Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Arthur Birling

Arthur is described as a ‘heavy-looking, rather portentous man
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Another way in which this could be meant is
that he is heavy ‘looking
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He is in his middle fifties, which suggests that he would have a lot
of life experience, but also perhaps a lot of prejudices
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This is one of the reasons why Sheila and
Eric don’t agree with him in the end- they are able to see things from a modern point of view
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He is a show off
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It also suggests that he
enjoys having any reason to show off his wealth and family significance, and takes great pleasure in
being middle class
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Mr Birling likes his wife (Sybil) but we
are lead to believe that he likes the idea of her more than her as an actual person
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He doesn’t ever
admit any love, or give any impression of feelings, towards her at any point in the play
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Sybil even says to Sheila,
later on, that she had to get used to Mr Birling working a lot
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Mr Birling tries to protect Sheila in any way he can, trying to shield her from the
real world at every gruesome detail
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He does not have the best relationship ever with her, as she disagrees and argues with him
about the inspector’s message
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Eric and Mr Birling don’t have a good relationship
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Eric hates his father for the most part, as Mr Birling acts as if Gerald would be a better
son than Eric, which upsets him
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Birling sucks up to Gerald,
even buying the same port that his father gets
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Themes explored through Mr Birling
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Social Class- 'There's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List
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So don’t say anything
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If we were all responsible for everything
that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward'
Truth- ‘It has nothing whatever to do with this wretched girl’s suicide

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