The opening scene of the play is the celebration of Sheila and Gerald’s engagement and with this comes the usual celebratory atmosphere. This is shown through the oozing confidence of Mr. Birling. He has his place at the head of the table from where he makes his toasts and speeches.
‘It’s one of the happiest days of my life. And one day, I hope, Eric, when you have a daughter of your own, you’ll understand why.’
The speeches give an idea of apparent happiness that will shortly be destroyed. Priestley creates this sense of self-satisfaction in order to increase the dramatic effect when it all crumbles for them. In contrast though Eric is sitting downstage from the rest of the crowd showing physically his distance and separation from them. He openly squabbles with his sister at the table, making him seem immature, and as the quarrel is over his drinking it is ominous for further on into the play. This is only one of the many tensions hinted at though in the opening scenes. One of the ones that stands out most vividly is the question of Gerald’s whereabouts during the summer when he hardly came near Sheila, an odd thing to bring up and discuss on the night of your engagement.
The scenes before the inspector enters are ominous in many ways; the main topic that stands out though is Birling’s references to how a scandal would ruin his chance of a knighthood. This is very important to him as a social climber, and there is a hint that if he achieved it Gerald’s parents would approve of the engagement. Right before the inspector comes in Mr. Birling and Gerald are even joking about Eric causing a scandal when little do they know that he already has planted the seeds for one, they just haven’t heard about it yet. The sharp ring announces the arrival and cuts through the party atmosphere bursting their bubble. When the bell goes it is late at night and unexpected which seems to clash with Mr. Birling's assumption that he knows what is going to happen. Which we know he can’t.
The predictions he makes are completely wrong, the point of Priestley making him incorrect is to get the audience of 1945 and post-Second World War to question his other views and beliefs. Priestley uses the audiences’ historical knowledge to create dramatic irony when Mr. Birling says,
‘I say there isn’t a chance of war. The world’s developing so fast that it’ll make war impossible.’
Mr. Birling saying that the Titanic is unsinkable is also an example of dramatic irony as the audience would of definitely known that it sunk. Over confidence is his downfall as its this that makes the audience dislike him and in comparison makes the inspector seem a far better person with his socialist views. The socialist and capitalist battle between the two characters is the whole point of the play so it is important to set Mr. Birling up in the audiences mind as a terrible business man who only cares about profit even if at the cost of decent work conditions and pay for him employees.
‘If you don’t come down sharply on some people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.’
The Inspector has a different social standing to the Birlings and doesn’t fit into the scene of the party due to that everyone else is related. He is respected for his profession but he would still be considered below them; The Birlings still have to be wary of the Inspector though as he power over them.
The social classes are clearly shown in the first part of the play. ‘Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things-‘
Mrs Birling will not thank the servants and disapproves of others doing so; Mr Birling wants a knighthood and worries over the Crofts approving of the engagement. Linking in with the social setting of the day are the gender roles of the time period, and they are dominant thought out the book:
‘Clothes mean something quite different to a woman. Not just something to wear…a sort of sign or token of their self-respect’.
This quotation from Mr. Birling shows that woman are supposed to just look beautiful and show their high status; because of this they take great care when it comes to items such as clothing. Whereas the line shows that men don’t have this problem and clothes don’t mean the same to them. The middle class woman are not seen as intelligent enough to discuss business and other matters with the men so instead they retire.
The inspector’s job is to plant socialist ideas in the viewers’ head, for example ‘all intertwined with our lives’. He sets these ideas up slowly but by the time he is about to leave he has built up to his final speech.
‘…We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other…’
His speech sums up all his views and is his last attempt to win over the characters. After he has left Sheila seems to take over his role as the person trying to pass along the socialist message and then Eric helps her. This symbolises the younger generation being better and far more socially aware than their parents and that there is hope in people like Sheila and Eric to make the community stronger, so that the working-class people that Eva Smith represents don’t suffer unnecessarily due to people like the Birlings and the Crofts.
