Mr Birling Shows very strong opinions about technical and political developments, but he is very ignorant and misguided. He mentions the Titanic and says, ‘she sails next week…..New York in five days, and every luxury, and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.’ With the play set in 1912, the Titanic sank only the following week, with the loss of 1500 lives. Another topic of discussion is the First World War, and Birling claims, “you’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war.” Only two years later, the First World War broke out, and it was the Germans who were responsible. Birling also forecasts prosperity for the coming decades, yet another mistake because the Great Depression meant poverty for many people worldwide. Even though Birling’s predictions for the future may be wrong, they still make him a real person because only real people can analyse events and have opinions.
As mentioned before, to Birling, wealth and social standing are important. He says,
…a man has to make his own way, has to look after himself and his family too, of course…but the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up like bees in a hive, community and all that nonsense.
this is one of Mr Birling’s more social attitudes, this view is in total contrast to the Inspector’s and shows allot about Mr Birling’s character, about how he feels and that he wouldn’t help anyone from his own nest as it were.
Mr Birling is also affected by real things for example, when Mr Birling found out about all of the stuff that Eric has been up to after telling him off he started to worry about if the press would find out about it, and if it would affect his chance in getting a Knighthood and if it would change peoples opinions about him as he used to be a Lord mayor, “I was Lord mayor here two years ago when Royalty visited us”, if the press found out about Eric’s doings then Mr Birling would be socially humiliated, “most of this is bound to come out .There’ll be a public scandal….I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next honours list!”, this shows us that Mr Birling is affected in the same way as someone as well known as him would have been in the same circumstances, so he represents real people who are just like him as he reacts in the same way and thinks of all the possibilities in this situation.
Priestley shows us more of his personality and more of Mr Birling’s feelings, as when the Inspector almost challenges him he starts to get annoyed, as when the Inspector says, “You started it. All she wanted was twenty five shillings a week instead of twenty two and sixpence!” Mr Birling then reacts and seems very annoyed as he says, “Look, Inspector I’d give thousands, yes, thousands!”, but the Inspector then says, “you’re offering the money at the wrong time. Mr Birling”, this shows us that Mr Birling isn’t used to being confronted by someone else, which is exactly how someone of Mr Birlings stature would react, so again Mr Birling is reacting as he should and is therefore well representative of real people.
Another aspect that Priestley has considered is if a person is to represent real people then not only does he have to act and talk like them but he has to go to ordinary events, like golf for example, this would be well suited to Mr Birlings character as most “higher class” men used to play golf to relax in the era of the play, Mr Birling mentions that he and Gerald should play golf sometime nearer the beginning of the play, this shows that a lot of thought has gone into Priestley’s characters and research, as even a word can change the perspective of a character and Priestley puts this to great use.
Mr Birlings views on society are that if you are wealthier than somebody else, then you are better than that person, for example if you were a working class human being, anyone in a higher class than you (like Mr Birling) would treat you like an animal and wouldn’t even dare socialising with you.
An actor playing the part of Mr Birling would only have to read the play once or twice and almost fully understand his character, because Priestley has incorporated so much information on Mr Birling in what he says and into how he acts, I personally believe that Mr Birling represents political stances rather than social attitudes, due to his views on working and higher classes and his beliefs on how a man should look after himself and his own.
The following is a detailed examination of The Inspector and everything which makes him realistic and unrealistic. The Inspector is a rather ghostly and mysterious character, but he is also very powerful and takes control of the situation well and he also points the line of questioning to new agendas when the other characters get to carried away and start a speech, “You heard what I said before, one line of enquiry at a time”, as the Inspector doesn’t have long for the guilty party to admit to what they have done, and to start realising what they have to do in the future.
The Inspector is the voice of social conscience; he often reminds the family of their need to look after others less fortunate than themselves, and I also personally think that the Inspector is used by Priestley to examine the theme of responsibility, as he points out that social responsibilities always become greater as privileges increase, which is in total contrast to Mr Birlings views.
The Inspector also acts like a father confessor, as he is always encouraging the Birlings to acknowledge their guilt for Eva Smiths death, for example, “Your partly to blame Sheila, just as your father is.”, in this line along with most of the Inspectors he never forgives nor punishes, as almost all the characters are partly to blame for Eva’s committing suicide, because of this no one person is to blame.
The Inspector also acts as a sort of story teller linking the separate incidents together into one coherent story; to do this the Inspector often supplies the characters dates, places or even photo’s, “I found a photograph of Eva Smith today in her lodgings. Perhaps you’d remember her from that.” by doing this the story moves along more swiftly, but just makes the Inspector more mysterious and unrealistic,
The Inspector plays the traditional role of a police Inspector, in a “whodunit” story. He slowly gathers information uncovering the truth through careful questioning, he is a realistic police Inspector but not enough information on what he is or what he does is given to you, which is most probably how the Inspector was meant to be perceived as this makes you wonder what he really was when you finish the play.
After you’ve finished reading or watching The Inspector calls you begin to realise that the Inspector was just sent to warn the Birlings and not there to arrest them or to make notes to bring back to the police station, you gather this as you recite what has happened and then read or watch the ending, this also means that he was also not meant to be realistic but just be an authority figure, you realise this as a real inspector says he is on his way at the end when Mr Birling says, “That was the police……..and a police inspector is on his way here to ask some questions”
In conclusion to this essay is that the character Mr Birling is a very strong character and has very strong political stances, and doesn’t let anyone change his beliefs, but this also means that he is also very stubborn, he shows many different emotions, gets annoyed and goes to and talks about real life events, such as world war one, the titanic and he plays golf which is a real sport as well.
Mr Birling represents real people well, and wouldn’t stand out in the time the play was set in if he was placed in a crowd, Priestley has given the reader allot of information on Mr Birlings personality and how he reacts to certain questions, also the reader knows that Mr Birling does not like being challenged, we know this as the Inspector challenges him during the play and Mr Birling doesn’t react to happily to it. Mr Birling’s character has been given a family, which makes him that little bit more realistic as most men the age of Mr Birling would’ve had a family when the play was set.
I conclude by saying that Mr Birling represents real people in the plays era reasonably well, his attributes are all correct and inline with the era that the play was set in including little details like, what he would’ve been smoking, and what he would’ve been drinking, and I think that Mr Birling can be considered as a representative of a real person.
The Inspector though is in total contrast to Mr Birling and is very mysterious and even ghostly at times, he hasn’t really got much of a background, but strongly represents social attitudes, he is also extremely menacing to a point that he makes the other characters in the play frightened of him, he is very to the point and deals with one line of enquiry at a time to avoid confusion, he is also very prepared and organized as of what to say and do as he hasn’t got much time to get the Birlings to admit to their involvement in causing Eva Smith to commit suicide. The Inspector never forgives nor punishes but just tries to warn the Birlings of their doings so that they can say the right things to the real Inspector, and to know what they have all done.
I believe that Priestley has meant to not go into detail on the Inspectors feelings and beliefs, as this almost adds a sought of mystery around the Inspectors character, it mainly gets you thinking towards the end, is the Inspector real or are the Birlings just hallucinating, or could the Inspector be a ghost or a Goole which his last name could represent (Inspector Goole). But the question was can the Inspector represent a real person, to a certain extent yes, but not as fully as Mr Birlings character can, so in my opinion he is not a very good representative of real people in the era of the play.
