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Inspector calls - wealth and power - Coggle Diagram
Inspector calls - wealth and power
Power
Equality: sexism
Birling being the man in the house
Inspector Goole, has authority
wealth
Wealth is one of the Birlings’ main interests and influences all of their interactions with others.
how they don't help Eva/Daisy because of thier wealth and power
Mr Birling won’t raise his workers’ wages so that he can make a bigger profit.
Sheila is a wealthy customer and she uses her power to get her kicked out of her job at Milwards
Gerald uses money to support Eva while she is his mistress.
Eric steals money
Mrs Birling refuses to give Eva money to help her. At her charity after Eric gets her pregnant
Wealth brings each family member power over others and this power seems to make them forget that the poor are human too. Priestley uses the Inspector to try and change how the characters and audience feel and act towards the lower classes.
class system
Priestley suggests that wealth corrupts people and society as a whole. He shows how social hierarchies determined by wealth, alongside Capitalism, lead to materialism (believing money, material possessions, and physical comfort are the most important things in life) and greed.
In a Capitalist class system, wealth leads to increasingly more power and success. Priestley argues that this means people seek out material possessions and money as symbols of their own worth in society. Consequently, they lack emotional and moral intelligence, and cannot connect with others. Priestley also presents how those at the bottom of the hierarchy are dehumanised and objectified as a result.
Development of the theme
Wealth appears as a theme in the play right from the start. The setting of the play and the appearances of the characters means the audience would recognize the Birlings as a wealthy family. They surround themselves with signs of their money, showing how important it is to them.
Even as the play continues and they learn of the destructive consequences of wealth, the setting remains the same. The luxury of their surroundings becomes more intimidating and grotesque, but the characters can’t escape and nor can the audience. Priestley uses this to show how wealth is such a fixture in society the reality of its role in Eva’s death must be confronted.
The continuity of the setting also reflects how the elder Birlings refuse to learn or change their ways. When the Inspector leaves they can return to the comforts of their money without losing anything. The Birlings are held accountable for their actions by the Inspector but when he leaves they still have money, which is all they care about.
The Inspector’s role is to slowly take apart the Birlings’ greed. By telling Eva’s story and focusing on the motives behind the Birlings’ actions, he shows how their greed caused her death. With every revelation about each character’s involvement in her death, their extravagant surroundings become even more morbid and horrifying. They are able to live in luxury and comfort while Eva Smith is dead in the Infirmary.
the setting
Priestley sets the play in the Birlings’ home which is a physical manifestation of upper class materialism.
It is a “fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer” with “good solid furniture”
The “Champagne glasses”, “port”, and a “cigar box”
are all indications of their excessive wealth
The “fairly large” size of the house and the “good” quality of the furniture
show the Birlings live in comfort, wanting nothing. The adverb “fairly” and adjective “prosperous” suggest they are climbing the social ladder.
the “substantial and heavily comfortable” home suggest the luxury
Priestley specifies it is “not cozy and homelike.” The setting is unwelcoming, and may even intimidate an audience that represents the untouchable position of the rich.
as it is not “homelike”, Priestley implies the family are missing emotional connection.
They can fulfil all their material desires but their money cannot bring them emotional contentment
Priestley suggests materialism prevents people from finding love and intimacy
Sheila’s engagement ring
Sheila’s excitement over her engagement ring.
"Isn’t it a beauty?
suggests the physical token of her engagement brings her more joy than the engagement does
“Now I really feel engaged,”
Implies a material possession is needed for the engagement to be real.
The gift of a ring is the thing that connects her to Gerald, rather than love
Priestley presents the issues of a society that places too much importance on physical possessions
Mr Birling’s focus on money
Priestley shows how a focus on wealth means people cannot recognise other sources of pleasure or happiness. Money is the only thing of worth to the Birlings.
Mr Birling refused to pay his workers a slightly higher wage because of his greed .
it was too “heavy” a “price” for his business.
