Compare the Characters of Arthur and Sheila Birling.

An Inspector calls is deliberately set in 1912 to demonstrate Priestly’s message which is ‘We are responsible for each other’ 1912 was two years before World War one. Many people were aware that great changes were about to take place. Britain was in a state of upheaval, there were others, such as Mr Birling, thought quite complacently that they had never had things so good. Priestlys characters are involved with the social conditions of the time, Eva Smith is just one of the characters that is such a vivid example of the fate of many young women shrouded in an atmosphere of poverty. At this time social conditions depended immensely on your class. The rich and famous exploited the poor, they lived a much happier life with more social benefits than say the likes of Eva Smith. The Birlings (ruling class) are prosperous and live in a fairly large comfortable house ‘with good solid furniture’ but then a few miles down the road, but still worlds apart when it comes to class and social matters there live millions of young women that are ‘ counting their pennies in their dingy little back

I now get the picture that although Arthur and Sheila are blood related and close they are worlds apart when their views and beliefs are bought into consideration. Sheila is the honest, noble character whereas Arthur is just inconsiderate, arrogant and a selfish man.

Birling vaguely recognises the picture of Eva Smith but does not completely remember, you could say she was insignificant to him, just another employee, this is very strange because Eva caused such an uproar with the strike, it seems that Birling could not have thought much of the strike, and just used it as an excuse to fire her, maybe to save money. He seems to disregard her feelings now because Eva has nothing to do with him now.

Some topics in this essay:
Birling Gerald, Smith Birlings, Birlings Crofts, Eva Smith, Sheila Arthur, Eva Birling, Arthur Birling, Arthur Sheila, Sheila Gerald, Eva Smith’s, eva smith, sheila hand, responsible sheila, saying ‘, arthur sheila, totally views, try defend, inspector phoney, worlds apart, solid furniture’,