Mr Arthur Birling

• arthur birling

  • is described at the start in stage directions as a 'heavy looking, portentous man in his middle 50s with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.'
  • he appears very confident and in control with some reputation in the town
• over the play

  • over the course of the play, his authority is undermined
  • the inspector reveals birling is a very ambitious, anxious and impatient man who will ignore the needs of others to keep up profits and a good reputation
• patriarchal

  • birling behaves as the patriarch (male head of family) should do
  • society would have expected him to be a provider of his family, unemotional and rational, focusing on the family business and maintaining their wealth
• quotes

  • ambitious - 'there is a very good change of a knighthood' 'there's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours list'
  • business minded - 'a hard headed practical man of business'
  • selfish - 'a man has to make his own way'
  • anxious - 'there will be a public scandal - unless we're lucky'
  • employer - 'its my duty to keep labour costs down'
• social class

  • he is a public figure in brumley and obsessed with his status
  • 'I was lord mayor here 2 years ago when royalty visited us...there is a very big chance of knighthood'
  • birling is used by priestley to show the theme of social class
• wants to be more prestigious

  • he is a wealthy businessman but wants to become more prestigious just like the crofts - 'old country family with inherited wealth and titles'
  • he desperately tried to win crofts approval by talking about knighthood and getting gerald's fathers favourite port - 'it's exactly the same port that your father gets'
  • he also tries to make himself seem important by drawing connections with influential people, eg playig golf with the chief inspector
• middle class businessman

  • priestley says he should be 'provincial in his speech' meaning he has a regional accent therefore reminding the audience of his social class
  • he was a middle class businessman, rather than the upper class that he yearned for
• ambitious businessman

  • he is a successful and ambitious businessman
  • he hints that his company could merge with crofts limited and the engagement is more like a business deal, where the two companies will no longer be competing, but rather join together to 'lower costs and higher prices'
  • he also thinks he is successful because 'I'm talking as a hard headed businessman who has to take risks and know what he's about'
• optimistic

  • he is very optimistic about future and choose to ignore 'silly pessimistic talk'
  • eg, dismisses talk about minor strikes and believes 'the interest of capital are properly protected' and they are 'in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity'
• war

  • he also dismisses rumours about possible war with the germans as 'fiddlesticks' and a 'silly little war scares'
  • priestley uses dramatic irony to make birling's predictions seem foolish and short sited, which undermines his authority
  • the play is set in 1912 but the 1945 audience would know that all his predictions were wrong after experiencing the general strike and the two world wars
• struggles to maintain authority

  • he struggles to maintain his authority and threatens the inspector - 'I consider this uncalled for and officious. I've half a mind to report you'
  • however the inspector ignores birling's threat and begins to take charge of the events
• likes control

  • he likes to be in control and likes to remind everyone that he's in charge
  • eg he doesn't want to be told what to do and so 'angrily tells the inspector (angrily) 'well if you don't mind - I'll find out first'
  • stage direction 'with a touch of impatience'
• refuses to accept responsibility

  • he refuses to accept any responsibility for eva's death
  • he calls people like the inspector 'cranks' and doesn't believe in 'community and all that nonsense'
  • he sees other people as 'cheap labour' and appears rather self centred
  • 'Everybody has to look after everyone else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive'
  • 'community and all that nonsense'
• cont

  • 'I've learned that in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - And-'
  • stage direction 'we hear the sharp ring of a front door bell. birling stops to listen
• fall apart

  • with the inspectors visit, birling's family starts to fall apart and he can do nothing about it
  • instead he shows a lot of impatience and anger toward the inspector and accuses him (angrily) of making 'a nasty mess' of the families celebration
• inspector rattles them

  • inspector threatens birlings middle class values and the reputation of his family and company and the important connections he has acquired. this rattles birling
  • SD - 'moving' and 'angrily' and 'closing the door sharply'
  • he has spent his whole life on these matters and realises the investigation was about to put the spotlight onto his families private matters, therefore was determined 'to cover this up' and avoid the scandal
• SD and language choices

  • priestley uses stage directions and careful language choices to help create birling's character
  • he has the most continuous speech in the play and likes to talk without any interruption
  • eg when eric tries to interrupt him, he 'sharply' states 'just let me finish' to eric
  • he also repeatedly shouts 'rubbish' to dismiss what other people have said but he finishes his own sentence with 'of course' to make his own claim feel obvious and a matter of fact
• doesn't change

  • when he finds out the inspector was not real birling mocks the inspector
  • SD (imitating the inspector in his final speech) 'You all helped kill her' (pointing at sheila and eric and laughing)
• doesn't change his attitude

  • he does not change in attitude by end of play and refuses to take on board the inspector's lesson
  • as a result the play ends with another phone call and the announcement of a second visit - perhaps from the real inspector
  • through birling, priestley shows his audience the dangers of not learning about social responsibility