An Inspector Calls

Arthur Birling is the kind of character the whole play warns against. "A hard-headed business man", he believes that society is as it should be. The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor and there is a large gap between the two. He believes that "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own". When put with other things Birling has said in the play, we see that Priestley's views do not concur with Birling's and he has added statements to make the audience see Birling's views as false. Birling's confidence in the predictions he make - that the titanic is " unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable", that "The Germans don't want a war. Nobody wants a war" and that " we're in for a time of increasing prosperity" give that audience the impression that his views of community and shared responsibility are misguided also. Every one of the predictions Birling makes are wrong; the Titanic sank on her maiden voyage, World war one broke out two years later after the play was set and the American stock market crashed in 1929, plunging the World into economic chaos. This leads us to regard him as a man of many words but little sense!

If we contrast the character of Birling with that of the inspector, we can see Priestly's aims showing. The inspector is the opposite of Birling. Where Birling's predictions are wrong, the Inspector predicts that if people don't learn their responsibilities, they will be taught in "fire and blood and anguish"(three of the seven deadly sins).