AIC

Intresting character

A play which deals with an interesting character is 'An Inspector Calls' by playwright JB Priestly. The play is about a middle class family that have unconsciously driven a working class girl to her death, each member is interrogated by a very harsh and mysterious character that claims that he is an inspector. Later on, we find out how each one of then are linked to Eva Smith's death. Throughout the play, Priestly uses Arthur Birling, a wealthy business figure as his pawn to display the thoughts of a capitalist to the audience through the despicable characterisation of this middle class man and how he portrays himself.

Priestly creates an interesting character in Arthur Birling through establishing him arrogant and naive characterisation, particularly when he discusses global events. Arthur assumes that war will not come to fruition as he says that "you'll hear some people say that war is inevitable, and to that I say- fiddlesticks !." Priestly has portrayed Mr. Birling as an ignorant and idiotic individual who is out of touch with society by skillfully creating a divide with the audience who know that this fact is wholly untrue. By presenting him this way the audience are more likely to resent him not only for his incorrect
opinions, but also what he stands for- capitalism. Priestly also establishes the audience on his side and allows for clear conflict of ideology on the inspectors arrival. Therefore, the playwright expertly uses Arthur Birling as a puppet to criticise and condemn popular capitalist views and ignite a conversation about social class.

Priestley further explores his portrayal of Mr. Birling by his selfishness and self important nature. This is especially shown in his speech during the engagement party of Sheila, his daughter and Gerald. Whe speaking to Gerald he says that this is "one of the happiest nights of(his) life", but this is actually because of the merging of the 'Croft's and Birling's' rather than the joy a marriage would naturally bring to the family. He soon discusses the profit that their marriage would bring by stating that he "look(s) forward to a time when the Croft's and Birling's ...are working together for lower costs and higher prices", this makes it seem as if Arthur prioritises business connection over human ones. Mr. Birling's selfish nature is reinforced by his wish to see "lower costs" and "higher prices", he wants to maximise he profit while keeping those in the "workforce" in their poor position- he gains at the expense of others. With the use of this interesting character, Priestley was able to express his aversion to capitalism.

J.B Priestley builds Arthur Birling to make him personify the capitalist generation. With the use of Arthur, he shows the audience how society was divided into three sections based on their income, the higher the class the more respected they were. Using Mr. Birling, he illustrates the upper classes views on the lower class. Mr. Birling seems to care a great amount about social class. Eva Smith was employed by Mr. Birling at one time, but he refers to her as one of "several hundred young women", this implies that Eva and the hundreds of young women have no value or meaning to him. He goes on to say that the employees "keep changing", the sidewalks of Arthur not caring about his workers is further proven here, this could also suggest that he sees Eva Smith as cheap labour. This tells us that Arthur has a pessimistic attitude towards the working class, he makes them seem like an identical group of people. This conveys the oignorant capitalist generation that Priestley suggests was responsible for the inequality in society during the time this play was set in.

To conclude, in 'AIC' Priestley wanted to present the damage that can be caused if the attitudes, especially of the more privileged don't change towards those who are less fortunate, he showed this with the use of an interesting character who goes by the name Arthur Birling who is a selfishly irresponsible man that priorities money over everything. The playwright has opportunely give the audiencean insight of a capitalists mind and has exhibited his point, that if we ever want to live in a fair and equal society: the mindset of the upperclass needs to be changed drastically.

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