Mr. Birling is the centerpiece of this part of the play, with his remarks indicating an egoistic, vain man, who is content upon raising his status amongst the upper class society. Mr. Birling recognizes his self satisfied attitude, and takes it as a compliment as he puts it, he is a “hard-headed man of business.” Smug and sure of himself, he launches into a series of assertions, which Priestley’s 1946 audience would have known only too well to be false. Birling asserts that there will not be another war, yet, two years after this statement the First World War was to begin. Moreover, the 1946 audience would have only just managed to live through the Second World War of 1939 to 1945. Birling also proclaims that the Titanic, which is set to sail next week, is unsinkable, yet the audience knows that the ship sank only a little later in 1912. This dramatic irony would have been more distressing for Priestley’s intended audience because many of them may have known people who died in the disaster. This is the same for his care free attitude directed at the belief of not having a World war, which, as Priestley had intended would be poignant, and very distressing for the audience due to the significant amount of loss, and damage caused by the ignorance of men resembling Mr. Birling.
We are also quickly shown that there is quite a lot of tension between Eric and his father Mr. Birling, and this is from the start. We have been shown clearly how Mr Birling and Eric have little respect for each other as justified by Mr Birling cutting off Eric, and his negligence to what he has to say; “Just let me finish Eric”, this clearly supports the idea of the two having friction. J B Priestley reveals a lot about the family’s behavior and their thoughts and their ignorance, which is justifiable through Mr. Birlings’ speech about the titanic.
Birlings’ political beliefs consists of self-reliance and personal responsibilities, which are capitalist and could also be seen as right winged. He believes in “low wages, high prices,” which shows how dismissive he is of Eva’s strike. Money dominates the way he thinks, which Priestley subtly proposes that his daughters’ engagement to Gerald Croft is a mere financial move to merge the two businesses together. Priestley describes Birling as a opposite view to Priestley’s own, and is represented to such a way that his views contribute to more problems in the political world, and is subtlety persuading the audience to a more socialist view such as Priestley’s own.
Throughout the play Mr. Birling is belittled by his wife Sybril Birling in an imperious, passive manner, and is deemed to be the one in control of the marriage. Birling himself seems to have worked his way up to the middle classes (he is “provincial in his speech,” Priestley tells us in another stage direction, which might be another clue to his background) and, as he explains to Gerald, he seeks to gain a Knighthood, which maybe an attempt to raise his social status.
Gerald’s parents already have their knighthood, and their business is considerably older and more successful than Birling’s. They are presumed to be, alike Mrs. Birling, very keen upon their social status, and are considered to be rather disappointed in Geralds’ choice in partner (as Gerald is seemed to have married into a family lower down than his own) as shown by their absence (they had recently declined the invitation to the dinner, which reinforces the idea of their disapproval of the engagement). The initial lack of interest of the Birlings and people like them towards the fate of Eva Smith, in turn, is part of the overall class structure in England at this time, and Priestley, even this early in the play, draws our attention to the way that Lady Croft looks down on Birling just as he looks down on Eva.
J B Priestley has cleverly revealed so much in such a small amount of words, with a cleverly planned structure, alongside his subtle hints foreshadowing what is to come in the scenes to come. At the end of act one, we are at a point of tension where we can feel there are major disagreements and friction between the family members. The warm atmosphere that had been created in the beginning has been destroyed, and replaced by a layer of anxiety. J B Priestley has successfully exploited their hidden mistrust for each other, and he makes them use this upon each other.
