Birling strongly believes that “a man has to make his own way”. He does not consider and does not care about the harm he may cause to other people because of his attitude. He is a 'hard headed business man '
He is a magistrate and former mayor who is looking forward to receiving a knighthood, this shows, that he is full of himself, he has a big EGO.
He is very aware that Gerald's mother is rather against her son's marriage because she believes him to be marrying beneath him socially, this is what, Birling thinks of his employers, and people like Eva Smith.
He is optimistic about the future, yet we know that what he predicts will not become true, things such as war he says, “just because the Kaiser makes a speech or two, or a few German officers,have had too much too drink and begin talking nonsense, you’ll hear some people say that wars inevitable. And to that I say-fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war.” He also says “And I say there isn’t a chance of war”. Then he goes on to talk about ‘The Titanic’ he says, “the titanic, sails next week-forty-six thousand tons- New York in five days-and every luxury-unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”(dramatic irony), JB. Priestly really makes Birling sound stupid in this part of the play.
Birling refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva 's death. He becomes increasing annoyed by the Inspector's questioning and Eric's unsympathetic attitude.
He tries to threaten the Inspector by talking about his friendship with the Chief Constable, but the Inspector is not bothered whether he talks to the Chief Constable, due to reasons only obvious at the end of the play.
The most disturbing part of the play for Birling is the scene in which he learns that his own son is shown to be a thief, a drunkard and is responsible for fathering a child who’s Mother is lower in society than his family.. When he learns of all this he remarks, “You damned fool why didn’t you come to me when you found yourself in this mess”, Eric's reply indicates that Mr Birling was never close to his son (although Mr. Birling thinks this is a load of nonsense) “Because you’re not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he’s in trouble”. This response indicates that things aren't going to improve much after the play ends.
Birling represents a very unattractive sort of person. At the end of the play he grudgingly wishes things were better but even here he still thinks that money is always the answer, “Look inspector – I’d give thousands yes thousands”.
He continues to ignore the shameful things that his family has done. When it appears that the Inspector might be a Fake he is happy to believe that everything is as it was a few hours ago. He copies the Inspector and laughs when he remembers the faces of Eric and Sheila and accuses them of being “the famous younger generation who know it all”. This is an example of pride, coming before a fall, a moment later of course he is panicking as the phone rings again.
Mr Birling represents Priestley's hate towards businessmen who are only interested in making money. He will never alter his ways and it is left to the younger generation to learn from their mistakes.
