Class

• Birling and Gerald's attitudes towards workers' rights are common for Edwardian Era
• Mr. Birling: '"I refused, of course"'
• Birling's view on Eva's pay-rise


  Expressing the capitalist view of the survival of the fittest, which is questioned
• Mr. Birling's response to Eva's pay-rise


  "I refused, of course"
• Birling's response


  Expressing the capitalist view of the survival of the fittest
• Birling's capitalist view


  Questioned by the Inspector, who can be seen as representing Priestley's socialist views
• The Birlings and Gerald


  • Openly prejudiced against working class people
  • Seem almost disgusted by the poor
• Gerald: '"They'd all be broke if I know them."'
• Gerald's words


  Suggests a them versus us mentality
• This indicates how vulnerable the working classes were in an era before the introduction of the welfare system
• Sheila: '"miserable plain little creature"'
• Inspector: 'Accuses Eric of treating Eva "as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person."'
• Indicating the dehumanisation of the working classes at the hands of the upper classes during the early 1900s
• Sibyl Birling: '"girls of that class"'
• Sibyl Birling shows her class prejudice
• The irony is that as much as she judges the working classes as 'lesser' people with questionable morals, her family and other members of the upper classes, are far more corrupt than the working class Eva Smith
• Inspector Goole


  Speaks for the absent and silent Eva/Daisy, uses her as a symbol of the powerless working classes to teach the Birlings about social responsibility
• The Birlings


  • Their arrogance and selfish attitudes were common in the middle classes
  • Represent the worst qualities of the upper and middle classes
• The Birlings think that class is all that matters
• Priestley believed the opposite, that people should be judged by what they do, not by which class they belong to
• At the end of the play

  Sheila and Eric realise they have a responsibility to the working class
• Priestley shows that people can choose to act differently from the rest of their class
• Conclusion:

  • Priestly shows how unfair the class system was for working class people like Eva/Daisy.
• • Priestley’s message is one that promotes social equality. He thinks that Arthur’s capitalist attitude, ‘a man has to make his own way—has to look after himself—’, is what ruins society.