The Birling Family

The Birling Family are first portrayed as a fairly wealthy family 'Large suburban house' have some power, but may suggest that their greed for more is what controls them as characters; for example The way priestly presents the house shows that they are wealthy ' good solid furniture of the period' this shows that they can afford the finer things in life but are not happy with what they have.ARTHUR BIRLING is presented as a successful businessman ' Prosperous manufacturer' this suggests that he is good at what he does and is of some influence on the rest of the family but is not quite higher up in society ' provincial in his speech' this proves that the family is controlled by his obsession to become more powerful and of higher status as he is constantly trying to better himself.

MRS BIRLING is presented in a similar way to ARTHUR BIRLING, however she is described as a 'cold woman' and 'her Husband's social superior' This suggests that MRS BIRLING uses her status as being higher up than ARTHUR BIRLING to gain a feeling of self importance as she tries to maintain the standards expected from upper class Edwardian/Victorian society which proves that it isn't just ARTHUR that is obsessed but the whole family that tries to move higher in society.

SHEILA BIRLING is presented as a daddy's girl as she gets everything she wants 'SHEILA is a very pretty girl in her early twenties very pleased with life and very excited' this suggests she is innocent naive not concerned by life.It also suggests that life is going well for her and in comparison SHEILA is presented differently to ARTHUR BIRLING as he is more concerned by his reputation well as SHEILA is quite happy with life.

Priestly describes Birling as a "hard-headed practical man of business," and he is firmly capitalist, even right-wing, in his political views well as Priestly is socialist and believes firmly in equality therefore ,I believe that Priestly uses Mr Birling and the family to represent his views on...