Discuss Priestley's depiction of the Birling household and Gerald Croft, prior to the arrival of Inspector Goole.

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10/12/03 William Murray

English Literature Coursework

Discuss Priestley’s depiction of the Birling household and Gerald Croft, prior to the arrival of Inspector Goole

        In this submission I hope to fully discuss Priestley’s depiction of the Birling household and Gerald Croft, prior to the arrival of Inspector Goole. The play is set in the fictional town of Brumley, an industrial town in the North Midlands. It is evening in the town, in the spring of 1912. At the moment the play starts the characters are celebrating the engagement between Gerald Croft and the Birling family’s only daughter Sheila. They are all very pleased with themselves and are enjoying the occasion.

        The house is described as being a fairly large suburban house. The furniture in the rooms is described as being, “good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike.” As you will see later Mr. Birling always wants to make the impression that he is better than his guest, or at least is his guest’s social equal. The furniture in the house may be another one of Birling’s attempt to make the guest feel this way. He doesn’t want to make the guest feel comfortable in his home he wants to make them feel small and insignificant in comparison to himself. Mrs. Birling is, herself, a person that is obsessed by social class, she may have selected the furniture herself as a way of showing off their status and again making their guests feel as if they aren’t as “good” as the Birling family. Birling as you will see later is the stereotypical capitalist of the time. He will do anything to make himself look and feel as if he is better than his guest. The furniture represents the Birling families longing for status.

 In the early 1900s social status was virtually everything. This was because socialism dominated the whole of the United Kingdom. The vertical social ladder of status was what controlled who was a “somebody” and who was a “nobody”. The description of the house is a good example of how unsocial many families were during this time because all anybody, who was “anybody”, wanted was to show how wealthy they were, and to climb the social ladder.  

        I shall now talk about the characters themselves.

        Mr. Birling is described as being, “a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.” He is a prosperous factory owner and is “a self made man”. He follows all the capitalist traits of the time and works heavily under the capitalist business mentality, “build them cheap, sell them expensive”. Birling is a “social climber” it would seem that he married his wife, Sybil on the grounds that she was his social superior and by having her by his side he himself would look more important. He hoped that by marrying Sybil he would climb higher up the social ladder. It would seem that he only thinks about himself and this is proven in the lecture he gives to Eric and Gerald once the women have left. He says,

“But what so many of you don’t seem to understand now, when things are so much easier, is that a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course.” As you can see Birling places himself before his family, his first priority is to make money. Mr. Birling is a pompous, narrow minded, patronizing man. The fact that he was a former magistrate and mayor and that he believes he is going to get a knighthood only adds to these facts. He, like his wife. Is obsessed with social class. While Gerald Croft is in his presence he will do anything to make himself seem on equal social terms with his high-class parents. His mentioning of his possibilities of a knighthood to Gerald before telling his own son is a good example of this. It seems Birling is very aware that Gerald’s mother may be rather against her sons marriage with Sheila because she believes that he is marrying below himself socially. This would be why Birling wants Gerald to tell his mother that he could be receiving a knighthood before anyone else is told. I believe that he is making sure that this marriage goes ahead so that he again will climb the social ladder.

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        Birling himself as I am sure I have hinted is not a man who acts like his social class status would suggest. Very early on in the play this becomes apparent,

“Well, well – this is very nice. Very nice. Good dinner too Sybil. Tell cook for me.” After this statement is made it becomes apparent that this is a blunder in manners by Birling. It is very rude for a host to state how he feels the meal was before his guest does. Gerald and Mrs. Birling pick up this faux pas very quickly. Gerald politely agrees while Mrs. Birling rebukes ...

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