Mr Birlings first priority is to make money.

Mr Birling welcomes Gerald to the family, as Gerald is a business link between his firm and that of Gerald Croft father, Crofts Limited, who happens to be a rival. "Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business...look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but working together..." You see the element of money appearing here again as Mr Birling first priority. You also see that he is a concise man who gets straight to the point. He is hoping that this will make the Croft's feelings about his family softer.

Mr Birling is aware that Gerald Croft's mother is rather against her son's marriage to Sheila Birling as she feels he could have done better for himself socially. "...that's alright. Don't blame her...it's only natural..." This is said to try to make Gerald less embarrassed about his mother's opinions of the Birlings.

Mr Birling he tells Gerald that he was the former mayor and that he is on the magistrate. He tells Gerald that he might be receiving a knighthood. "...there's a fair chance that I might find my way onto the next Honours list. Just a knighthood, of course." He only tells Gerald this as he hopes that when Gerald lets his parents know, they'll be deeply impressed, and not so against Sheila's marriage to their son.

Mr Birling has an honest approach to life. You see this when he is telling the Inspector that he wouldn't listen to Eva Smith's demand for a higher wage. "...I refused of course..." He believes that he did what any businessman would do in that situation, fire the cause of the problem.

Mr Birling refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva's death. He becomes increasingly annoyed by the Inspector's questioning and by Eric's unsympathetic attitude towards his decision. "...I don't see that it's any concern of yours how I choose to run my business. Is it now? It might be, you know. I don't like that tone." This shows that the tension is growing rapidly in the room. Mr Birling is becoming quite aggressive. This might be caused by the fact that he is slightly frightened by the Inspector.

Mr Birling tries to threaten the Inspector by talking about his relationship with the chief constable. "...I ought to warn you that he's an old friend of mine...we play golf together...I don't play golf." This shows that the Inspector doesn't take a lot of notice of this threat. He is not at all frightened and carries on interrogating Mr Birling.

The most dramatic and disturbing part of the play is when Mr Birling finds out that his son, Eric, is shown to be a thief, is under the influence of alcohol and is responsible for fathering a child. "You damned fool - why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess." This shows that Mr Birling is quite ashamed of his son. Eric's reply to this quote shows that Mr Birling was never too close to his son. "Because you're not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he's in trouble." I think that even when the play is over, this reply indicate that things between Mr Birling and Eric aren't going to improve.

Mr Birling's character represents a very unpleasant person in the play. I think that the audience would find his morals and priorities are all wrong and that he likes to `blow his own trumpet` At the end of the play, he wishes that everything was better, but even here he thinks in terms of money. "Look Inspector, I'd give thousands..." This is showing that his first priority is still money and if he could fix all his problems with money, he would.

He is oblivious to all the disgraceful things that his family have done. When it appears that the Inspector might be a fraud, he is happy to believe that everything is as it was a few hours ago before the Inspector came. "...it matters a devil of a lot. Makes all the difference." He mimics the Inspectors and accuses Sheila and Eric of being "the famous young generation who know it all." This is an example of pride before a fall, as a moment later, when the phone rings, he is panicking.

Mr Birling represents the author's hatred towards businessmen who think about nothing but making money. He will never alter his ways and it is left to the younger generation to learn form their mistakes.

Mr Birling is very optimistic about the future, yet we know that what he predicts will no come true. "What about war?...The world's developing so fats it'll make war impossible...the Titanic...unsinkable..." This is a fantastic use of dramatic irony. We know a lot more about what is going to happen than the characters. This inject an aspect of humour into the play.