The general form and structure of the play enhances Mrs. Birling’s character to an extent. By placing her second last in the line of enquiry, the impact of her actions is greater on the victim than other characters. She enters amidst a dramatic pause, when Sheila is trying to examine the Inspector, ‘…I don’t understand about you...’ to which the Inspector says, ‘There’s no reason why you should’. This adds on to the audience’s curiosity making them think what’s to come.…
As soon as they meet in act one, Birling attempts to show his social superiority to the Inspector, boasting about his contacts in the police force, this shows Birlings character and the type of person he is, big headed and boastfull. Within the play Mr and Mrs Birling seems to be the only characters that are unable to accept the fact that they helped in the death of eva smith. In contrast to Mr and Mrs Birling Sheila has total opposite views and realises what she did was wrong, and wishes that she could go back and never get Eva sacked-…
At the start of the play, the first hint of power we see is through the appearance of Mr Birling when Priestly describes him at the start of the play. Mr Birling is described as a ‘thickly built’ man, which gives us a sense of power due to his size. The audience (only being able to see the actor playing Mr Birling) may respect Mr Birling due to his appearance, confidence and his position in society. However, as the play progresses, we see that Mr Birling is powerful also in terms of business, and the fact that he fired some women because they wanted a small raise may make the audience more on edge about Mr Birling, as they might feel he abused his power.…
J.B Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 13th September 1894. He firm believer of socialism which is a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people therefore he disagrees firmly with capitalism. Priestley set his play in 1912 because the date symbolized an period when all was very unusual from the time he was writing. In 1912, inflexible class and gender restrictions seemed to guarantee that nothing would change. However by 1945 the majority of class and gender divisions had been infringed. Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes. The Inspector wants to teach the Birling Family to care about other and not only themselves and he wants to show that social status and wealth are not significant factors. One of Priestley’s major concerns was that even that the war has ended people were living in poverty and living depressed lives. I think that J.B Priestley is trying to tell people that they shouldn’t rejoice after the war because several people have been killed. Priestley shows that there shouldn’t be a division between people of different class. In 1912 the Birling family lead a comfortable life Birling is a prime example of a capitalist, J.B Priestley is keen to highlight the selfishness of him in the play. J.B Priestley wanted to highlight what was right and wrong in society as it is a morality play .In this essay I am going to investigate how J.B Priestley uses dramatic devices to intrigue the audience.…
“He weighs the volume in his hand; this one book has been the center of the whirlwind. Then DRUMMOND notices the Bible, on the JUDGE’S bench. He picks up the Bible in his other hand; he looks from one volume to the other, balancing them thoughtfully, as if his hands were scales. He half-smiles, half-shrugs. Then DRUMMOND slaps the two books together and jams them in his briefcase, side by side.)…
The Birlings often show their wealth and power through gestures of grandeur. In act 1, Mr Birling assures Gerald that that what he is marrying into is a honourable family. He does these countless times through sly mentioning of the port they’re drinking or the size of their business. At this moment Sheila also makes teasing comments to Gerald, but towards Gerald Mr and Mrs Birling feel obligated to portray a family with great manners including a modest and obedient daughter. Eric shows the flawed behaviour in their family, as he constantly misbehaves and is obviously fond of drinking.…
In act 1 The Birling family and Gerald are celebrating Gerald and Sheila's engagement in the dining room. Sheila and Eric are arguing in a not really serious way, while Gerald and Mr. Birling are talking about business, politics mostly about the Titanic. Mr. Birling is on his way to the next social class by getting an knighthood. Lady Croft has a very strong view of social classes; it looks like she isn't too happy about the fact, that her son is engaged to a girl of a lower class. Just before the ring bells and the inspector arrives, Mr. Birling shows his outlook on life to Gerald and Eric "a man has to make his own way, has to look after himself and his family". The inspector enters and tells them about the suicide. He shows a photograph to Mr.Birling. and starts questioning him. It turns out that Eva Smith had been one of Mr.Birlings. employees and later on was discharged because she asked for more money, had been refused and went on a strike along with allot of other employees, and was later fired for being one of the…
