"Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now"!
"We may look forward to the day when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but working together - for lower costs and higher prices"
This show dramatic importance to the audience who realise that Mr Burling is more interested in his businesses future then his daughter future. Even Mrs Burlings thinks that Arthur Burling should not talk business at a occasion like this ‘I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this’. Shiela also agrees with her mother and finally Mr Burling agrees that he should not talk about business at a happy occasion like this.
After being interrupted by his wife and daughter Mr Burling moves on to the controversy surrounding the eventuality of the outbreak of war. He seems very confident in his belief that there will be no war. This creates dramatic irony because the audience realises that Arthur Burling is wrong because when the play was written World War two had actually just ended.
"Just because the Kaiser makes a speach or two, or a few German officers have too much to drink and begin to talk nonsense, people say that war is inevitable. And to that I say – fiddlesticks”.
Then Mr Burling moves on to mention that the Titanic is an unsinkable ship. A quote to prove this is 'an unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable'. This again contains dramatic irony because the audience know that the Titanic sank on it maiden voyage in April 1st 1912 when it was struck by an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic and Many people lost their lives
Mr Burling predicts that in the 1940s there will be peace and economic prosperity and rapid progress everywhere except for Russia. This creates dramatic irony as the audience know that the 1940s was not a prosperous time because the Second World War was in full swing at the time. Also the unemployment rate in Britain was at its highest point ever and Britain was actually suffering an economic recession.
He believes that "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own". This shows that Mr Burling has a capitalist attitude unlike Priestly who is a socialist and believes that people must help each other to bring about social stability.
The dramatic importance of Arthur Burling’s speech is the fact that Priestley uses examples of mis-judgment such as the Titanic (which was thought to be unsinkable, however it sank) and the first and second world war (which Mr Burling, thought was impossible and was never going to happen) to deliver the moral story of the play and to show the audience that Mr Burling is wrong in his beliefs. The audience actually have the knowledge of hindsight which Mr Burling was denied because of the timing of the play.
The moment the inspector comes into the scene the atmosphere changes dramaticly. The inspector claims that the Burling family are all involved in the suicide of a young girl. However Mr Burling shows how ignorant he really by not accepting responsibility in the major part he played in the events leading up to the girl committing suicide.
The inspector tries to show how Mr Burlings capitalist views can affects other ‘But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and million and million of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’.
I believe that J.B. Priestley is using the inspector to teach the audience and Mr Burling that everything we do affects the lives of others around us and we should keep this in mind when making decisions that might affect the lives of other.
‘And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’. J.B. Preiestly threatens the audience by referring to World War One and World War Two by saying people did not learn their lesson after World War One so were taught it again in World War Two and if the audience don’t learn their lesson this time they will be taught it in another war.
At this point the inspector is partially successful and Mr Burling understands what the Inspector sets out to do. But as soon as Mr Burling finds out that the inspector is not really an inspector he goes back to his old selfish and ignorant ways. This can be seen from the quote by Shiela ‘You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way?’ and Mr Burling replies ‘And you’re not eh?’ This shows that Birling eventually learnt nothing and was ready to continue in his old ways thinking of just himself and his family. But then at the end, just as you think Birling is ready to carry on as usual the phone rings and a real inspector informs Mr Burling that a girl has just died after swallowing some disinfectant and that the inspector will be coming to speak to Mr Burling about the incident.
Conclusion
From the play I can see that J.B. Priestly was a very political writer who had very strong socialist views. His political and socialist views were undoubtedly influenced by what happened to him during World War One these experiences caused him to become a pacifist, which is somebody who strongly believes in world peace.
The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a channel for Priestley's views and criticisms on the social mores of the time. The message of the play would have been particularly effective to the audience of 1946. J.B. Priestley knew that the message of his play would reach the war-weary audience of 1946 more effectively than it would reach the audience in a different period of time. I believe that Priestley is trying to tell the audience that they must learn from the harsh lessons of war and do not repeat the mistakes of the past
