Exemplar Essay: Arthur Birling

How does Priestley present Arthur Birling?

[30 marks]

4 SPAG

Early in the play, Priestley presents Arthur Birling as selfish. During Birling’s speech about how he runs his factory, Priestley has Birling state ‘a man has to mind his own business, look after himself and his own’. In other words, Birling is saying that he must only use his money to help himself and his own family. Priestley’s use of the words ‘his’ and ‘himself’ reveal how selfish Arthur Birling is. It is clear that he is not interested in taking care of his workers, which is not what you’d expect from someone in Birling’s important position. Priestley uses Birling to criticise selfish upper class businessmen in 1912, who did not do enough to help the working class people who worked for them.

As the play continues, Priestley presents Arthur Birling as irresponsible. When the inspector questions Birling, the audience learns that he ‘refused of course’ when Eva Smith asked for a small pay rise. Priestley’s use of the word ‘refused’ demonstrates that Birling didn’t even carefully consider giving the pay rise, which reveals how irresponsible he is. As a factory owner, he should have been taking responsibility for his workers but, instead, he was only interested in looking after himself. He was too worried that a small pay rise would eat into his profits, so he didn’t allow it. When the inspector tries to make Birling feel guilty that his actions contributed to Eva Smith’s death, Birling says ‘I can’t accept any responsibility’. In other words, Birling is stating that he doesn’t believe his actions led to Eva Smith’s death. It is clear from Birling’s presentation that Priestley wishes to criticise upper class people for not taking enough responsibility for working class people. He wants to convince his 1945 audience to take more responsibility and build a fairer society for everyone.

Later in the play, Priestley presents Arthur Birling as unwilling to learn. Priestley has Arthur Birling say to the inspector ‘I’d give thousands’. It is clear from these words that Birling is trying to pay the inspector to keep quiet about his involvement with Eva Smith because he wants to protect his reputation. Even though Birling has realised that his actions helped kill Eva Smith, he is still only thinking about himself, which indicates that he hasn’t learned at all. Priestley contrasts Arthur with his daughter Sheila, who says ‘I started it’, which demonstrates that she takes full responsibility for her actions. Unlike Arthur, Sheila recognises that her actions helped trigger the chain of events that led to Eva Smith’s death. Priestley does this in order to show the difference between younger and older characters. Whereas the older characters are unwilling to learn, the younger characters learn and mature throughout the play. Perhaps he aimed to show his 1945 audience that it was up to the younger generation to change society because they were more willing to learn from their mistakes.

In ‘An Inspector Calls’ Priestley presents Arthur Birling as selfish and stubborn. Through Arthur Birling’s character, Priestley not only challenges the capitalist viewpoint that dominates society but also criticises the irresponsibility of the wealthy, older generation.

Before the inspector arrives, Priestley portrays Arthur Birling as a selfish and foolish man to challenge his capitalist view. Just before the inspector enters, Priestley has Arthur Birling confidently deliver a speech to Eric and Gerald about his views on society. In this speech, Priestley has Arthur confidently declare that the Titanic is ‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’. Through the repetition of the words ‘unsinkable’, Priestley suggests that Arthur Birling is extremely confident in the new streamliner. By using dramatic irony, Priestley is able to immediately show the audience that Arthur Birling’s views are foolish and arrogant because they would have known that the Titanic did sink. Perhaps Priestley wanted to instantly convey that Birling is foolish and wrong so the audience learns not to trust his views from the beginning. After Birling wrongly states that the Titanic will not sink, he boasts that a ‘man has to mind his own business, look after himself and his own’. As an arrogant businessman, Arthur believes that a man should work hard to be successful in life and has no interest in helping his workers or the wider community. Priestley’s use of the pronouns ‘himself’ and ‘his’ indicates that Birling is only interested in himself and supports the capitalist view that a man should only care about himself. By structuring Birling’s speech in this order, Priestley has already revealed to the audience Birling is wrong so that they do not trust the capitalist views he proudly shares with Gerald and Eric. Additionally, Priestley has the inspector enter at this moment to demonstrate that Arthur’s views are foolish and deserve to be interrupted.

During the inspector’s questioning, Priestley presents Arthur Birling as irresponsible to criticise the behaviour of wealthy businessmen. Upon being questioned by the inspector, Arthur selfishly admits that he ‘refused’ to give his workers higher wages ‘of course’. Rather than choosing to be a responsible employer and giving his workers a rise that he could easily afford, Arthur Birling proudly refuses to give his workers any more money. Priestley uses the words ‘of course’ to demonstrate that Birling believes he was right in refusing his workers any more money and that it was the obvious decision to make. By suggesting that Birling thinks this was obvious, Priestley implies many wealthy businessmen adopted the selfish model of paying their workers a minimum amount of money so that they could benefit from a higher profit. Not only does Birling not fulfill his duty of looking after his workers, he also refuses to admit that he played a role in Eva Smith’s death. As the inspector continues to interrogate Birling, Arthur Birling admits that he ‘cannot take any responsibility’ for Eva’s death. Despite knowing that by firing Eva he could have contributed to her death, he chooses not to acknowledge this. Priestley’s use of the word ‘any’ could be used to imply that Birling is unwilling to take even a small part of responsibility in her death which shows he is unsympathetic of the difficulties faced by the working class. Not only does Priestley use Birling to criticise the wealthy businessmen who did not take responsibility for their workers, he also criticises the way in which the older generation were too stubborn to learn from their mistakes. Perhaps Priestley wanted to encourage his audience to see the consequences of selfish behaviour in order to encourage them to take more responsibility.

As the inspector prepares to leave, Priestley demonstrates that Arthur Birling is unwilling to learn in order to challenge the stubborn nature of the older generation. Just before the inspector leaves, Arthur Birling states that he would give ‘thousands’ in order to make the situation with Eva Smith disappear. Not only does Priestley reveal here that Birling is wealthy enough to pay his workers more money, he also insinuates that Birling only uses his money for selfish means. Rather than feeling guilty about his treatment of Eva Smith, Birling offers the ‘thousands’ in order to protect his own reputation, showing that he has learnt nothing from the inspector. Priestley makes clear to the audience that Birling only wants the situation with Eva Smith to go away so that he can maintain his reputation and still be in the running for a knighthood. A knighthood is awarded for achievements and commitments to your country so by having Arthur Birling in the running for a knighthood, Priestley could be suggesting that Arthur Birling is hypocritical. Birling is willing to accept his knighthood and judge other people based on their moral and responsible behaviour but is unwilling to accept his responsibility in Eva’s death. Priestley might also be criticising society for being hypocritical because selfish, wealthy men like Arthur Birling are celebrated while moral working class people are often ignored and mistreated. As people in England were beginning to notice, and campaign against, the fact that society was unfair, perhaps this would have given Priestley’s audience even more motivation to fight back against the inequality in society.

Overall, through the character of Arthur Birling, Priestley encourages his audience to move away from capitalism and towards socialism. Priestley’s portrayal of Arthur as irresponsible and selfish highlights the foolish and destructive nature of capitalism and puts forward the need for a more equal society where people are responsible for each other.