Themes

Responsibility Love Politics/society Morality Power

IRONY – Birling sacked Eva Smith for showing qualities of leadership and voicing her opinions, the same qualities for which he was earlier prepared to promote her. The Inspector makes her case and he is sympathetic towards her. Look at Mr bIrling’s big speech in Act One for other examples of dramatic irony, e.g. the Titanic is unsinkable.

SOCIETY – there is a contrast between the comfortable life of the Birlings and the poor, horrid life Eva Smith was forced to live because of the actions of the Birlings.

MORALITY – The older characters only APPEAR to be respectable. They have no real sense of morality or right and wrong.

POLITICAL VIEW – The point is made that we share a responsibility for what happens in society, we have a duty to care for others. J. B. Priestley was a socialist! He wants us to think about are we any better than the Birlings?

RESPONSIBILITY – Mr Birling feels responsible to make a success of his business. He feels responsible in providing material needs for the family, yet Eric cannot turn to him when he is in trouble. He does not accept responsibility for Eva’s death.

- Mrs Birling accepts responsibility as chairwoman of the Women’s Charity Organisation – but only to those she thinks are deserving of help. She doesn’t accept responsibility for Eva’s death.

- Gerald backs up Birling and says he’d have done the same thing about the strike. Gerald showed some responsibility when he rescued Eva but he gave into his lust. He abandoned her when it suited him.

- Sheila Birling accepted that she was partly responsible for Eva’s death.- Eric Birling has little sense of responsibility in terms of how he treated her

in their relationship, e.g. he was drunk, threatened her and then took advantage of her. He stole money from his father to support her but he does realise he is partly to blame for the suicide… but he does seem to feel very sorry for himself, rather than her.

TASK 1 - Find quotes for each character to show if they feel responsible or not and write them on the character quote diagrams.

POWER – Mr Birling abuses his power when he fires Eva to make an example of her. He also shows he is going to abuse his position again when he says he will ‘cover up’ Eric’s mistakes.

- Mrs Birling abuses her power when she refuses Eva help because she offends her.

- Sheila abuses her power as a valued customer and forces the management of Milwards to fire Eva.

- Gerald abuses his power when he sets Eva up in an apartment and takes advantage of her when she falls for him.

- Eric abuses his power as the son of the owner of the factory when he steals from the office accounts to pay for Eva’s upkeep.

LOVE – Sheila and Gerald appear to love each other at the start of the play. However, by the end they realise they do not know each other.

- Mrs Birling shows very little genuine love for her children or husband throughout the play. She does become very distressed when she realises Eric is the father of Eva’s child but we are not sure whether it is because she loves her son or because she is worried about him being made an example of in an public inquest.

- Mr Birling sees marriage as a way to climb the social ladder (his wife was of a higher social class when they married) and this makes us think that he may not even truly love his wife.

- Gerald and Eric both confess that they did not love Eva. Both of their relationships were based on lust.

- Eva loved Gerald and became involved with Eric because she needed someone to care for her, as Gerald once had.

- The inspector talks about love but in the biblical sense of ‘love thy neighbour’. He wants us to be charitable towards others.

REMEMBER – Questions based around a theme mean that you can talk about nearly all of the characters! Try to remember these short bullet points on each theme for your exam. Make sure that you expand on these with quotes

and explanations – use PEE!

Character notesArthur Birling

Arthur Birling is an industrialist, a self made man. He has got on in the world, and is obviously proud of himself. He boasts about being Lord mayor and maybe being knighted, “I was an alderman for years, and Lord Mayor two years ago, and I’m still on the bench.”

He is still ambitious and is really pleased with Sheila’s engagement to Gerald because it is a good match socially for Birling’s family, but not so good for Gerald’s (remember that his family are not present at the celebration!).

Another reason why he is pleased is because he wants to create stronger business links with Gerald’s father’s company, Crofts LTD. He one day hopes to combine the two businesses to make even more profit, “...when Croft’s and Birling’s are no longer competing but are working together for lower costs and higher prices.”

Birling believes that he is a hard-headed business man and that he should look after himself and his own. No one else matters in Birling’s view. He has provided a top class education and Sheila enjoys the privilege of a private shopping account at a fashionable clothes store.

He is frightened however when there is a threat of scandal and shows great relief when that threat is apparently removed (when they think it’s a joke). He is angry when Sheila and Eric still carry on claiming responsibility for Eva’s death. He say, “...they’re just so damn exasperating. They just won’t understand our position or to see the difference between a lot of stuff like this coming out in the public...” Even after the interrogation of the inspector he is still thinking about himself and his family.