Priestley criticises the selfishness of people like the Birlings. What methods does he use to present this selfishness?

J.B. Priestley criticises the selfishness of the Birling family by using a range of devices to convey his views of the class system and highlight to the reader the issues with capitalism.

Priestley uses Mrs Birling to highlight how selfish the upper class are. In Act 3, Mrs birling stresses how “I told him quite plainly...I had done no more than my duty”. This shows that Mrs Birling thinks that despite how she is largely to blame for Eva’s death she is in denial of this in order to avoid a potential scandal that could ruin her family reputation. The excessive use of personal pronouns further conveys to the reader that Mrs Birling only cares about herself. The word “duty” is significant here as it highlights one of the key themes, responsibility. This shows that Mrs Birling and the Birling family are oblivious to their true duties as upper class citizens and actually feel that their lives take priority over others. For example, Mrs Birling feels that it is her “duty” to refuse Eva help because she had used the name Birling. This highlights to the reader how shallow the Birlings are and are unaware of how their decisions affect others. Priestley may have used Mrs Birling to convey how the upper classes feel that their lives are more important than the lower class and how they feel that the lower classes are almost sub-human.

Priestley uses metaphors to convey to the reader how selfish the Birlings are. In Act 3, Mr Birling is quick to accept that the “story’s just a load of moonshine”. This suggests that he is quick to forget everything that happened and evidently excited by the idea that there will not be any public scandal. The word “moonshine” appears to be a euphemism here, but nonetheless, is particularly effective because it is a homemade alcoholic drink. This could reflect how the Birlings have all taken part to make such a disaster of Eva Smith. Furthermore, “moonshine” was illegal to make so could reflect the seriousness of their crimes on Eva. Contrastingly, the word “moonshine” could also reflect how Mr Birling is glad that he and his family are out of the limelight. Moreover, the fact that Mr Birling is so quick to brush over the evening, emphasises how he feels that the Birlings are now justified in all their actions because nobody died. This conveys to the reader how selfish he is as he appears to feel no remorse for what he did and encourages this no-remorse behaviour from his children. Priestley may have used Mr Birling’s eagerness to pass pass off the evening for joke to act as an anti-climax. This then creates tension, because the audience is almost expectant for something next to happen, so this cleverly builds up to the dramatic climax of the play.

Priestley uses a semantic field to emphasis the audience how self obsessed the Birlings are with the our own lives and fail to recognise that they are not the only ones alive. Priestley often mentions fairy tale language. There is mention of “knighthood”, “palace” and a “fairy prince”. The use of such language suggests that the Birlings are irrational and naive to believe that they could live in their own castle where they wouldn’t be affected by the lives of the lower class. The word “fairy” is particularly significant here as it conveys to the audience that this isolation from the lower classes is infact not possible. Furthermore, fairies don’t exist, this could reflect how capitalism is simply creating a divide, that shouldn’t exist, between themselves and the poor, because at the end of the day we are all human. Priestley seems to have created a deep sense of irony with the sustaining use of such language. It is ironic because the Birlings appear to be anything but worthy of “knighthoods” and living in “palaces”. This reflects to the reader how immoral the Birlings are and how they simply neglect their social responsibilities and makes the reader feel dislike towards the Birlings for their supercilious attitudes.

Priestley also uses Eric’s careless behaviour to elicit further sympathy for Eva from the audience and emphasise how self-centred the Birlings are. In Act 3, Eric describes Eva as being “a good sport”. This suggests that he does not see other people as real people with lives and futures, but more as entertainment for himself. This makes the audience feel dislike towards Eric for his thoughtless nature. The word “sport” is interesting here, as it conveys that Eric sees other people to be there for his abuse when he wants them. Furthermore, “sport” suggests that he sees Eva as a game and fails to recognise that she is a person. The word “sport” evokes sympathy from the reader because we know that this is a game in which Eva did not want to play and she ended up losing her life to this game. Priestley seems to have used the word sport to convey the idea that the upper class seem to think themselves justified in toying with the lower class and able to simply carry on playing with lives. It is ironic that now the winners, the Birlings, who all have played with Eva’s life, do not appear to be any longer winning and that their constant selfish abuse of Eva will not be forgotten.

To conclude, J.B. Priestley has used a range of devices and characters to emphasise that the Birlings and generally the capitalists in society are selfish and appear to abuse the vulnerable lower classes. Priestley may have conveyed the people, like Mr Birling, in high positions within society, do not care for society at all. Rather they care about themselves and their own reputations and are not really affected to hear of how their prosperity in life often leads to the regress of life for the poor and lower classes. It appears that Priestley is trying to convey that the society of 1912 was very corrupt and perhaps wants the audience of 1945 to respond questioningly and wonder if really, despite two world wars, has society really changed that much. Furthermore, it also reflects with the modern audiences of today and makes the audience also wonder how corrupt modern society and ponder the power that the rich hold over the poor.