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An AQA GCSE exemplar essay answering the quesiton: "How far does Priestley present Mr Birling as a man who cares only for himself and his family?"$7.32
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How far does Priestley present Mr Birling as a man who cares only for himself and his
family?
In Priestley’s enigmatic morality play, “An Inspector Calls”, Mr Birling is an immoral and
injudicious “prosperous manufacturer” who embodies the values of capitalism. He is the
archetypal upper-middle-class man who cares solely for himself and his family, often at the
expense of exploiting the working class. Certainly, Priestly uses Mr Birling’s ignorance and
narrow-mindedness as a device to criticize the capitalism, the selfishness of the upper classes
and the foolishness of the older generation.
In the opening of the play the Birling’s are celebrating Sheila and Gerald’s engagement and
Mr Birling makes a verbose speech expressing how pleased he is with the arrangement. He
proclaims to Gerald that his “engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me. She’ll
make you happy and I’m sure you’ll make her happy”. Disturbingly, he makes sure to begin
the oration with what the engagement means to him with his use of the personal pronoun
“me”. The undoubtedly his inflated sense of self-worth as he makes sure that – although the
celebration is about his daughter and Gerald – his opinions and feeling are heard. It would
also appear that he believes that the other want to hear his view. Interestingly, he addresses
Gerald directly with the pronoun “you”, reassuring him that Sheila will make him happy
before he mentions his own daughter’s happiness. Of course, Mr Birling wishes for his
daughter to be happy, but he seems more concerned with the prospect of financial gain and
improved status as shown by his keenness to assure Gerald. Furthermore, he takes a
convincing tone with the assuring adjective, “sure”, as if Gerald’s wealth has dispelled any
concerns he may have had for his daughter. Possibly, while Mr Birling does care for his family,
he may be selfishly motivated by the thought that they are a reflection of himself and an
opportunity for him to progress socially.
Later in the first act, Mr Birling deflects blame for his callous dismissal of Eva Smith with the
justification “it’s my duty to keep labour costs down”. Here, his use of the prideful noun
“duty” demonstrates his ignorance and inflated sense of self-importance. Clearly, Mr Birling
believes that it his responsibility to exploit the lower classes on behalf of other “prosperous”
capitalists, despite the Inspectors teachings to the contrary. He justifies his prejudice against
the lower classes. Notably, the alienating noun, “labour”, conveys how little he values his
employees as he does not see them as people. To him, they are merely a means to improve
his profit margin. He sees them as subservient to him and his family due to their social status
and so he soes not care for them. Significantly, Mr Birling’s avaricious mindset (and the
mindset of the older generation that he symbolises) will not change even with the Inspector’s
socialist intervention. Furthermore, his obstinate refusal to accept responsibility would make
him unlikeable to a post war audience who – having suffered serious hardships themselves –
would have by this point formed an affinity for the plight of Eva Smith. This would convey to
the audience that the upper classes are not deserving of their privilege and consequently
promote the socialist views becoming more prevalent in society when the play was written in
1945.
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