He pretends he is a real “gentleman”, so much that he might actually believe that he is. He dresses nice and says the right things in the right environment around the right people. But in actual reality he is inhumane and narcissistic and uses his power to his advantage. “In the Induction, Sly is transformed by the Lord’s orders and for the Lord’s “sport” (7).” The Lord uses his power, dominance, and inhumanity to assure Sly, the beggar, that he is not a poor man, but in fact a Lord with a wife (8). The Lord is inhumane because he is enjoying the pleasure of the beggar forgetting himself and altering his reality.
Priestly starts presenting the Birlings by ordering some stage directions. Immediately we know Arthur Birling is a factory owner who was done well, when J.B. Priestly writes ‘belonging to a prosperous manufacturer.’ The reader can tell again he is well off when the writer says that the general effect should be heavily comfortable. He gives very precise stage directions, to go exactly the effect he wants. The fact it should not be cosy and homelike could almost help describe the atmosphere, and that the house is tasteless and not much effort has been put in to make it a home. The direction for the lighting to be ‘pink and intimate’ before the inspector arrives, then ‘bright and harsh’ when he is there helps the shift of tone, as each family member feels like a spotlight has been turned on them when he begins asking questions.
1. Priestley starts the play in Media-Res; this is one of the many techniques the writer uses to present relationships between characters. Structurally, as the play starts so suddenly halfway through a happy and joyous scene, this foreshadows to the audience that something must happen in the play to make the atmosphere go downhill. Especially as the scene is a dinner party celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft, a very important relationship. The audience is also given a hint when Gerald says ‘You seem to be a nice well behaved family’ Priestley is setting up the Birlings for a monumental fall.
We see an example of this arrogance towards Gerald when she says ‘Go on Gerald – just you object!’, and the stage directions that it should be said with mock aggressiveness. This is one example of the many things that she says to Gerald with stage directions of such a manner. She doesn’t seem to say anything normally but has some sort of sarcastic tone to say it in when she is talking to Gerald. When the inspector comes, Sheila is very honest and open about everything that she did wrong and is genuinely apologetic about everything that she has done to contribute to the death of Eva Smith but she doesn’t want to take all the blame so she is very persistent that everyone admits to their involvement to the death of Eva Smith. She doesn’t want all the blame on her so she insists that the rest of the family says what they have done so she doesn’t feel so bad because they also ‘helped to kill this girl’ as Gerald says.
In Act 1 Mr Birling is presented as a successful businessman, who has been active in local politics and is Lord Mayor for Brumley. Gradually as the play progresses, it becomes clear that he doesn't care about the community. This is shown in the first line of the play when Birling says, ‘Giving us the port Edna.’ Mr Birling is also the wife of Sybil Birling, they have two children, Eric and Sheila. From the first set of stage directions we know that the family is financially comfortable and we also find out that Arthur Birling’s wife is his social superior, implying that his money isn't old and he has worked to achieved where he is in life now. In the play, Birling likes to inform others of his wealth and of the important people he knows.
With the conversation becoming more exciting, Elisa begins to feel appreciated for once and has an immediate attraction for the tinker. In “The Necklace”, Mathilde’s husband surprises her with an invitation to a formal dinner, what at first, makes her excited but then turns into a disappointment knowing she has nothing nice to wear to the dinner because they are not exactly financially stable. Both Elisa and Mathilde are unhappy with their marriages; Mathilde puts on a front of her financial standings and Elisa realizes there is more to life and does not want to just settle. One of the differences between the two wives is how Elisa lacks the self-confidence unlike Mathilde who has never settled for anything less than what she believes she deserves. In “The Chrysanthemums” Elisa puts so much hard work and time into her gardening while her husband does the same with the selling of his steer, even though this makes her content for the time being, she soon realizes that maybe life has more to offer than the comforts of the ranch.
Ibsen has an intelligent way of criticizing the choices Nora makes by using Torvald to insult her decisions. Nora says, “Come in here Torvald, see what I’ve bought. (I.37-39)” Torvald then responds, “Has my little spendthrift been spending money again? (I.41)” “She doesn’t take criticism from her husband as a negative, but instead reacts affectionately to her husband. Torvald also calls Nora, “silly girl” many times.
It shows that he cannot hold his high social position without the nose. Looking for his nose, he says, “Even loss of hands or feet would have been better” (Gogol, 13). Kovalev considers the nose more important than any other parts of the body, considering it as a priceless asset, which can reveal his high social status. The nose is not only a symbol of a respectable social status but also a source of his pride. Kovalev loves to show off his good appearance to people, especially women, and get attention from them, which is proven by his repetitive mentioning of Madame Chektareva and Pelagea Grigorievna Podtochina throughout the story.
After vacationing with his wife, Paul goes to work and jumps right in to a two-sided discussion with his co-worker Sam where they discuss what Sam considers a decent person to be. And Paul, being representative of the due process model expresses concern for those who others consider to be indecent. His ideals are once again challenged with remarks exchanged by Sam and his boss during which they represent the crime control model more by discussing how there should be more police than people and how no one would be able to afford that. The policing power that Sam desires is excessive and would be at the expense of regular citizens. There are also conversations throughout the movie that have a more subtle, symbolic approach to presenting the
Hally’s father is a drunkard, who takes money from Hally for alcohol, and at times, does not care for Hally as a loving father should. Meanwhile, Hally’s mother earns the money and keeps the family running with her tea shop. Since Hally’s alcoholic father does not spend time with Hally and his mom works all the time, Hally passes his time in his mother’s tea shop, with two Afrikaans named Sam and Willie. Even though Afrikaans were looked down upon by people at the time, Hally gives decent respect to Sam and Willie, but at times when his anger takes a hold of him, he lashes out at them. For example, the quote above describes a scene when Hally insults his father and Sam tries to calm him down by telling Hally never be ashamed of his own father.