For my essay I will be studying Mr Birling Mr who is a self-confessed “hard headed business man”. And the views that he has on society and what morals he carries. Inperticuraly I am looking at his views on the female community.
Mr Birling is also a very business minded person and has a rather peculiar way of thinking either something will promote his business or demote it. Mr Birling is also somewhat of a visionary he feels that only good can happen and the world can only progress. He feels that the inevitable war will not occur and the titanic will not sink “Germans don’t want war, nobody want’s war” “In a year or two we’ll have aeroplanes that will be able to go anywhere. The Titanic she sails next week, New York in 5 days unsinkable absolutely unsinkable.” The author JB Priestly brings out the ironies here using the stubborn and shrewd character of Mr Birling because the war does commence and the unsinkable Titanic sinks. This passage also shows the Mr Birling is both arrogant and ignorant. Mr Birling is also very wealthy but not through inheritance but hard work, whilst his wife Sybil on the other hand is an aristocrat she therefore was born into money. Mr Birling seems to have a lot of respect for his wife and also seems to be intimidated by her. “Well, well- this is very nice. Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell the cook from me”. Here Mr Birling is praising the cook in front of their guest Gerald who is also an aristocrat and this annoys and embarrasses Sybil as she is as an aristocrat and sees herself above the working class. “Arthur you are not supposed to say such things.”This passage also symbolises the varied upbringings of the characters. This also shows that Mr Birling does not mind being dominated by his wife and letting her have her own way. Mr Birling does however treat his wife with respect and in the scene where the inspector is questioning his wife he also protects her “Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you inspector.”At one point Mr Birling also asks Sheila to escort Mrs Birling out of the room, “Sheila, take your mother along to the drawing room.”
This shows that he cares for his wife. This is different for the men, as he never tells Eric or Gerald to leave the room because he thinks, as they are men they would be able to cope with Inspector and his questions.
Mr Birling does not even mind being criticised by his wife “Oh stop it, both of you. And please remember before you start accusing me of anything again that it wasn’t I who had her turned out of employment-which probably began it all.” This shows the Mrs Birling is a dominating character who can give as good as she gets. Mr Birling unlike men in those days allows his wife to have an opinion of her own. It’s hard to tell who wears the trousers in this relationship, as they both are strong-minded people. Overall Mr Birling has respect for his wife, cares for her and does not mind being dominated by her though he himself is quite arrogant I feel this is because she is at the pecking order in the class system and therefore is socially higher than him. Another woman who Mr Birling interacts with is his daughter Sheila who he is also very protective of. “There isn’t a slightest reason why my daughter should be dragged in this unpleasant business.” He is also close to his daughter just like his wife. Mr Birling is overjoyed at the fact that his daughter is to marry his rival’s son Gerald. Mr Birling does seem to be happy about the engagement for more than one reason “Perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but working together.” This makes you think that is he happy for her daughter to be engaged to Gerald as any father would or does he see his daughter as a key who may enter her father into business with Gerald’s family, thus helping her father in his quest for a bigger business. Some may think that Mr Birling may care more about his business than his daughter. I feel he is as enthusiastic about the engagement as his business can now be merged with his rivals. Mr Birling at one point also asks Sheila to leave the room but she refuses. When Sheila tells the inspector everything she knows and continues argue Mr Birling feels that Sheila is not being loyal to her family this is shown when he says: “If you had any sense of loyalty.” Mr Birling feels that telling the truth is not being faithful. This shows his stubbornness when someone is not on the right side of him and he is not the same respectfull man as he was when they were all ‘happy families.’
Another character who Mr Birling comes in to contact with is Eva Smith who used to be an employee of Mr Birling. Once the inspector starts questioning Mr Birling we find out hat he thought Eva was a good worker and he was going to promote her “A good worker too. In fact the foremen there told me he was ready to promote her” but this all changed after she organised a strike and he fired her. When asked why he did this he says, “It is my duty to keep labour costs down.” This proves further more that Mr Birlings main prerogative money which he cares for more than someone’s livelihood. I feel that the only reason he fired her is not because of the commotion she caused but because she was undermining Mr Birlings authority and thus causing him to lose some of his influence if he tolerated her. This is shown where he say’s: “She’d had a lot to say-far too much-she had to go.”
I feel Mr Birling feels he needs the to have the security of being in control and influencing everything that takes place. At first he thought Eva Smith was a fine worker so why did he not try to compromise with her and meet a mutual agreement, this shows that he sees his workers as cheap labour which can be easily replaced. I do not feel that Mr Birling done what he did to Eva because she is a female but because is lower class to him and he feels others should not try and take control from him, to an extent he is a control freak. Mr Birling felt no amnesty for Eva Smith after she had died this is because she is just cheap easily replaceable labour. I have reached my conclusion and that is that Mr Birling treats women according to what society deems how he should. If they are of equal status or above him he will treat them with much respect and gratitude like Mrs Birling, but if they are of lower class he will treat them with little respect or gratitude like Eva Smith and Sheila. He acts this way to impress society and because he feels if you belong in a particular society then you should follow their rules in a certain way he thinks he is being judged and when he fired Eva he got points for that. He did not have any remorse for Eva all he cared about that he looks good in the end.
