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Arthur Birling - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Birling is an influential man and close to powerful people who would decide how society is governed. Perhaps he shouldn't be.
        
        "It is my duty to keep labour costs down"
        
        His "duty" is not to the people but his own profits.
        
        Businessmen need to understand that their workers are not merely useful profit-generating machines. This is Priestley critiquing employer-worker relations under capitalism.
        
        "We can't let these Bernard Shaws and H.G.Wellses do all the talking."
        
        Birling is trying to say that capitalists should lead society, rather than writers and thinkers. Priestly is showing that he believes this isn't the case and the "cranks" Birling is trying to discredit are the ones we should actually be following, shown through Birlings wildly incorrect predictions. We should ignore Birling
      - because Birling talks about a period of prosperity to come when in fact Britain will be caught up in a bloody and horrific war which kills around 17 million people two years after the play is set.
        
        He also places his belief on war being impossible due to the economic development being made and dismisses the power of the Kaiser and German military officers, the same people who decide to go to war.
        
        Birling cannot be seen as a source of wisdom and guidance
      - "you don't know what some of these boys get up to nowadays."
        very ironic as Birling does indeed not know what his boys i.e. his son and future son-in-law are up to including having sexual relations with a former employee of his.
        
        "More money to spend and time to spare than I had when I was Eric’s age."
        Implication Eric was raised spoilt
  - - - The tone should be more sensitive and personal as they are celebrating an engagement and he is responding to a young woman's death yet he talks as if he is in a board meeting, it's completely devoid of any sentimentiality
        
        which ties in with his general view of money and numbers, including his indifference to human suffering, rather, focusing on the profits his workers suffering brings in.
        
        Priestly is trying to show the audience how raw, absolute, unchecked capitalism is somewhat inhuman and devoid of emotional feeling and compassion, prioritising profits above all else
        
        Mr Birling in this play is personifying capitalism and the plutocracy
        
        A plutocrat is someone super-rich who is very powerful, and a plutocracy means rule of the rich. The adjective is plutocratic.
      - Rather than talk about something more joyous like grandchildren, he instead talks numbers, profits and labour costs prioritising it above the emotional connection with his daughter and Gerald.
        Represents the competitiveness of capitalism.
  - - - The writers are promoting the view that everyone is affected by what happens in society -- society is one entity.
- - - - The traditionally rich would have different ancestors and accents. He may feel they look down on him and see him as 'inferior'.
        
        ‘I was an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench – so I know the Brumley officers pretty well’ (Act 1)
        
        Perhaps he is a competitive person who relishes in challenges.
        
        Is this because he really does believe he is that important? Or is it because deep inside he is constantly trying to fill a hole, a hole of feeling inferior, not as good, as those born rich such as the Crofts?
        
        ““I have an idea that your mother – Lady Croft – feels you might have done better for yourself socially” (Act 1)
        
        The problem with the constant pursuit for being higher in the social hierachy is that it will always be a source of pain.
        A knight is still inferior to the barons and earls and counts
        Even these 'junior' aristocracy are inferior to the 'higher' ones who are inferior to royalty
        He couldn't become that even by marriage in 1912 or 1945 as only senior aristocracy/royalty could marry royalty
        
        This constant pursuit does not guarantee happiness, rather potentially a constant feeling of inferiority
        
        1 more item...
        
        He feels by getting a certain level of prestige he will stop feeling uncomfortable anound the traditionally wealthly e.g. the Crofts?
        
        Interesting that he thinks status is based not on how moral or virtuous or generous your character is but by how high you are in the social hierarchy.
      - 'rather portentous man'
        someone who is overly serious or slightly pompous in the way they speak.
        
        Mr Birling is engaged in a constant struggle to compensate
        
        "I speak as a hard-headed business man"
        Birling engages in self-praise commenting on his expertise as a business man, trying to compensate once again
        
        Even at the engagement part he must make it all about himself and therefore. work
        
        He must state why he feels his predictions have credibility, showing how he feels people , especially the higher classes, may not take him seriously if he doesn't.
        
        His continuous need to prove himself equal to those richer than him and from more elite families is shown through him mentioning his potential "kinghthood" to Gerald
        
        His constant need for validation by the approval of others is shown through him mentioning Geralds status and then "incidentally" mentioning that this son of a rich family is marrying his daughter immediately upon meeting the inspector
        "This is Mr Gerald croft – the son of sir George croft – you know, crofts limited.."
      - Priestley is attempting to show that despite his big physical stature and rough and tough exterior constantly focusing on money and position, Birling is actually a weak individual.
    - - Mrs Birling is a married woman and shouldn't talk back to/ reprimand her husband yet because she's of generational wealth, cultured and his social superior, she talks back to him, showing his lack of power
        
        This is shown through how he constantly works for his influence, even in an informal situation as the one they're in, which is why he constantly needs to make comments and show his "knowledge" whereas whenever Mrs Birling talks, everyone just listens
        
        " are you
        listening, Sheila?" Before his speech