Priestley was a socialist at the time when the middle-class believed socialism was the only way forward for Britain; they also felt that they had waved good-bye to the terrible, old way of living under capitalism.
In this play Priestley constructs a microcosm of the world to show us how the horrid days of Capitalism were, and that we shouldn’t return to the old days. To accomplish this Priestley sets the play in 1912, which incidentally was just before the First World War. The characters in this play hold the vital key to this play’s purpose of being written because as we know, readers are always inquisitive into knowing the thing which inspired writers to write their book. Each of the characters hold a very important point that Priestly tries convey and to do this he uses them as a literary devices which he can share his political views and notions.
The main family in this play are called the Birling’s, they on their own hold the views of Priestley’s conjuring mind. Mr Birling, head of the family, is used as a talking head for Priestley. He represents the uncaring, exploitive nature of the ruling class. Mr Birling is the first member of the family which the Inspector confronts with the responsibility of the young woman’s death (Eva Smith). On page 14 Birling says:
“Oh well – put like that… still, I can’t accept my responsibility… if we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody… that would be awkward, wouldn’t it?”
Birling represents the bases of Capitalism and the free market. He puts the emphasis on individual success rather than the collective good which is taught in Socialism; in other words he represents unbridled capitalism. This is one of the many points that Priestley tries to convey through Mr Birling. If we look into Birling’s speech into more detail we can see that he uses a question at the end of his sentence. This question is almost directly targets the audience; the idea of it being “awkward” to ‘change’ the way of everyday living to something different doesn’t seem to please Mr Birling. This is an extended metaphor, referring to changing the old way of living (capitalism) to the new and improved way (socialism). He seems to also represent the high handed political giants who didn’t want change in the society by bringing in a new government. Birling also highlights the main theme of the play ‘responsibility’. Here he is questioning the notion of responsibility.
On pages 6-7 Birling is portrayed as a pompous, arrogant, opinionated buffoon:
“Just let me finish, Eric… the Titanic… unsinkable”
This reference to Titanic is very important because we know that only the rich, upper class people had a much bigger chance of survival when it sank in comparison to the working class. As indeed is the case in life itself. From this speech we also see Birling being acting on behalf of all the optimists in Britain who thought that there would be no more wars. He states that “by that time... there would be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere…” from this we can see that Birling is an optimist and is confident that there would be no more wars in the future. Obviously the audience is aware that there is of course going to be a war. This makes us doubt Birling’s judgement because if he is wrong about the war; how much more is he wrong about? This means that he is hopelessly out of touch with world events.
From what we know from the text Birling exploits Eva Smith, the young lady that dies, because he merely sees the working class as commodities. Mr Birling is very arrogant and snobbish when it comes to his business and we can see this by looking at page 4: “…though Crofts are both older and bigger than us … perhaps one day we could work together.”
This is a clear example of Birling being ostentatious; however this could be a speech that can make the audience think, because Birling is supposed to be a figure who is self-righteous and pretentious however when he is looking to merge with another company we are left thinking why he would want to do such a thing. But the real reason is to gain even more money for himself at the end of the day. Therefore we can see that Birling is a selfish man.
The Inspector himself is one of the main mediums used by Priestley to express his views of society. In fact the Inspector is used as a literary expedient that is used to forward the plot, almost like a catalyst; he is also used as the interlocutor who unfolds the play. On page 41 the inspector says: “Public men, Mr Birling have responsibilities as well as privileges.”
Here the Inspector acts as the voice of Priestley himself as the socialist, left-winged intellectual. The Inspector can be described as enigmatic, determined and forceful. It is these characteristics, which ensure his control over the events of the play. His mysterious demeanor means that the family is not prepared for the way in which he speaks to them and behaves towards them. He is determined in his search for the full story and forceful in making each character face up to their guilt and ‘responsibility’, the main theme of the play.
On page 56 the Inspector pretty much gives us the whole meaning of the book in a nutshell he mentions “One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions of Eva Smith’s and John Smiths still left with us… we don’t live alone. We are all members of one body… we are responsible for each other.”
This alone can sum up the whole book. We learn about everything that Priestley sees in the society the notion of responsibility, and collectiveness; both ideas are lacked by Mr. Birling and are taught to us.
Mrs. Birling another important character (Mr. Birling’s wife), is a character who maintains the status quo. From page 3 we can see an excellent example of how she doses this: “Shelia…when you’re married you’ll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business... you’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.” From this speech towards Sheila we see that she knows her position in the family and she expects her daughter to know hers as well. This goes to the rest of society, the notion of knowing where you are placed in society.
On page 31 Mrs. Birling says “I’m talking now if you don’t mind… You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago”, here Priestley questions the abuse of power of the ruling class - Mrs. Birling is used to being not questioned. Therefore this represents the time when aristocrats were obeyed by the lower class just because of their position. It is almost as if Mrs. Birling seeks to remind the inspector of his ‘place’ by reminding him that her husband was ‘Lord Mayor’.
From this play we also see another side of Mrs. Birling as she dehumisises those at the bottom of the social hierarchy i.e. Eva Smith. By doing this it makes it easier for her to exploit them. For example on page 47 Mrs. Birling describes to the Inspector how she exploited her. “As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!” from this we can clearly see Mrs. Birling’s uncaring, exploitive nature of the ruling class which she represents.
In this essay I have covered how Priestley creates a perfect model of the world as it previously was in the bad, old days of Capitalism; when bosses where free to exploit the working class and other social classes. This play is nothing but a warning that we should never return to the days of Capitalism – this is Priestley’s whole reason for writing this magnificent play.