“You’re just the kind of son-in-law that I have always wanted. Your father and I have been rivals in the business for some time now- though Crofts Limited is both older and bigger than Birling and Company- and now you’ve brought us together, and perhaps we may look at the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together- for lower costs and higher prices.”
Here he is showing how money possessed he actually is. He has a view of looking after yourself and your own family. I feel that this is a very egotistic, capitalist attitude.
Birling on Eva Smith:
She is the reason that the Inspector came to visit the Birling. Every single person in the family has some kind of connection with this girl. Birling sacked her because the fact that she asked for a pay rise. This greatly annoyed Birling and he saw this as a threat. She was always out to get a bit of extra money, so this made Birling see her as a trouble maker. Birling refused to listen to what Eva had to say.
“This girl Eva Smith, was one of them, had a lot to say- far too much – so she had to go.”
At this point the inspector has come in and started asking questions. Birling clearly refused to hear what Eva had to say. This shows his attitude again that profit is more important than people. He felt that Eva was just a little part of the factory and didn’t really mean much. This is shown in a small dispute that he has with his son Eric in front of the inspector.
“Birling- We were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else. It’s a free country, I told them.
Eric- It isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else.
Inspector- Quite so.
Birling- (To Eric) Look- just keep out of this. You hadn’t even started in the works when this happened. So they went on strike. That didn’t last long, of course.”
Here he is obviously angry. He is angry that his son is not helping him in any way at all. As he has cut in a couple of times before as well; he hasn’t necessarily helped his father, when he has cut in.
Birling On the Inspector:
Birling does not change and does not care about what the inspector is actually saying. All he can think about is the affect that it will have on his reputation and knighthood. He tries in a sense bully the inspector and in another sense impress the inspector by whom he knows in the force.
“Birling- You’re new, aren’t you?
Inspector- Yes, sir. Only recently transferred.
Birling- I thought you must be. I was a alderman for years- and Lord Mayor two years ago- and I’m still on the Bench- so I know the Brumley Police Officers pretty well- and I thought I’d never seen you before.
Inspector- Quite so.
He is talking as if to say, don’t try to interrogate me because I do know people that are in the force as well. He is boasting, trying to say that I a full f high status. I think here that he is trying to show that he likes o be in control of the situation. All this effort that Mr Birling put in to impress the inspector had no affect what-so-ever. Mr Birling doesn’t really know how to react to the questions that the inspector throws at him. He is no way going to take responsibility for his action. He still feels that it is not his fault that Eva Smith has died. He is always trying to find a way out.
“Still I can’t accept responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t’ it?”
He is after all the heartache and the chain events that were true; he was still hoping that this was all a trick. So he goes as far as phoning the infirmary. When he does he is pleased to hear that no girls are actually dead. Still after everything that has happened, all the things that he has found out about his family, he has not learned anything and he has certainly not changed his attitude to the others. He is as he always has been; he is self- centred and selfish.
Sheila:
She is the daughter of Birling. She is in her late 20’s and she is engaged to Gerald Croft. At first when you read the play she’s of the more childish character. She is quite self- centred. Thrroughout the dinner party she is interested in her engagement ring rather than anything else.
“Oh- it’s wonderful! Look- Mummy- isn’t it a beauty? Oh- darling- (She kisses Gerald hastily.)
Throughout the next half hour she is sitting their admiring her ring. As you can see she has an affected way of speaking. This is because of the way she refers to her mother as mummy. I believe that Sheila has undeniably more spirit in her than her mother and father. For example at one point in the play she calls Eric “an ass”.
This part of her shows that maybe she isn’t just a stereotype like her father. She does have some character to her.
Yet I have noticed a part of her that does seem to be egotistic; especially when it comes to her marriage. When you first read the play, it looks a t if she is really in love Gerald and then when you read on it looks as if she is just marrying him for his status.
“She looks at him in triumph. He looks crushed. The door slowly opens and the inspector appears, looking steadily at and searchingly at them.”
