The play starts in “The Dinning Room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. ” This shows how the Birlings live in luxury. The family is well off and appear to have a nice life since they live in a large suburban house. Mr Birling is very much stereotypical businessman and never strays from his main aim of making profit. Even with something as splendid as his daughter getting married he cannot resist to say what this marriage can bring him in terms of profit.
“Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now – though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and Company – and now you’ve brought us together, and perhaps we can look forward to time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but working together – for lower costs and higher prices. ” This is a representation of most upper-class people. These upper class people are out to make money and disregard everything else.
Using this stereotype makes it easier for the audience to relate to the characters Gerald gives a ring to Sheila at this point and her mood changes she shows delight as she looks at the ring, this shows how her being upper class makes her value highly an object such as a ring, this is very materialistic. Gerald himself is not using this ring as a sign of love he is using it to cover up his wrong doings although Sheila does not know yet it is more to cover up his guilt from his affair with the girl – Eva Smith.
Priestly uses all this to show how the ‘Social Superior’ people of that era attach more value to objects than they do to human qualities such as love. This shows that the poor are more caring people as they show there emotions. Birling shows complete disregard to the meaning of marriage when he talks of it as a contract than a sign of love. He then continues to comment on issues like he is superior and knows better than the people who really do. He disregards all the news he has heard about war being close to this he says “The Germans don’t want war.
Nobody wants war, except some half-civilised folks in the Balkans. ” By saying this he is stating his superiority by knowing what’s right but this is very ironic as war does happen therefore he is proven wrong and the audience knows this as the play was written after the 2nd World War. This allows Priestly to show his anger towards the upper class people who think they know about these worldly matters but what they really no is wrong and is proven to be wrong.
He is saying how the world should haven been prepared for the 1st World War but wasn’t, all people in the world were very ignorant considering the events at the time. In this instance Priestly’s main message is death must be for something and people like Birling need to realise this. Every time someone tries to argue what Birling is saying he continues to talk. For example: “Just let me finish Eric, You’ve a lot to learn yet. And I’m talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business. ”
He continues to talk about things we know are wrong, he comments on the progress man has made with the building of an unsinkable ship which we know sank on its maiden voyage, he says how the world will be in peace in 1940 when we know it will be in another World War in 1940. Priestly is telling the audience how upper class people like Birling are responsible for the worldly disasters because of the ignorance. Priestly hopes the audience realise this they will try to prevent similar things happening again.
When the inspector enters the scene, the atmosphere on stage changes. The soft pink light scene before becomes harder as does the mood. When Birling starts to mention names to try and make his social status known the inspector does not acknowledge it and carries on. The inspector speaks of a girl called Eva Smith suffering a horrible death. Eric is shocked where as Birling does not show any sign of human emotion and continues to want the inspector to leave. Birling does not like the fact that the inspector is in control and he is not.
Birling rids himself of any responsibility for Eva Smiths suicide he says how something that happened so long ago can not have an effect now. The inspector then makes a clear speech about how the events could have affected Eva Smith. “Because what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events” This is the main message of the play it is stating how actions can have repercussions and people should be aware of these.
This is telling the audience that their actions can and probably will affect other people. Priestly is stating how it is wrong to be prejudiced in making decisions as it can affect people on a small scale or a world wide scale such as the 1st and 2nd World War. It shows Priestly’s thoughts on how the class system should change. Eva Smith was kicked out of her workplace because she ask for a pay rise well with in her rights nowadays, but back then she was kicked out for having an opinion and the bravery to confront her social superior.
Eric mentions how he could have kept Eva Smith on. Priestly uses this as an example of how the upper classes are greedy and inconsiderate. Birling sees himself ranked above the working class. Birling says he had to be harsh to prevent them wanting more otherwise they would eventually be asking for the world. The inspectors reply to this leaves Birling speechless. “They might. But after all it’s better to ask for the Earth than to take it. ” Priestly mentions this in his play because he wants the upper class people to stop acting in a selfish way.
