English, asked by amandep, 1 year ago

Compare and control the character sketch of Mrs person and Mr fitzalared

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Answered by narveshpal663k
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Compare and contrast the characters of Mr. Birling and Sheila Birling 
in their attitudes to social issues. 

In the play “An Inspector Calls” by J.B. Priestly, Mr. Birling and 
Sheila Birling have contrasting attitudes to social issues. The author 
uses this difference to highlight the diversity between generations 
and their reactions to situations faced. Arthur Birling is the father 
to Sheila Birling and so is presented as the older, “old-fashioned” 
generation whereas Shelia is the younger generation, who is more aware 
of the responsibilities they have towards other people. (?) 

The play begins with Mr. Birling and his family celebrating the 
engagement of Sheila to Gerald. The atmosphere is happy and 
light-hearted. Before the Inspector arrives, Birling is happy with 
life and himself. He says, “It’s one of the happiest nights of my 
life”. This shows that he is quite selfish because he only thinks that 
it is one of the happiest nights of his life, not of Sheila and 
Gerald’s. He also shows that he can accept economic change in business 
but not social and personal change, as we see later in the play. He 
says, “There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere 
– except of course in Russia, which will always be behindhand 
naturally.” Mr. Birling’s tone of voice at the beginning of this 
quotation is boastful which changes to scorn when he talks about 
Russia. His scornful attitude towards Russia emphasises Mr. Birling’s 
lack of attitude towards others. Sheila, too, is in a happy and 
playful mood at the beginning of the play. The stage directions say 
“half playful, half serious” which emphasises her good mood. Sheila 
doesn’t say much at the beginning as it is Mr. Birling doing most of 
the talking. Bot.
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