How does Mr. Birling's Philosophy Affect the Other Characters in An Inspector Calls?

An Inspector Calls - How does Mr. Birling's Philosophy Affect the

Other Characters?

How does Mr. Birling's Philosophy Affect the Other Characters?

J.B. Priestly was trying to ask questions about social and moral

issues when he wrote 'An Inspector Calls'. He wants us to question

ourselves, 'are we Sheila, or Mr Birling, Gerald or Mrs Birling?' He

wrote this play in 1945 though it is set in 1912. The play looks at

opposite views on morals and ideas from The Inspector and Mr Birling,

The Inspector being an opposite character in morals to Birling. Mr

Birling's Philosophy on life was, 'a man has to mind his own business

and look after himself and his own'. This philosophy obviously rubbed

off onto his children and wife and during the essay I shall see how it

affects the different characters linked to Mr Birling and his

philosophy.

Arthur Birling is a capitalist who is very sure of himself and his way

of life. Our first introduction to him is when he is making a speech

at his daughters engagement party about business opportunity's with

his new son-in-law. This shows his priorities are not right and he

obviously can't put business second for one minute. He is very sure of

himself considering a knighthood and he tries to pull rank on

Inspector Goole. He also, on page 6, states that Europe will not go to

war as there is too much at stake for all involved, two years later

Europe is engulfed in the turmoil of World War One, he also talks

about his friend who is going on the 'unsinkable, absolutely

unsinkable,' Titanic, the ship that sank on it's maiden voyage, if he

is wrong about this how can we sure his philosophy is right?

First I shall look at how the philosophy got Eva Smith sacked.

Firstly, the name, Eva Smith is quite a clever name to give to this

woman, Eva sounds like Eve the first woman and Smith is a very common

name, so the Eva Smith could be anybody, it could be you or me or the

man next door. She was a hard working woman who did her job well, she

was also on course for a promotion. He sacked

her because she stood up for her rights and asked for a pay rise

with a few of her colleagues. What she did was look after herself and

her own, this is what Birling's philosophy is, so why does he not

commend her boldness? Is he merely telling us this moral to look like

a big fish or is he just a plain hypocrite?