Arthur and Sybil Birling

Arthur Birling is a factory owner, a former Lord Mayor and a magistrate. The stage directions call him ‘a heavy-looking, rather portentous man’ (Act 1): portentous means pompous and full of his own importance.

He calls himself ‘a hard-headed, practical man of business’ (Act 1). He lectures the young people that ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’ (Act 1), and he sneers at the idea that we all live together ‘like bees in a hive’ (Act 1).

This is the selfish capitalist view that Priestley wants the audience to reject. The doorbell rings at exactly this moment, as if in answer.

Mr Birling confidently predicts the future, and he is wrong every time. He says ‘The Germans don't want war’ (Act 1), and calls the Titanic ‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’ (Act 1).

The play is set in 1912, but the first audiences watched it in 1945. They knew the Titanic sank in April 1912, and that two world wars followed. This is dramatic irony: the audience knows more than the character.

The effect is to make Mr Birling look foolish from the start. If he is so wrong about war and ships, the audience will not trust him when he says people should only look after themselves.

Eva Smith worked in Mr Birling's factory. In 1910 she helped to lead a strike for a small pay rise, and he sacked her. He has no regrets: if he hadn't been firm, ‘they'd soon be asking for the earth’ (Act 1). The Inspector replies, ‘It's better to ask for the earth than to take it’ (Act 1).

Mr Birling sees workers only as costs. He looks forward to ‘lower costs and higher prices’ (Act 1), and he says ‘I can't accept any responsibility’ (Act 1).

What worries him most is his reputation. He hopes for a knighthood ‘so long as we behave ourselves’ (Act 1). Eva's death matters to him mainly because it might cause a scandal.

Mr Birling never changes. Once the Inspector has gone, he worries only about the scandal and his knighthood. When it seems the Inspector was a fake, he is delighted, and mocks Sheila and Eric as ‘The famous younger generation who know it all’ (Act 3).

The final phone call catches him out: he has learnt nothing, and the story is about to start again.

Why Priestley uses him: Mr Birling stands for the selfish, capitalist older generation. By making him pompous and wrong, Priestley encourages the audience to reject his values and to support a fairer society.

Sybil Birling is described as ‘a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior’ (Act 1). She comes from a higher class than her husband, and she cares about manners and status: she tells him off for praising the cook in front of Gerald.

She leads the Brumley Women's Charity Organisation, so she appears to help the poor. Priestley shows that her charity is really about power and looking respectable.

She is also blind to her own children. She has not noticed that Eric drinks too much, even though Sheila and Gerald both know.

Two weeks before her death, Eva, pregnant and alone, asked Mrs Birling's charity for help. She called herself ‘Mrs Birling’, which offended Mrs Birling, who admits ‘I used my influence to have it refused’ (Act 2).

She shows no pity. She sneers, ‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’ (Act 2), and insists ‘she had only herself to blame’ (Act 2).

Then she builds a trap for herself. She tells the Inspector, ‘Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility’ (Act 2). She demands that he is punished, not realising that the father is her own son, Eric.

When she learns the truth, Mrs Birling is shocked, but she still does not truly accept any blame. Once the Inspector seems to be a fake, she is as relieved as her husband, and even boasts that she was the only one who didn't give in to him.

Why Priestley uses her: she shows the hypocrisy of the upper classes, who do charity work but look down on the poor. Her refusal to help Eva is the last link in the chain of events, and her prejudice ends up condemning her own grandchild.