Who is Eric?
the Birlings’ son. He represents the impressionable, socially-aware younger generation and the consequences of toxic masculine culture.
“[involuntarily] My God!” act 1 eric birling
Priestley portrays Eric Birling as able to make the distinction between right and wrong throughout the play. It is important to understand why Priestley presents Eric in this favourable fashion.
Eric’s emotional response to the news of Eva’s death shows that he has morals. Priestley demonstrates this through the stage directions “[involuntarily] My God!”.
● Priestley’s use of the adverb “involuntarily” in reference to the inspector revealing the death of eva smith “demonstrates the moral nature of Eric as he could not suppress his emotional reaction; it is involuntary.
● Eric would not choose to reveal his emotions within a patriarchal society which condemns feminine traits such as excessive emotion as the disorder “hysteria”.
Here, Priestley attempts to convey the message that emotion is human and thus necessary for society to improve. Furthermore, he wants the audience to react like Eric did and feel instinctively emotional.
No, I mean about this girl – Eva Smith. Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? In act 1 in conetxt with the inspector claiming how he did not wnat to play golf
Priestley portrays Eric to have personal views which are inherently socialist. It is important to consider why Priestley exhibits Eric has possessing these views (despite his atrocious act of raping Eva).
● Eric condemns his father’s capitalist view of his workers and challenges this through the question “why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”.
○ It is clear that Eric is able to empathise with the lower-classes and can recognise the need for better workplace rights and the even more desperate need of ridding society of the practice of exploiting labourers.
● Priestley presents Eric, with the capacity for empathy and emotion, which therefore separates him (and Sheila) from the other characters, who are unable to experience such emotions.
○ This is done to demonstrate Eric as morally superior and as a character, which the audience should align themselves with.
“We try for the highest possible prices “ , “why shouldn’t they try for the highest price”
The upper-class’ internal corruption and hypocrisy is acknowledged by Eric, explicitly, throughout the play. It is important to understand why Priestley demonstrates Eric as not completely naive, but aware of levels of corruption in society.
● Eric initially sees Mr Birling’s hypocrisy in the determination to achieve “lower costs and higher prices”, yet, denying Eva and his employees a higher wage.
○ Eric exclaims his discontent with such hypocrisy as “why shouldn’t they try for higher wages” as “we try for the highest possible prices”.
● He realises that there is no meritocracy and that a “good worker” does not constitute better treatment, but that capitalism exists fundamentally to exploit workers and create profit.
● Eric recognises how his father is hypocritical in hiding his views from Inspector as he “[Laughs bitterly] I didn’t notice you told him that it’s every man for himself”.
○ Eric lets out a “bitter” laugh because he realises Mr Birling’s hypocrisy, yet, there is no humour to be found in the moraless capitalism, which his father abides by.
Priestley shows anyone is capable of immorality
Initially Eric is portrayed as a positive character who has morals, he disapproves of Mr Birling’s individualistic business rhetoric (speech). However, the revelation of Eric’s rape of Eva demonstrates that sin is not beyond anyone. It is important to consider why Eric is exhibited in this way by Priestley.
● Eric acknowledges that Mr Birling’s “respectable friends” , such as “alderman Meggerty” are acting immorally, but Eric is too weak to stand up for his own beliefs. Therefore, he ends up going along and copying them.
● Arguably, alcohol is Eric’s response and coping mechanism to the hypocrisy and materialism of his family.
○ There are also lower-class connotations of alcoholism.
● Through suggesting that it is Eric’s perceived lack of influence, which precludes
(prevents) him from making change, Priestley teaches that people need to stand up for reform regardless of who they are in society.
○ Therefore, everyone should unite in dissent, rather than disregard their morals (otherwise they may end up accepting what’s wrong like Eric did).
○ Even Eva, who is the exemplar of morality, is forced to immoral prostitution out of desperation.
Why is priestley showing Eric like this?
he audience’s sympathy for Eric is maintained by Priestley throughout the play in an attempt to keep him redeemable. We are shown potential reasons for Eric’s behaviour which can allow the audience to sympathise with him. Priestley attempts to encourage a positive perception of Eric through a deflection of blame onto his parents and the society in which he lives.
Topic sentences
● Priestley uses Eric to reveal the inequality in society between men and women and the way in which the upper classes abuse their power.
● Priestley portrays Eric sympathetically as he is the opposite of Mr Birling and challenges his father’s claim of innocence.
● However, Eric does not initially show remorse, and this serves to reinforce Priestley’s development of him as an unsympathetic character.
● On the other hand, Priestley could be using Eric’s seemingly normal outward appearance to make a point about his actions being due to the influence of the society the Inspector is so heavily critical about.
“Half shy half assertive”
- Naivety as suggested by the juxtaposing adjectives
- result of spoiltness
- Awkward
Structure
Eric is presented a microcosm for the spoil youth in a capitalist society, but is later utilised it reveal that anyone has capacity of redemption through his acceptance of responsibility on his vile, unforgivable actions.
At the beginning of the play Priestley introduced Eric as an awkward upper class young man to criticise the effect of a poor upbringing in upper classes
- ‘Half shy, half assertive’ - naïve, juxtaposing adjectives suggest his awkwardness and obscurity in life as a lack of poor guidance from parents
- ‘I don’t know- really. Suddenly I felt I just had to laugh’ - inability to explain his own laughter, lack of control over himself
- Mrs B’s dismissal of Eric being ‘Squiffy’ - reveals Eric’s ‘shy’ façade hiding his drinking problem while simultaneously suggesting that he is neglected by his parents
After learning of Eva’s death- Priestley presents Eric as a character who is able to empathise with the lower classes, foreshadows his capacity to change
- ‘[involuntarily] my god!’ - Genuinely shocked and concerned demonstrating that he has moral emotion, may be seen as feminine hysteria through the adverb stage direction, but makes the reader realise that emotions are needed to empathise.
- ‘Why shouldn’t they ask for higher wages- we try for the highest priced’- logical argument to his father- confidence and empathy towards Eva which allows his reformation, ‘they’ utilised to eliminate the class barrier, in contrast to the older Birling’s use of the pronouns them.
During interrogation- Eric seems to morally progress backwards rather than forwards through his failure to take clear responsibility for his actions
-‘in that state when a chap easily turns nasty’- distances himself by switching from first person to third person while the use of the colloquialism ‘chap’ trivialises the upper class’ sexual exploitation of the lower class, ‘nasty’ highlights euphemisms, further trivialises his horrific actions
-seems pathetic when he tries to divert blame onto his mother ‘you killed her’, tantamount to Mrs B blaming the ‘father’ of the child, and rejection of collective responsibility through the singular second person pronoun ‘you’.
-Irony in his claim that he ‘hates those fat old tarts’ who are products of the upper class’ sexual exploitation (like he did to Eva)
Moment of epiphany seems almost impossible, but he miraculously defies this
Priestley maintains the audience’s sympathy through the diversion of blame on society and his upbringing
- ‘you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble’ disappointed by his father, revealing his assertive powerful, the noun ‘kind’ generalising the upper class as poor parents, causing an audience to sympathise
- From ‘uneasily’ to shouting in the end- gains authority, a voice in the household, finding himself- inspector’s arrival has catalysed this
- Very mature as he stops arguing with Sheila- together they represent the youth’s capacity to change
He highlights Eric’s reformation through his up taking of responsibility
-‘The fact remains that I did what I did’- expresses genuine remorse embraces responsibility
By presenting his almost miraculous reformation despite committing the vilest crime and sins, Priestley demonstrates to his audience that anyone has the capacity to change
