What Does *This Extract* Reveal About Mr Birling to an Audience in an Inspector Calls?

316 Words2 Pages
Mr Birling is shown to be an arrogant and confident character. With his first line in the extract given he shows a very careless and selfish attitude with the statement 'I discharged her'. Birling gives a cold attitude towards Eva Smith's life and shows that he doesn't care for her, giving himself a more noticeable selfish attitude. Birling decides to not use her name and constantly regards her as 'girl' and the fact he has to think about her time at his business shows that she wasn't important enough to him, and shows that he thinks workers and people below him don't deserve to be called by their names. Birling tries to intimidate Inspector Goole by boasting about his status and the type of people he knows, for example when Birling mentions the engagement between Sheila and Gerald Croft - a name made famous by 'Croft's limited', Birling brings this up to intimate the Inspector as Birling expects his status to buy him away from trouble and put him above the law. Birling becomes impatient easily and loses his temper quickly as he realises Goole doesn't want to play along with his tactics of trying to avoid confrontation about his responsibility with Eva Smith's death. He doesn't want to accept the fact he might have given a reason for her to kill herself and reckons she is the one at fault, he's pompous and sexist and abdicating his responsibility when being interviewed. Birling is also presented to expect him to gain respect and wishes for everyone to agree with his capitalist attitude. He believes himself to be superior and tries to take hold and control the interview with the Inspector when he abruptly comments on how he doesn't like his 'tone', which is ironic as Birling's 'tone' has been unacceptable and spiteful towards the inspector throughout their interview, proving his confidence and his big headed
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