Character Analysis — Supporting Characters

While the Inspector and Sheila carry much of Priestley's message, the other characters are equally important for your GCSE essays. Mr Birling, Mrs Birling, Eric, Gerald, and Eva Smith each represent different aspects of Edwardian society and different responses to the question of social responsibility. This lesson analyses each one in depth.

---

Mr Birling (Arthur Birling)

Overview

Mr Birling is a wealthy industrialist and former Lord Mayor. He is a self-made man — socially inferior to his wife (who comes from a higher-class family) — and he is obsessed with status, money, and reputation.

Priestley uses Birling as the embodiment of everything that is wrong with selfish capitalism.

Birling's Character Traits

Trait	Evidence
Self-important	Lectures the family at length; expects to be listened to
Socially ambitious	Hopes for a knighthood; brags about playing golf with the Chief Constable
Capitalist	"A man has to mind his own business and look after himself"
Dismissive of workers	Sacked Eva for asking for a modest pay rise
Wrong about everything	Titanic, war, social progress — every prediction is incorrect
Concerned with reputation	His first reaction to the scandal is to worry about his knighthood

Key Birling Quotes

Quote	Act	Analysis
"a hard-headed, practical man of business"	1	How he sees himself — Priestley invites us to disagree
"The Titanic ... unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"	1	Dramatic irony — the audience knows the Titanic sank
"I say there isn't a chance of war"	1	Catastrophically wrong — WWI began two years later
"a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own"	1	His capitalist philosophy — directly contradicted by the Inspector
"If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth"	1	Treats workers as threats rather than people
"I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List"	1	Reputation matters more than morality
"There's every excuse for what both your mother and I did"	3	Refuses to accept responsibility even at the end

Examiner's tip: Birling is a dramatic device as much as a character. Every time he speaks with confidence, Priestley wants the audience to recognise how wrong he is. Birling represents the complacent, selfish upper-middle class that Priestley believed had failed society.

---

Mrs Birling (Sybil Birling)

Overview

Mrs Birling is socially superior to her husband — she comes from a higher-class family and is acutely conscious of status and propriety. She is the chairwoman of the Brumley Women's Charity Organisation, but she uses her charitable position to judge and exclude rather than to help.

Mrs Birling's Character Traits

Trait	Evidence
Cold and unsympathetic	"Girls of that class" — dismisses working-class people entirely
Snobbish	Constantly corrects her husband's social errors
Hypocritical	Runs a charity but refuses to help those who need it most
Stubborn	Refuses to accept responsibility even when confronted with evidence
Out of touch	Does not realise Eric drinks too much; blind to her family's faults

Key Mrs Birling Quotes

Quote	Act	Analysis
"a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior"	1 (SD)	The stage direction tells us she is cold and status-conscious
"Girls of that class"	2	Dismisses working-class women as beneath consideration
"I used my influence to have it refused"	2	Boasts about denying help to a desperate pregnant woman
"She only has herself to blame"	2	Refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva's death
"He should be made an example of"	2	Condemns the father of the child — not realising it is her own son
"I'm sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all"	3	Even after everything, she refuses to change

Examiner's tip: Mrs Birling's dramatic irony in Act 2 — when she unknowingly condemns her own son — is one of the most powerful moments in the play. Priestley uses it to expose the hypocrisy of the upper classes: they will judge others mercilessly but cannot see their own family's failings.

---

Eric Birling

Overview

Eric is the youngest member of the Birling family — an awkward, heavy-drinking young man who has been failed by his parents' lack of genuine care. His treatment of Eva is the most disturbing of all the characters, but his response to the Inspector shows genuine remorse.

Eric's Arc

  Nervous Outsider → Drunken Aggressor → Ashamed Confessor → Angry Accuser
    (Act 1)              (revealed Act 3)     (Act 3)            (Act 3)

Eric's Crimes

Eric's involvement with Eva is deeply troubling:

1. He met her at the Palace Bar while drunk
2. He forced his way into her lodgings — "I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty" — a veiled admission of sexual assault
3. He got her pregnant
4. He stole approximately fifty pounds from his father's business to give her
5. When Eva discovered the money was stolen, she refused to accept any more

Key Eric Quotes