Mr Birling

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  • Mr Birling
    • Themes
      • Relationships
      • Responsibility
        • "I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?
        • "We're respectable citizens, not criminals"
      • Power
        • He uses his power to control people to get what he wants from them and to serve his own purposes like ascending into the upper class.
      • Class
      • Gender
        • "It's bound to be unpleasant and disturbing"
        • "Clothes mean something quite different to a woman"
        • "Nothing to do with you Sheila. Run along"
    • Character
      • Arrogant
        • "Hard-headed, practical man of business"
      • Misogynistic
      • Selfish
        • "Who here will suffer more than I will?"
      • Pretentious
        • "I was Lord Mayor here two years ago"
      • Capitalist
        • "A man has to make his own way"
        • "Lower costs and higher prices"
        • "If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth"
      • Sycophantic
        • "Your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me"
        • "You're just the kind of son-in-law I always wanted"
      • Ignorant
        • "We've passed the worst of it"
        • "You've a lot to learn yet"
        • "It turned out unfortunately, that's all"
    • Symbols
      • Ring
        • Symbol of patriarchy
          • "You'd better ask Gerald for that ring you gave back to him, hadn't you?"
            • Birling is very pleased his daughter is marrying someone whose family is higher up in society than he is and wants himself and his family to continue to rise up socially.
            • Tries everything to save Sheila's marriage to Gerald
          • "Now Sheila, I'm not defending him but..."
      • Titanic
        • "Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
          • Priestley shows Birling is wrong about everything, including his optimism.
      • War
        • "Germans don't want war"
          • Ignorant, naïve, assertive, narrowminded and disregarding the threat of war.
        • "There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere"
    • Context
      • In Edwardian Britain, an era steeped in superficiality and hypocrisy, social status was measured by material wealth and a sense of moral responsibility was lost to the façade of materialism and etiquette.
      • Many of the wealthy and prosperous were capitalists. This meant that people were driven by profit and the need to make money.
    • Priestley's message
      • Priestly used the character of Mr Birling to represent how the upper class frowned upon people below them in society.
        • He should have remembered where he came from and use his knowledge to make the world a better place but he is ashamed of his background. He is a traitor to his original class.
    • Interests
      • Reputation, status, profit
        • "There'll be a public scandal"
        • "I've got to cover this up as soon as I can"
  • Gender
    • "It's bound to be unpleasant and disturbing"
    • "Clothes mean something quite different to a woman"
    • "Nothing to do with you Sheila. Run along"

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