Mr Birling

Question 1

‘perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together - for lower costs and higher prices’

Answer 1

Act 1
Mr Birling is showing he is primarily concerned about his business, rather than his daughter’s happiness with regards to this engagement.

Question 2

‘I speak as a hard-headed practical man of business’

Answer 2

Act 1

Priestley does this to undermine Birling and all practical men of business due to what Birling later says.

Question 3

‘some people say war’s inevitable. And to that i say - fiddlesticks!’
‘There isn’t a chance of war’

Answer 3

Act 1

Priestley is undermining Birling as the audience know that a war occurred. This is an example of dramatic irony.

Question 4

‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’

Answer 4

Act 1
The use of the adverb ‘absolutely’ shows how sure of himself Mr Birling is. Priestley is suggesting Birling, and by extension capitalists are very out of touch with reality due to Birling’s comments about war and the titanic.

Question 5

‘In 1940 … there will be peace and prosperity everywhere’

Answer 5

Act 1

Dramatic irony is used to undermine Birling as we are in the middle of a major war in 1940

Question 6

‘a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too’

Answer 6

Act 1

This portrays Mr Birling as a hypocrite as he doesn’t seem to care that much about his family.

Question 7

‘community and all that nonsense’

Answer 7

Act 1

He outlines his capitalist views. Priestley does this to highlight the selfishness and greed of capitalism.