An Inspector Calls Mr Birling Analysis

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How are the Birlings presented prior to the Inspectors entrance in ‘An Inspector Calls’? In the beginning of the play the Birlings are having a family dinner to celebrate the engagement of Sheila, Mr Birling’s daughter and Gerald Croft. The Birling Family come across as your average middle-class family; Mr Birling, a wealthy business man who owns a factory; his wife, Mrs. Birling who is a social climber and is very concerned about her appearance; Eric, Mr Birling’s son, who is quite uneasy; Sheila, Mr Birling’s daughter who is being engaged to Gerald and Gerald who is the son of one of Mr. Birling’s business rivals. Mr Birling is a self-made industrial businessman who shares capitalist values; you can tell this from some of the things he says. He is very business orientated as even when he is meant to be celebrating his daughter being engaged to her love he sees the benefits it will have for his business. Mr Birling says that he…show more content…
In the beginning of the book she is excited about her engagement to Gerald although while they are at the dinner table she does question Gerald’s whereabouts last summer when he said he was ‘doing business’. This gives us insight into the fact that Sheila may not be as naive as we think. In the beginning of the play Eric is shown as a bit of a rebellious young man. When we are first introduced to him he is at the dinner table with his family but he has obviously had one too many drinks as he starts saying certain mischievous things and is a bit ‘squiffy’ as Sheila put it. Also even though his father thinks he is such a know-it-all Eric tries to argue with his father over the topic of war, although his efforts are just wasted as Mr Birling just silences him and starts rambling on, but still it shows that Eric isn’t afraid to ask questions and not necessarily believe all the things his father

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