Arthur Birling

• Arthur is part of the upper middle class
• Arthur is ignoring, self assured, selfish and intransigent meaning he unwilling to change his views or to agree with something - stubborn
• Arthur’s is uncaring and unmoved towards whats happened to Eva
• Arthur is the personification of capitalism
• “The germans don’t want war” and “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” - these quotes are ironic as he was wrong in what he said which make him look foolish
• “ I speak as a hard headed businessman“ - proposing traditional gender roles
• “Labour costs” - attempting to justify actions (firing Eva)
• “All mixed like bees in a hive”- disagreeing with socialist views
• “There’ll be a public scandal”- he is worried about what other people thing and worried of being turned into working class
• “There’s an excuse for what your mother and I did“ - he often uses “I” which conveys selfishness and he is if shifting the blame partially towards Mrs Birling because he’s scared to accept the truth
• “I won’t stand for it” - this quote highlights that he has no respect for anyone else but himself
• “Look inspector, I’d give you thousands”- he’s misusing power to attempt to pay off the inspector to give up with this case and forget
• “I am not going to stand here and listen to this sort of talk” - he gets angry when someone disagrees with him and tries to shut them down
• “I don’t propose to give you much rope” - suggests he’s not going to help the inspector , use of the ’rope’ suggests helping the inspector up which shows him leaving the inspector
• “That girl was just a piece of gross material anyway”- judgemental towards the working class and describing Eva and gross material giving her inhumane connotations- describing the working classes as not human like
• “We mustn’t let ourselves get worked up over nothing” - he dismisses the situation and refuses to take responsibility for their actions
• arthur birling is selfish, intransigent and ignorant
• arthur is insular, reflecting his narrow mindset and inability to see beyond his own perspective
• ”all mixed like bees in a hive”- he’s disagreeing with socialist views
• “there’s an excuse for what your mother and i did”- hes quick to blame and he can’t take responsibility over his actions
• personification of capitalism
• “labour costs” suggesting that the poor should work for themselves
• “i’m not going to stand here and listen to this sort of talk” shows he’s ignorant and trying not to face the facts
• “look inspector, i’d give you thousands” he’s attempting to pay off the inspector to forget
• “i won’t stand for it.” he only respects himself