Even from the opening of the play the Birlings are presented as a selfish middle/upper class family with friends, Gerald, also of high class, so they fit their stereo type for their social status. One of the main methods priestly uses to present the selfishness of the family is dramatic irony; it is used throughout the play and in Mr Birlings speeches particularly dramatic irony is used strongly which priestly uses to show how selfish Mr Birling is and used to humiliate people like the birlings, and by seeing the birlings being able to relate to them and seeing how you really are. In the play we see sheilas lack of consideration for working class people we see this when she gets eva smith fired because she didn’t like the way she was looking
He considers himself to be the enlightened thinker, walking above the ground, looking down in disdain at the ignorant masses living their meaningless lives. However, his isolation and inaction bind him in chains in the lowest level of the cave. As evident through his self-indulgent behavior, he is the manifestation of liberal society. He is the only and most important person in his life. He is the “I.” Throughout his life, Fyodor Dostoevky was perturbed by the liberal direction of thinking that circulated among the upper echelon of society.
The character Mr Elton represents the class based attitudes of 19th Century England when he claims that “everyone has their own level”. This implies he feels that Harriet is not of “equal alliance” to him in wealth and status. Elton’s repetitive use of the absolute “never” and “never I assure you” reinforces that the thought of forming an alliance with Harriet is an affront to his reputation and dignity. The rigid class structure is further compounded through the character of Emma with her disgusted reaction to Mr Elton’s proposal, as she believes that “the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations… the younger branch of a very ancient family- the Eltons were
Priestley uses a range of language and theatrical devices to criticise the selfishness of people such as the Birling family. To begin with, Birling shows his lack of understanding and disrespect for the working class. This is show. When he says, "If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the Earth." This shows a lack of compassion by Birling, as he only cares about his wealth and status, and the profits he can gain from his factories.
Estella is also introduced in this chapter and believes she is better than Pip: “he is a common labouring boy!” When Pip talks about Estella he says: “I think she is very pretty… I think she is very insulting.” This shows she is cruel and a snob as she thinks Pip is less of a person than she is because he is poor, which engages the reader because they know that Pip has fallen in love with her but Miss Havisham has brought up Estella to have a hatred of men and the working class because of her own prejudice against them. Language is used to engage the reader in chapter 8. When Pip first sees Miss Havisham he says: “the strangest lady I have ever seen”. The
This, of course, is not the true nature of "goodness", and a key element in Twain's satire. In fact, Huck, who is one of the only good characters in the novel, believes good is based on the elements of dangers which face him every day, and due to this dichotomy, does not believe he is "good". This becomes painfully evident when Huck meets the Gregfords. The Gregfords are an obvious simile for pure evil. Though they have a temporal glow to them, after all, they are rich and aristocratic.
Mrs. Birling to display the greed and ignorance of aristocracy before the war. He shows them as selfish and ignorant and unwilling to admit their mistakes. Mr Birling is stereotyped by Priestly as a pride filled, over confidant,”rather portentous man in his middle fifties but rather provincial in his speech." Some examples of ths are “I say you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk” and “we're in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity.” Similarly Mrs. Birling is displayed as stuck up and someone who enjoys looking down on other people also Priestley gives us the impression that she thinks wealth and status only are important. Priestly portrays her as a woman obsessed with how she and her family are perceived with in 'high society'.
Rather spend; he is greedy, not even spending money for electricity at his workplace but rather working with candles during the night. What Dickens presents and commentates on is even though the upper class has it all, they rather seem to be stingy and greedy, not wanting to share their wealth, not wanting to give for the better. Not wanting to do so only creates a bad reputation for the upper class. On the other hand, Tiny Tim, and his family have close to nothing at all, only to be more giving and wanting than the upper class fellows. Dickens demonstrations here that Tiny Tim is the most vulnerable of all the lower class yet he is one of the most giving and happy members of the lower class, which puts shame on Scrooge and his fellow upper class men.
He is disgusted by human physicality, which leaves him isolated and lonely towards adults and leads him to sexual impulses with little girls (Spring). The narrator ironically describes his as “a very clean man” instead of a dirty old man, but his implications are clear: his obsession with bodily purity has made him more perverted than simple lust life (Spring). Soaphead Church can be labeled as a ‘people hater’ who prefers objects to people. While, writing his letter to God we find him even crazier then before. Morrison not only wants us to see how Soaphead is a bad person but he wants us to see another way to deal with racial self-hatred (Spring).
28) In this confrontation the difference between the social classes are shown. It shows how Tom looks down on gorge just because he is poor, and how Tom thinks that because he has a higher social status and because he is rich has the power to treat him badly. Tom’s self center and prepotent attitude is shown in the dialogue, and thus representing the moral and social decay that the wealthy people had due to their excesses. In conclusion Fitzgerald exclude the middle class as a critique to the extremes in the social classes, because he wanted to show the contrast between them and the repercussions the social class had on the characters. Through the novel the duality between the rich and the poor is always present, and the effects of the extremes and the insatiable aim of wealth is represented by the valley of ashes.