How Does Priestly Present Birling in Act One and Two
Birding is presented as very smug and egotistical when Priestly uses the stage directions ‘confidently’ and ‘laughs complacently. These show Birding is not afraid to show his importance and status. It also shows his arrogant nature that emphasizes he wants to dominate the situation, yet when the inspector arrives he loses his authority. ‘Complacently’ shows he thinks other people with a lower status are stupid and unimportant.
Priestly wants the audience to see Brings inflated opinion of himself and show Birding is the opposite of Priestly moral. Birding especially expresses his self- righteousness to the Inspector when he says ‘l don’t see that its any concern Of yours how I choose to run my business’. This shows that Birding thinks he is higher class and more important than the Inspector and he therefore is not worthy of an opinion. It also shows Birding does not like to be challenged so will show off to prove he is better and assert authority.
Birding is revealed to be very selfish and have no understanding of community this is shown when e says ‘a man has to make his own way’. This shows Birding is only worried about himself and his money. It also conveys his lack of empathy towards those not as fortunate as him. Brings selfish philosophy conflicts with Priestly message about responsibility and community which is empathetic by the doorbell. The doorbell gives the audience a clue of what the moral of the play is. Priestly uses dramatic irony to show that Birding is patronizing and as an archetypal capitalist Birding looks down on others.
He says ‘that’ll have ergot all these capitalist versus labor agitations and all these silly little war scares’. It displays that Birding thinks that Labor are just lower class people that don’t know what they’re talking about. Also Brings narcissistic attitude emphasizes his lack of empathy like how he doesn’t see his employees as people but just cheap labor. Priestly uses dramatic irony to make the audience suspicious of Brings judgment and wonder what else he could be wrong about.
In Act Two Birding is shown to be very arrogant when e says ‘l protest against the way in which my daughter, a young unmarried girl is being dragged into this’. This implies Birding is more caring towards Sheila than Eric. This is because Sheila is marrying a rich, respectable man that can be bring good to Brings business whilst Eric isn’t doing anything to help Birding make money. ‘Unmarried girl’ suggests Birding feels a woman is not strong without a man by her side and see’s women as something to make his life more comfortable.
In conclusion I think Priestly presented Birding in n exaggerated way that would show the audience what he thinks the world is like. Priestly is showing that he thought the people of 1 912 needed to learn to become a community and be responsible for each other as a war and other horrors is coming soon. He then uses dramatic irony to show that if people had seen that they are responsible for each other than a war could have been avoided. Priestly, as a model socialist, therefore wishes that in 191 2 he could have done more about helping others to realist just like the Inspector did.
