Although the Birlings are an upper-class family and lead a very ‘substantial and heavily comfortable’ life, they do not fit the usual stereotype of an upper-class family. Whilst it is usually the father that is at the head of the family, in the case of the Birlings, Mrs Birling takes the lead. This is shown right from the beginning of the play when Mr Birling asks Mrs Birling to thank the cook for their dinner. Mrs Birling ‘reproachfully’ tells Mr Birling that he is ‘not supposed to say such things -’. This shows that Mr Birling was not born into the upper-class, however Mrs Birling was. Priestley’s adverbial choice of stage direction for Mrs Birling shows that she was born into the upper-class and is disapproving of Mr Birling’s mannerisms. The use of a suspensory pause signalled by a dash also gives the audience a chance to reflect on Mr Birling’s social mistake.
The way the characters interact and speak with one another is a clear indication that there is underlying tension. In particular, the relationship between Mr Birling and Eric seems very strained. Eric has a familiarity with alcohol and he ‘takes the decanter and helps himself’ when he re-enters to join Mr Birling and Gerald after dinner. This suggests that Eric has turned to drinking to try and escape, emphasising how the relationship between him and his father has broken down. Throughout the beginning of the play and once the Inspector has arrived, Eric is a dramatic irritant to Mr Birling. When Mr Birling begins to give hi s speech about Gerald and Sheila’s engagement, Eric interrupts – ‘Yes, I know – but still –‘ – followed by Mr Birling responding with ‘Just let me finish, Eric.’ This is a prime example of Mr Birling talking down to Eric, despite the fact that Eric is the voice of reason and is usually expressing the audience’s views. This creates tension between teh two characters.
Mr Birling is a very naive and pompous man who is very overly-confident in his views on things. During his long speech about Gerald and Sheila’s engagement, he talks wildly of how fantastic the Titanic is – ‘the Titanic – she sails next week – forty six thousand eight hundred tons... – and unsinkable’. This shows Priestley’s uses of dramatic irony as the audience would have already known that the Titanic had sunk. This exposes Birling to be very stupid and shows how emphatic he is in his views despite the fact that he is often wrong. Birling is also very much a capitalist whilst Priestley has strong socialist views and he uses this play to portray those views. Just before the Inspector arrives, Birling is critisicing socialist views – ‘you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.’ This clearly shows Birling’s views against socialism. However, it puts across Priestley message, in the form of a metaphor, that if we all work together, like ‘bees in a hive’, we can make something great. The fact that the Inspector arrives when Birling begins disparaging socialism is very significant as is creates a sense of tension and mystery for the audience.
Whilst Eric and Sheila are both from the younger generation, there is clear conflict between the brother and sister from the beginning of the play. At the start of the play, Eric ‘suddenly guffaws’ when Gerald is trying to convince Sheila that the only reason he didn’t talk to her last summer was because he was busy working. The way Eric spontaneously guffaws suggests that he knows something about what Gerald has been up to, but is unable to control himself due to his drinking problem. This shows underlying tension between Eric and Sheila as they obviously do not have a very close relationship if Eric is holding back something quite so secretive. Sheila then goes on to call Eric ‘squiffy’ which shows that she is very childish and the use of slang emphasises her youthfulness.
Gerald plays a key role in showing up the tensions in the family.