Here in the small scene with the both of them together, there is nothing there really crying out that she really loved him. Normally, if you find out about your fiancée having an affair than you wouldn’t really just laugh it of. You would normally at this type of time you’d be going crazy and upset, she didn’t really act to upset that the man that she was meant to be with for the rest of her life had been sleeping with another woman. Not any woman, the woman that she had sacked for smiling at another man, at a time when she felt jealous of this woman.
Sheila on Eva Smith
When Sheila finds out about Eva she is really the only one that has been affected by it all. She is the only one that clicks in straight away about how bad the situation actually is. She is the only character that is extremely upset, she is also very sympathetic. She immediately takes responsibility.
“I’ve told my father- he didn’t seem to think it amounted to much -but I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse. Did it make much difference to her?”
Unlike anybody else in her family she wants to know what actually happened to Eva Smith. She sounds concerned. She actually sees Eva as a human being rather than just an omen that has ruined their evening; as everybody else does.
“Sheila- I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near that place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them”
another quote
“I’d gone in to try something on. It was an idea of my own- mother had been against it, and so had the assistant- but I insisted. As soon as I tried it on, I knew they’d been right. It just didn’t suit me at all. I looked silly in the thing. Well, this girl had brought the dress from the workroom, and when the assistant- Miss Francis- had asked her something about it, this girl, to show what she meant, had held the dress up, as if she was wearing it. And it suited her.
I purposely put the two quotes together; I have done this because they are both about Sheila’s connection with the girl. The only reason Sheila got her fire as you can see because she was jealous. From the quote you can see she used the power of her status to get the girl fired. It was by the way that she said I will persuade my mother to close their account. I think that the company didn’t want to lose such a pressure customer. To think about it, it was all over a dress that looked better on Eva than it did on Sheila. It is pathetic if you think about it. I think that Sheila realises that it is stupid. As later in the play she looks to her fiancé Gerald and asks him for a response.
Inspector on Sheila
The inspector has a major affect on Sheila; I think that she’s the only person that it has an affect on. Now she is truly sorry and recognises that she should have thought about her actions. Evan at the end, when she finds out that the hole thin has been a hoax; she still thinks that their actions should be considered.
“Sheila- You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go in the same old way.
Birling-(amused) and you’re not?
Sheila- No, because I remember what he said, how he looked, and what he made feel. Fire, blood and anguish. And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any more of it.”
Here you can see after everything that’s happened they still didn’t learn. I think that Sheila is trying to think of others rather than herself. The others don’t seem to understand. As you can see in the quote, they feel that as the inspector has gone and that it was a hoax that it is all over. They don’t seem to learn anything. She feels that everything that has happened can’t be ignored, as the girl is not dead. She feels that they should do as the inspector says and should think that they are lucky that their actions had not lead to tragic consequences.
I think in a certain way that Priestly has brought his own view point out in Sheila’ character. Sheila has more of a socialist’s viewpoint. Priestley’s own viewpoint was that the young need to be protected. At the end of the day Sheila comes out the most mature. She also has put her engagement on the hold.
If you remember at the start I told you how she was calling her mom and dad, mummy etc. at the end she changes that to more of a socialist attitude and starts to call them mother and father. She is also their criticising their attitudes.
So to round of the story has been about a family that feel because of their status are aloud to be a bit above other people. They feel that people that are below do not mean anything as long as they themselves are alright. They hold quite an interrogating, selfish attitude. After a dreadful experience that comes at an irregular time. A death of a young girl that involves the whole family seems to move the young people of the family; yet the people that are meant to be the more mature ones come out to be, at the end of the day, to be immature. Yet deep down it will always be a life moving experience for them all. Hopefully, if not all, definitely some. So, I guess that this story shows that status isn’t everything at the end of the day. What you are isn’t more important than whom you are; because at the end of the day, we are all born human beings and we will die human beings.
By Mandeep Brar- 11AZ