Priestley’s portrays Mrs Birling as a snobbish, cold-hearted and unsympathetic woman but she pretends to be sympathetic towards Eva Smiths’ death. Yet she was the one who worked in the women’s charity organisation and refused to help her in the first place - highlighting her harsh and uncaring nature. Also, Mrs Birling feigns to be oblivious towards her son’s drinking and pretends that she is an eloquent, sophisticated and well-mannered woman.nevertheless; the way she behaves to inspector Goole is one of rudeness, disrespect and impertinence.…
Priestley also conveys Mr. Birling as a pitiful social climber through what he says and his mannerisms at the start of the play. Priestley shows that Birling is aware of the people who are his social superiors, which is why he shows off about the port to Gerald, “it is exactly the same port your father gets.” He is proud that he is likely to be knighted, as this would move him even higher in the social circles. He claims that the party “is one of the happiest nights of my life.” This is not only because Sheila will be happy, but also because a merger with Crofts Limited will be good for his business. Through this Priestley presents Mr. Birling as selfish and very self-centered, showing that he only cares about himself and his business. Priestley does this to show that all capitalists were similar to Birling as they too only cared about their social status at the time.…
The next point I wish to make is how Mrs Birling acts as a motherly figure within the Birling family and how her character’s attitude changes to her children as the play develops. Firstly at the beginning of the playing in the Dining room the topic of conversation is the relationship between the characters Sheila and Gerald Croft, Sheila brings up a previous summer ‘(Half serious, half playful) Yes, except for last summer when you never came near me and I wondered what happened to you…’ and Mrs Birling replies ‘Now Sheila don't tease him. When you're married you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend all nearly all their time and energy on their business.’ We can assume as a reader that Mrs Birling knows Gerald cheated on her daughter with another woman, but is not saying anything, as she wants her daughter to be of an upper class by marrying Gerald. Whereas in our day and age a mother would probably not want this to happen and thus showing that Mrs Birling cares much more about social class than her daughter and pretending to be a caring mother.…
a statement that seems true but at the same time seems to also have an opposite truth…
An Inspector Calls is a definitive play written by J.B Priestley. It explores the many themes that wove through society before the first world war, such lack of social responsibility, social disparity between different classes and the gap of understanding and contemplating between the two dissimilar generations – the young and the old. In this essay, I will be exploring the character Sheila Birling and how and why does she change in the play, in response to the Inspector and to her family.…
Throughout this play JB Priestly has included a range of female characters in the play, from an upper class snob, through a mature daughter and a working class girl. However Eva Smith, the working class girl, was the only character who suffered the most because of her gender, she was treated differently by all character throughout the play. She had no value in society what so ever and we’ve seen this on many different occasions, firstly when Mr.Birling talks about her and quotes, “We were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go work somewhere else”, this quote informs us about Mr.Birling views on working class women, in the quote he is indirectly suggesting that he doesn’t need those women to work for him, ‘they could go work somewhere else”, he is basically implying that those women aren’t important for him, he doesn’t need them, if they don’t like what he does they can go work somewhere else, this also shows the lack of respect he has for those women. His tone of voice also tells us that he still doesn’t care or regret the fact the he sacked Eva from her job for asking for a raise. This is just one example of how lower class women were treated, but to think of it upper class women weren’t treated any better either.…
Goole exposes the guilt of each character. The Birlings seem, at the beginning of the play to be a respectable “up market” family even Gerald Croft comments that they appear a “nice well behaved” family,…
Learning and speaking the truth are not always the easiest things to accept. In The Crucible accepting the truth is one of the main issues that occur throughout the play. Though everybody now knows that most or all depending on what the reader wants to believe were not witches, and consequently died for something they never did. Many characters lie throughout the play for their own reasons some to due with land while the others for more personal reasons. The death of many were caused by the others failing to accept the truth.…