wealth in aic Flashcards
mr b and greed paragraph starter
priestley uses mr birling as the mouthpiece for miopic capitalist greed to show how a drive to expand ones wealth leaves them a very selfish and exploitive character,much how he exploits his workers for the benefit of persoanl gain
mr b paragraph planner
upon introduction we immediatley grow a dislike for him due to his description as ‘heavy looking, portentous’- heavy looking creates imagery for the sterotype of capitlism being pig like and greedy. it also is a phsyical manifestation of capitalisms dominece over society at the time
mr birling is a hipocirtical and exploitational employee as his hubris means that he views himself as a divine lecutrer and an example of how hard work and prosperity can lead to success and riches, however he juxtaposes this motto by outwardly repressing his workers and making sure they do not make enough to save or to live by as it contradicts his own gain of wealth, this shows the negative cycle of capitalism
he exploits the fact that the victorian society was so overpopulated and poor that there was a constant flow of job searchers meaning that any liabilities in his factories could be meaninglessly disposed of
‘lower costs and higher prices’ is an incredibly telling motto as it serves as a summary of what priestley aims to criticise in his values, here the workers are dehumanised to simply being prt of costs with the manurfacturing process, he cannot view them as humans
furthermore he diminishes and exploits his workers when explaining to the inspector ho he employs’ ‘several hundred women’ who ‘keep changing’ this is a very telling statement- several is vauge and inspecific showing how he cannot even care enough about his employees to count their prescnece, whilst the fact theyre women show how easy it is to exploit not just the poor but the most vunerable societal group. if they keep changing it can be both how he is so uncaring for their livlihoods that he can frequently make them redundant whilst also alluding to the economic global crisis that means that theres a constant flow of employees
hes also overly confident in the economy as he sees himself as a rising industrialist as being part of the reason it had become so prosperous, hence why he mocks his youngers as being boys and youngsters- he does not view them as hard enough workers and hence sees them as demasculatnised- a mataphor for his condeince in his economy and his hubris is through the mass developement of the titanic, the fact that he deems it as ‘absolutely unskinable’ despite the dramantic irony that it sunk on first voyage, shows how rocky the economy is and how he is arrogantly unaware of such, he continuous this foolishness through belittling war- and so the reader begins to associate his opinion with wringness as he immediatley enters a speech on capitalist values
sheilas engagement thesis statemnt
in his didacticplay priestley uses the metaphor of sheila and geralds engagemnt and the motif of the ring to expose the transactional and shallow attidue in arranged upper class mariages and how wealth being the driving factor above humanity and love is an outdated mindset
sheialas engegement paragraph
firstly upon his speech for the wedding its clear that the purpose of this marriage is not based on the importance of human relations but instead on the birlings being able to further themselves societally- mr b exclaims how it is the ‘happiest night of my life’ and its evident thats due to his now unbreakbale ties with an old money company, describing himself and Mr Croft as ‘friendly rivals’ he cannot distinguish life outside of the buisiness world
on the other hand we can see how class is a prioity to all, with the prominent absence of the croft family likely being becasue mr birling and his provinical speech is anoveau rich man so the crofts do not gain anything socially through this marriage- rather they simply have more wealth.
on a more persoanl scale we can see how shallow and overall negative the relations between sehial and gerald are- when he gives her the ring she asks ‘is it the one you wanted me to have’ showing how unfortunatley men are able to completely dictate their wives autonomy upon marriage with her having no access to a bank, votes etc. she then turns to her mother to ask ‘mummy isnt it a beauty’ in these wealthy families young women have absolutely no autonomy to think critically for themsleves rather having to seek approval for the others, and she states ‘now i really feel engaged’ this implies that sheila and indeed is custom with these marriages is that you do not reap the benefits of it until presented with a physical showing of your new wealth and societal status
the audience would be relieved to see sheila gain autonomy throughout the play and ultimately return her wedding ring, symbolic of how she has gained the knowlege and freedom to control her own actions- leading us to associate a new era of femensim and socailism with freedom
