“Public men, Mr Birling, have respects as well as privileges” What do you learn about social responsibility in the play ‘An Inspector calls’? The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ was written by JB Priestly in 1946 but set in 1912. The play highlights the values held in society by different groups of people. The Birling family are middle class people and believe they are so thrilled about Gerald and Sheila’s engagement. They all also believe they cannot be blamed for the death of Eva Smith and try to deny any contact with her.
Atticus is a moral and honest man who runs a well off household while, Bob is poor and spends all of his Families welfare money on alcohol for himself. But enough about To Kill a Mocking Bird. In the story of Romeo and Juliet there are two characters that stick out as FOIL characters they are Tybalt and Benvolio. They are very different many ways, but there are also some similarities there between them. First off Tybalt and Benvolio are FOIL characters which means they have to be different in some way.
One could agree that Sybil Birling is the most unsympathetic character of all since Priestly illustrates, throughout the play, the flaws in her character. In the first act we don’t hear much from Mrs Birling but one can already get an idea of her personality. When her husband praises the cook, she replies, “Arthur you’re not supposed to say such things” . This quote shows that she’s very aware of her social standing. The second act is where one really starts discovering Sybil’s real personality.
He wants people to realize how much closer together the country was and how that going back to how it was with massive gaps within class difference was not a good thing. He wanted to show that anyone could marry anyone and not get looked down upon, but only if socialism was more adopted then it was at the time the play was set. Through the entirety of the play Mr. Birling is obsessed with money and power, which proves he is a true capitalist. He first shows this when he is giving his speech to Sheila and Gerald about their engagement and how he is happy about it, where he goes from talking about them to talking about the merger between the two companies, Crofts Ltd and Berling and co. Mr Birling is also obsessed with his public image. He thinks that he may be getting an award and does not want anything to affect his image, such as a scandal before just in case he does not end up receiving the award.
Their social class is also revealed when they are talking about Eva Smith. Mrs Birling calls her “girls of that class.” And Mr Birling sees her as just “one of my employees” not important and worth worrying about, which conveys that they think they are too good for people like her and that is her own fault for the things that happened to her. Both characters try to use their social status to influence or threaten the Inspector. Mr Birling tries to impress how important he is and intimidates the Inspector by saying “I was an alderman for years,” and that he knows the Brumley police officers well. He also becomes threatening when he says that he knows the Chief Constable “I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine.” The word warn evidently indicates that he is trying to threaten the Inspector.
The reader’s interpretation of these characters is how Nick sees them and describes them, which is why his protagonist role is very important in the way in which the story is told throughout the novel. Also from Nick’s narrative, in chapter 1we see that unlike Nick, Tom is very arrogant and dishonest at the dinner party, advancing racist comments, and also having public affairs. We get the impression that Daisy is very emotional and tries to appear “shallow” as she says that she hopes her baby daughter will be fool, because “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful fool.” This is said because of the unattractive reality in the East Egg that Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan, is having an affair. In the final part of chapter 1, as Nick arrives home from the dinner party he sees Gatsby for the first time, reaching out at a distant green light at the end of a dock. At this moment in the story, Nick does not know the significance of this green light and what it represents, which gives Nick another reason to be intrigued by Gatsby, as well as his source of
It shows how their behaviour was almost pretence. When Mrs Birling is talking about Eva Smith she enhances her thoughts of being socially and morally superior and being a ‘snob’, by saying ‘girls of that class’. The emphasis on ‘that’ shows her disgust in the working class, almost as though the poor are by definition worthless. Sheila Birling is immediately thought to be an innocent and childlike character because she does as she is told and addresses her mother as ‘mummy’. Yet later in the play when the investigation is in progress, she refers to Mrs Birling as ‘mother’.
It is these questions that audience is left questioning about life after the inspector has left the stage. Social status is a highly sought after concept in this modern day world, a good job, wealth and family are transformed into the image of a perfect life. However many people forget that this achievement and position comes with responsibility and you should never forget that every one is human and no matter there wealth or race you have to treat them fairly with respect. This is a harsh reality the Biriling should have realized before they led a girl to her suicide. Each person in the family had abused their position in society and somehow used it to corrupt this young girls mind into making her feel worthless and depressed.
J.B. Priestly who wrote the play was highly Socialist and is therefore heavily weighted in favour of the Inspector, and making the Birlings appear the “bad guys.” At the very start of the play, the audience gets the sense that, although the Birlings are well off, they are distant and cold, with husband and wife sitting at opposite ends of the table rather than next to each other. The lighting too, at first is described as “pink and intimate” which shows a “warm” and “joyful” atmosphere. However there is always an uneasy feeling that the audience gets, that the lighting is just a screen which hides the truth. This is confirmed when the Inspector arrives, and the set changes to a “brighter and harder light,” which gives a sense of disclosure and the impending revelation of truth. This makes it seem like Socialism is an honest way to live.
Mr Birling is a very selfish man who ‘has to make his way’ and doesn’t think of anyone but himself and his family; he thinks the community is stupid. He likes to make predictions on future- the unsinkability of the titanic, the impossibility of the war and the promises of technology. Sheila is presented as a very pretty and a quite honest character. She is engaged to Gerald Croft and they have just had their engagement party. When the inspector tells Sheila about Eva Smith she showed a lot of emotion and felt that she had to tell the inspector everything that happened.