How does Priestley present Arthur Birling in Act 1 in An Inspector Calls? Write about:

1. This lesson is a yellow sticker assessment using June 2012 exam questions Foundation and Higher. You will need to adapt it to the needs of your set to make it most effective.

2. Foundation How does Priestley present Arthur Birling in Act 1 in An Inspector Calls? Write about: * what Arthur Birling says and does the methods Priestley uses to present him. (30 marks)

3. POINT EVIDENCE EXPLANATION Technique Priestley has used to present Mr Birling as a symbol of Capitalism and Social Class How does his appearance/ personality/actions/dialogue support the themes of Capitalism, Social Class & Responsibility How can the reader tell? Which words or phrases? What is Priestly trying to suggest about life in England under a Capitalist society? C grade I can explain how Priestley has used language to present Mr Birling . I can analyse key quotes to support my views. D grade I can identify how Priestley has used language to present Mr Birling. I can begin to use some quotes to support my views. Think and plan your ideas first.

4. Indicative content • Examiners are encouraged to reward any valid interpretations. Answers might, however, include some of the following: • AO1 • what Arthur says and does e.g. pompous and arrogant “hard-headed practical man of business” • thinks he knows everything e.g. the Titanticas unsinkable • how others react to him e.g. the Inspector • what others say about him • lack of social responsibility and conscience • AO2 • language used by Priestley to manipulate our perspective of Birling • Birling as a dramatic device for Priestley to convey his moral message • Birling in contrast to his children • structure of the play – Birling doesn’t change

5. Higher In the rest of the play, how does Priestley present and develop some of the ideas shown here? (30 marks) The dining-room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike. (If a realistic set is used, then it should be swung back, as it was in the production at the New Theatre. By doing this, you can have the dining-table centre downstage during Act One, when it is needed there, and then, swinging back, can reveal the fireplace for Act Two, and then for Act Three can show a small table with telephone on it, downstage of fi replace; and by this time the dining-table and its chairs have moved well upstage. Producers who wish to avoid this tricky business, which involves two re-settings of the scene and some very accurate adjustments of the extra flats necessary, would be well advised to dispense with an ordinary realistic set, if only because the dining-table becomes a nuisance. (The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.) What do we learn about the Birlings from their house and furniture? What is Priestley suggesting through the use of lighting?

6. What do we learn about the Birlings from their possessions and clothes? What is Priestley suggesting? At rise of curtain, the four BIRLINGS and GERALD are seated at the table, with ARTHUR BIRLING at one end, his wife at the other, ERIC downstage, and SHEILA and GERALD seated upstage. EDNA, the parlour maid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of dessert plates and champagne glasses, etc., and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table. All five are in evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white ties, not dinner-jackets. ARTHUR BIRLING is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech. His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior. SHEILA is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited. GERALD CROFT is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town. ERIC is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. At the moment they have all had a good dinner, are celebrating a special occasion, and are pleased with themselves. 1 What themes can you identify? What is Priestley mirroring through the itemisation of the play’s characters?

7. POINT EVIDENCE EXPLANATION Identify the themes and ideas Priestley wishes to portray through the characters and their setting How do possessions appearance/ personality/actions/dialogue support the themes of Capitalism, Social Class & Responsibility How can the reader tell? Which words or phrases? What is Priestly trying to suggest about life in England under a Capitalist society? What impact does he want to have on the audience? How does he want them to respond? • A grade - I can analyse how Priestley has used stage directions to present his key ideas and themes. I can evaluate key quotes to support my views. • B grade I can explain how Priestley has used stage directions to present some of his ideas. I can analyse key quotes to support my views. Think and plan your ideas first.

8. Indicative content • Examiners are encouraged to reward any valid interpretations. Answers might, however, include some of the following: • AO1 • Ideas about the class system – reference to the maid and Mrs Birling as ‘her husband’s social superior’ • Ideas about characters – e.g. how Sheila is ‘pleased with life’, Eric being ‘not quite at ease’ • The whole family being ‘pleased with themselves’ • The idea of the house not being ‘ cosy and homelike’ • AO2 • Use of irony – this world is turned upside down by the arrival of Inspector Goole • Reference to the lighting and how it is significant later in the play • Details used to present the Birling house / family and what they suggest • Features of language / stage directions / structure from later in the play relevant to the task