Mr Birling

• Mr. Birling


  Wishes to show off to others and impress his future son-in-law
• Mr. Birling is speaking to his social superior, Gerald, the son of Lord and Lady Croft
• Mr. Birling has moved from working-class to middle class through the success of his business
• Mr. Birling is occasionally told how to behave socially by his wife, Mrs. Birling, who is his social superior
• Mr. Birling's speech during the engagement meal

  • Does not focus on his love for his daughter or the engagement, but instead centers around his opinions on the economic future of the country and the failings of neighboring nations
• Mr. Birling


  Refers to himself as a "hard-headed businessman" and a "hard-headed practical man of business", emphasizing how his self-perception is entirely built upon how he sees himself in terms of work and money
• Mr. Birling's priorities are not with people or family, but with how much wealth he can accumulate
• Mr. Birling represents the ideology of capitalism, a system where business is privately owned for the sole purpose of making profit</b>
• To make this profit, business owners have to keep labour costs down, as Mr. Birling explains
• Mr. Birling's capitalist agenda will be one of the causes of Eva Smith's death
• Mr. Birling dismisses Inspector Goole as "probably a socialist"


  Priestley uses this to directly contrast Mr. Birling's viewpoint
• Dramatic irony


  Where the audience knows something the character on stage does not
• Priestley uses a significant amount of dramatic irony to criticize the character of Mr. Birling
• Mr. Birling's confidence in his incorrect predictions about the Germans, war, economic growth, and the Titanic being unsinkable devalues his opinions on the treatment of his own employees and on business
• Priestley employs a contrast between the older and younger generations to make a point about capitalism and socialism
• Unlike his children, Mr. Birling fails to accept responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, reinforcing the Inspector's comments about the older generation being fixed in their ways
• Priestley is criticizing the behavior of the older generation, implying that the younger generation are more open to new socialist ideas