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Summary Essay Mr Birling- An Inspector Calls
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Essay on the character of Mr Birling, what he represents and how he is represented
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Nb How does Priestley present Mr Birling as unlikeable characterPriestley presents Mr Birling as someone he does not want the reader to like. Mr Birling is
arrogant and selfish. The first thing we notice about Mr. Birling is that he is already high in
the social class rank but is greedy, so wants to climb even higher. Part of the first thing Mr.
Birling says is: ‘it’s exactly the same port your Father gets from him.’ This just goes to show
how desperately he wants to be associated with a higher class. He is shown as someone
who is forever trying to forge his precedence. Mr. Birling is greedy for more social status and
is envious of those who have it. When referring to Gerald’s parents, he struggled to get their
titles out of his mouth-‘Sir George and-er-Lady Croft’. This demonstrates how, although
Mr.B is of a rather high social status already, he is desperate for more and has the ‘might as
well have it all’ mentality. This creates a character who you would hate to be around and
who’s presence would simply irritate you due to their egoistic and insatiable personality.
Mr. B is selfish even when it comes to his daughter’s happiness. He states that his
daughter’s and Gerald’s engagement meant a lot to him, however for all the wrong
reasons-‘but are working together-for lower costs and higher prices’. This demonstrates
how his daughter’s contentment was only a complimentary factor of the engagement and
the engagement would have gone on whether she was happy or not. Along with this, he is
unbelievably ignorant. He is so full of himself, that he does not even realise that what he is
saying might not actually be right. Priestley uses dramatic irony to show Mr. Birling’s pure
ignorance-‘Titanic… unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’, ‘in 1940… your son or daughter
might be getting engaged …you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these silly
little war scares.’ Mr. Birling is completely wrong and this just makes the reader dislike him
because of how proudly ignorant he is, he was so wrong yet so confident and cocky about it.
Priestley was clever in the way he used portrayed Mr. Birling to try and get the reader to
share the same views as him.
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