Character analysis Essay

Priestley describes him in the start stage directions as a earlier portentous man, full of his own self-importance. In the play, he is sure as shooting very concerned with his social position he twice mentions that he was Lord Mayor as a way of impressing Gerald (pp.8, 11), and mentions the knighthood to him, even though it is far from definite. He is solely worried about how his familys reputation will suffer at the inquest when he hears of Mrs Birlings disjoint in the girls death (p.45), and he is more concerned about how to coverup Erics thefts (p.54) than about how to put them right. He tries to use first Geralds family name (p.13) and then his friendship with the mind Constable (p.16) as ways of bullying the Inspector he simply believes that others are as easily impressed by social connections as he is. (We know he is easily impressed because of his evident presumption at Geralds family background he obviously believes he has do a good match for Sheila.)His key charac teristic is his complacency. He is snug (as the opening stage directions suggest), and he believes he always will be that were in for a epoch of steadily increasing successfulness (p.6). This success, however, has been at the expense of others he threw the girl out of her job for ask for a modest rise, and intends in the future to work with Crofts Limited for trim back costs and higher prices (p.4), exploiting his power as a capitalist to net profit at the expense of others.Birling does not believe he has a responsibility to society, only to his family a man has to mind his own stage business and look after himself and his own (p.10). He is not upset, unlike Eric, at hearing the details of the girls death (p.12), which shows him to be a little heartless. He is suspiciously defensive when he thinks the Inspector is accusatory him of causing it, and like Mrs Birling is relieved when he thinks the finger is no longer pointing at him. This is hypocritical because, as the Inspe ctor says, the girls still dead, though (p.18). He also has double standards for he sees nothing grotesque in wanting to protect Sheila from the unpleasantness of the girls life and death, in so far feels no guilt at not having protected the girl herself.Cruci bothy, Priestley undermines this self-important, self-complacent man, who believes his only responsibility is to his family, right at the start of the play. He is shown as short-sighted and wrongPredictionRealityWere in for a time of steadily increasing prosperityThe W every last(predicate) Street Crash (1929) and the striking Depression within a generationThere isnt a chance of warWorld war within two years, with a second to follow within the same lifetimeIn 1940youll be living in a world thatll have forgotten alone these Capital versus Labour agitationsThe General Strike (1926) and the continued rise of the foxiness Union Movement.The Titanic unsinkable, absolutely unsinkableSS Titanic sinks on her opening voyageThis dramatic irony at his expense encourages us to marvel how many of his other beliefs are correct Priestley, as a socialist, is not sympathetic to what this capitalist believes.He also undermines Birlings family with his family, the only institution that Birling believes matters. In Act Two, both his children who canvas from the Inspector in a way Birling never does coiffe badly in front of him (pp.32-33), and his heir Eric is later revealed as both an alcoholic and a thief.After the Inspector has gone, Birling simply wants things to outcome to the way they were. He cannot understand Sheilas and Erics insistence that in that location is something to be learnt, and he is relieved and triumphant when he feels that scandal has been avoided and everything is all right. Right up until the end, he claims that theres every take over for what both your mother and I did it turned out unfortunately, thats all (p.57).Birling is not the cold and narrow-minded person that his wife is he simply believes in what he says. He is a limited man, who is shown to be wrong about many things in the play it is the Birlings of the world whom Priestley feared in 1945 would not be willing or able to learn the lessons of the past, and so it is to the younger generation that Priestley hopefully looked insteadMrs BirlingPriestley describes her in the opening stage directions as a rather cold woman (p.1).She expects Sheila to see the same sacrifices in marriage that she had to (p.3) she has a clear sense of her employment within the family.