Materialism

• Priestley portrays Gerald as viewing the world in a materialistic way. Take Eva and Gerald's affair, for example.

  It wasn't Gerald's ending of funding that impacted Eva, but rather the end of a caring and intimate relationship which pushed her over the edge, as this hurt her emotionally. Gerald drops Eva like a possession as she knew the relationship couldn't last because of her lower class status.
• His interactions with Eva use a semantic field of business and finance language- "Install her" , "in return" "business". Shows that Gerald perceives his relationships as like business deals and transactions. Priestley uses Gerald to convey the message that money and class corrupts relationships.