How is the Birling family presented in An Inspector Calls?

In An Inspector Calls, J. B. Priestley reveals the true nature of the Birling family over the course of the play. Initially they seem to be a happy, prosperous, conventional family, headed by a pompous but essentially good-natured father. They are looking forward to Sheila Birling's wedding and to the social advancement of the family, and there is a cheerful atmosphere of celebration as they dine.

Under the spotlight of Inspector Goole's examination, this comfortable image falls apart. Arthur Birling is shown to be grasping and tyrannical, while his wife Sybil is revealed to be the worst kind of shallow religious hypocrite. It is Eric, who has always been the black sheep of the family, his drinking and dissipation quietly ignored, who turns out to be more conscientious and self-aware than his parents. His sister, Sheila, recognizes this and progresses from her initial shallow selfishness to share Eric's compassion.

The play ends with the Birling family split between the generations. Arthur and Sybil Birling are desperate to return to their former hypocrisy and concealment. Eric and Sheila see that this is impossible: whatever the legal state of affairs, they have undergone a moral transformation. Gerald Croft, who is much closer in age to Sheila and Eric, sides with the older generation, an alignment which underscores the impossibility of his marrying Sheila.

How does Priestley convey his political views through Mr. Birling in An Inspector Calls?

Priestley, a convinced socialist, uses the character of Mr Birling to express his own political views in an interesting way. Mr Birling is anything but a socialist, being a successful, middle-class ‘hard-headed business man’ as he says himself, chiefly interested in making money, looking out for himself, furthering his own social and political standing and caring not a jot for anyone outside of his own family and friends. His ethics are diametrically opposed to those of socialism – espoused by Priestley himself - which stresses the concept of social responsibility, the importance of looking out for others, of working together for the common good with the stronger helping the weak and needy.

Priestley lets Birling damn himself out of his own mouth at the very beginning of the play, as he makes a solemn speech on the occasion of his daughter Sheila’s engagement to a business acquaintance, Gerald Croft, at a family dinner. This speech reveals how utterly complacent and clueless Birling really is, as he confidently holds forth on the prosperous state of the nation, turning a blind eye to class conflict and the possibility of war (the play is set in 1912, barely two years before the First World War). He simply does not care about things that he feels do not personally affect him, and social problems concern him not at all.

Birling's smugness and righteous self-belief is neatly conveyed in the image of the Titanic which he refers to in his speech -  the supposedly unsinkable ship which headed blindly into disaster. Birling is similarly shown to have an entirely misguided self-belief and sense of security. At this point he is quite unaware that he himself is on the brink of exposure, and very possibly social ruin as the mysterious Inspector Goole arrives and starts questioning the whole family mercilessly on the part they have each played in the appalling suicide of a young working-class woman who was left friendless, penniless, without any kind of moral support. The younger Birlings, Sheila and Eric, become genuinely remorseful as they realize the terrible consequences of their actions, but their mother and father and Gerald do not. The play thus reveals the destructive effects of selfishness and lack of compassion for others as embodied in men like Birling – a man who stands for everything that his creator opposed.

How does J.B. Priestley convey his political views through Eric Birling in An Inspector Calls?

Eric Birling is used by Priestley to symbolize a more hopeful future for post-war Britain. At the time when J.B. Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls, Britain had emerged from World War II on the brink of bankruptcy. There was a widespread consensus in the country for major political and economic change to help meet the monumental challenges that Britain faced. The British people shocked the world by rejecting Churchill and electing a Labour government committed to a radical program of socialism, a political philosophy endorsed by Priestley.

Eric is different to his father, an unfeeling capitalist obsessed with making money and social status. Unlike Mr. Burling, Eric has a social conscience, recognizing that the family's treatment of Eva Smith was morally indefensible. Though initially lacking in confidence and dominated by his overbearing father, Eric becomes more assertive as the play progresses. He openly challenges his father's economic philosophy, loudly proclaiming that Eva was entitled to push for higher wages and shouldn't have been fired.

Eric, like J.B. Priestley, has an understanding of the exploitative side of capitalism and the damaging effect it often has on people. Most importantly of all, he comes to recognize the way in which the unfettered capitalism of his father preaches restraint and personal responsibility to those at the bottom while allowing those at the top to get away—sometimes literally—with murder. It is this heartless system that Eric rejects, just as J.B. Priestley and a large section of the British population did in 1945.

How is Arthur Birling presented in An Inspector Calls?

Mr. Birling is presented as an arrogant and thoughtless man, ignorant of the social climate in which he exists. The audience is first skeptical of his judgement when he gives the speech regarding the impossibility of war and the success of the unsinkable Titanic. He is revealed as a selfish man, blinkered to the lives of those outside his social circle. When he tries to explain how he dealt with the staff who appealed for higher wages-

 It’s my duty to keep labour costs down

He can see only the fiscal responsibility of his position, not the social one.

When the Inspector arrives, he attempts to illustrate that the life of Eva Smith is as vital and important as those in the Birling circle. Mr Birling is angered when Sheila is upset by the girl’s photograph-

We were having a nice little family celebration tonight. And a nasty mess you’ve made of it now, haven’t you?

The inspector uses Birlings words in the context of Eva Smith to try to impart some understanding or empathy-

That’s more or less what I was thinking earlier tonight, when I was in the Infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody’s made of it.

Birling is unable to respond to this comment.

Mr Birling is concerned only with maintaining the image of respectability. He is not too concerned with the actions of his family, or their links to the dead girl, as long as there is no scandal. He is triumphant when the Inspector’s credibility is questioned at the end and he sees the evening as a joke, not a learning experience-

 You’ll all have a good laugh over it yet.