The Inspector reminds him, “She wanted twenty-five shillings a week instead of twenty-two and sixpence. You made her pay a heavy price for that,” (Act 3, pg 56).
Realistically, raising their wages was within his power, and would not have destroyed his business.
In contrast, the “price” Eva was forced to pay was losing her life.
The metaphor “price” alludes to economy and trade, implicating Capitalist greed as the direct cause of her death.
Priestley contrasts Mr Birling’s interpretation of a “heavy price” with the “heavy price” Eva experienced to show how greed blinds people to others’ needs and humanity
Priestley suggests that what is in reality of small consequence to the upper classes, who own fortunes, is of huge consequence to the lower classes
Eva Smith’s poverty
Priestley’s audience would learn to value emotional connection and fellowship over wealth.
When confronted with Eva’s poverty and hardship all three upper class men offer her money.
Mr. Birling
Gerald
Eric
Priestley suggests the rich think the lower classes’ only weakness or hardship is their shortage of money
It is evident from this that they believe money can solve everything
Mr. Birling swears “I’d give thousands - yes, thousands -”
Eric “insisted on giving her enough money to keep her going,”
Gerald “allowed” her money over the summer and “insisted on a parting gift” of “money”
By offering her money but still abandoning her they reduce her to an object they can throw money at.
She is dispossessed of her humanity purely because she lacks material possessions.
Through the men’s interactions with Eva, Priestley implies capitalism turns people and forgiveness into things that can be bought.
It is evident that the men don’t understand what else they can offer Eva, such as love, support, or kindness.
They don’t understand that their acts of cruelty or their prejudices also have an impact and are ignorant of social isolation and oppression.
Quotes
"It's a free country, I told them."
Mr Birling
asserting that a course of action is not illegal or forbidden, often in justification of it.
"(It's a free country, I told them.)
It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else."
Eric
This is in response to Mr Birling saying that the dismissed former workers from his factory could work somewhere else if they did not like the pay he was offering them, ‘if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else.
"You know, of course, that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he's still a magistrate?"
Mrs Birling
Mrs Birling is angry with the inspector who she might well consider to be socially inferior to her and being ‘uppity’ and having the audacity to ask such an important family such questions. She also indirectly threatens the inspector by alluding to her husband’s status as a former lord mayor and that he is a magistrate.
"There's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List.' Just a knighthood, of course'-'But it's a bit too early for that. So don't say anything.'"
Mr Birling
Mr Birling is concerned about his social standing – he wants to impress Gerald as he knows that the Crofts are from a higher class: ‘there’s a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List.
'She was one of my employees and then I discharged her.'
Mr Birling (showing power imbalance)
More quotes
'I don't like that tone' Mr Birling
Birling tries to intimidate the Inspector by belittling him, talking down to him, or infantilising him. He is almost telling him off, and expects the inspector to be intimidated. Birling hasn’t met anyone like Goole before though, and the inspector is not impressed.
Capitalist View "If you don't come down hard on these people they'd soon be asking for the earth." Mr Birling
He does not view his employees as individuals, but as means to making money
'Nothing to do with you, Sheila. Run along' Mr Birling
Mr Birling dismisses Sheila as if she were a child, telling her to "Run along". "Run along," says Mr Birling. Mr Birling dismisses Sheila. "Nothing to do with you, Sheila." He talks to her as if she were a small child.
'Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you. Inspector?' Mr Birling
Mr Birling is protecting his wife from the Inspector
"Be quiet Sheila" Mr. Birling
trying to control her
even though she is fulling grown adult
'(unhappily) Look, Inspector - I'd give thousands - yes, thousands -' Mr. Birling
trying to use money to get out of this sitution like this sitution is any normal siution where Birling can use his wealth and power to get him out tricky sitution.
'You! You don't seem to care about anything. But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List'
Displaying real selfishness
For a moment it seemed like Birling might be capable of some kind of feeling – here, he even says “I care” in a short sentence, to add emphasis.