments of Birling’s, which to his original audience in 1946 would’ve seemed more controversial than they do today, as the sinking of the colossal ship was freshly ingrained in people’s memory, and many lost their loved ones to the tragic event, so it could be argued that Priestley toys with people’s insecurities and infiltrate their emotional barrier to make them more vulnerable and therefore less hesitant to accept the moral of An Inspector Calls, which is accepting social responsibility. Symbolically, just as the Titanic’s is destined to sink, so too is Birling’s political ideology, under the Inspector’s interrogation. The ship was a titan of the oceans, and its imminent failure “next week” suggests the dangers of capitalist hubris- this highlights the risk of the “magnate”.
MR BIRLING “so long as we behave ourselves, don’t get into the police court or start a scandal – eh?”
Foreshadowing
MR BIRLING “Yes, but you’ve got to remember, my boy, that clothes mean something quite different to a woman. Not just something to wear – and not only something to make ’em look prettier – but – well, a sort of sign or token of their self-respect.”
Mr Birling shows that he has a patronising view of women, making the suggestion that clothes are a sign of self-respect for them. He has a stereotypical view of women here and does not see them as individuals but suggests that all women think in the same way.
MR BIRLING “But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.”
During one of his lectures, Birling accentuates his disinclination for the idea of collective responsibility, and how “if [they are] mixed up together like bees in a hive- community and all of that nonsense” is, in a way, unprofitable for him and his family because they do not like to associate with people from the lower classes. However, Priestley uses this metaphor to demonstrate the importance of collective responsibility, as bees have to work in large groups to harvest and manufacture honey, in order to survive and feed their offspring, and without large colonies of bees, a hive could starve or become desolate. In a similar way, Priestley conveys how if society works together to complete all vital roles required to function a community, then fewer people would be starving or be living in poor conditions, and all people could benefit equally. Therefore, he is fulfilling his objective of educating and changing society through the performance of his plays, and his didactic message is portrayed through the Inspector and character such as Sheila, Mr Birling and Eric.
MR BIRLING “But take my word for it, you youngsters – and I’ve learnt in the good hard school of experience..”
The dramatic irony does not end there; it is a continual link throughout the play; Birling takes an individualist, capitalist point of view when talking to Eric and Gerald, saying that “[he has] learnt in the good hard school of experience” and that “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own- and-“, to which he is interrupted by the Inspector. It is ironic that the bell marks at this moment when Birling is proving that “experience” proves that his ideas are correct, in contrast to the possibly more idealistic “youngsters”; it is no accident that the socialist-leaning Inspector arrives at precisely this moment.
