An Inspector Calls - Differences And Comparisons O Essays - Theatre

An Inspector Calls - Differences And Comparisons O Essays - Theatre An Inspector Calls - Differences And Comparisons Of Arthur B. And Sheila B. An Inspector Calls by JB Priestly Differences & Comparisons between Mr B. and Sheila Arthur Burling is the main man in the Burling family, and seems to control it, i.e. whatever he says - goes! The play is set in an imaginary town called Brumley, somewhere in the North of England. Mr. Burling has a selfish attitude towards life, and also an attitude to only care for himself and family, and basically forget everybody else, in fact, this is exactly what he tells a speech on at the celebration of Sheilas and Geralds engagement, ... a man has to look after himself - and his family too, of course... which gives the impression of the selfishness, and also greed. Another example of this is when he tells a speech about how it is the best day of his life, Gerald, Im going to tell you frankly, without any pretenses, that your engagement with Sheila means a lot to me. Shell make you happy, and Im sure youll make her happy. Your just the type of son-in-law I wanted... makes people think whether he wants them to get married for themselves, or for him, and whether it means a lot to him sentimentally, or a lot to him in the business world. Burlings first priority is to make money, Its my duty to keep labour cost down and is also a social climber, and Sheila is engaged to the son of his friendly rival, which is why it could mean a lot to him in the business world because Geralds father is in a higher class than the Burling family. We can see that he is a man that tries to make everything better by using his money, Look inspector, Id give thousands.... I think this may be a domineering attitude, because he wants to dominate people, and do all he can to do it, which reflects on how he treats his employees. In his factory, there is certain employees which ask for a pay rise, but Burling refuses to pay more than the going rate. Burling can afford the pay rise, but returns by sacking one member of the strike pack, Eva/Daisy Smith. After this, Burling was blamed for starting the domino effect of Eva/Daisys suicide, but refuses to accept the blame. Appearance plays a big part of Burling as well. How he looks is very important to him indeed in the respect that he always has to look posh and always dresses cleanly and smart. I think he does this not because he always want to be clean and smart, but to keep a good reputation with other high class people, and not to make them think that he is any lower than themselves. When the inspector asks questions to/about his family, he tries to protect his reputation by acting the innocent to the questions, even though we know, that he knows the answers to the questions, but wont tell them, to protect his reputation (hard to explain!!). Burling cannot see the consequences of neither his, nor his familys actions. We know this because Burling makes comments which seem ridiculous to us now, in the 90s and the year 2000. Things like the Titanic being unsinkable and that European nor World war would never happen. According to Burling, war will never happen because in his eyes, it would affect business, but Burling does not stop to think that people may care more about things other than business, which is why he cannot see the consequences of his own actions and is also another example of the selfishness within him. Burling hates stealing. When Eric (Burlings son) steals 50 from Burliness office, he cares about nothing more than that he stole from him, and the amount he stole (because 50 was quite a bit of money in 1912), and Burling wasnt really concerned why Eric stole the money. Burling then exclaims, You dammed fool - why didnt you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?. Erics reply indicates that Mr. Burling was never close to his son, Because youre not the kind of chap a man could turn to when hes in trouble. Such a response indicates that things arent going to improve much after the play ends, and also indicates that there may be a bad family relationship. Sheila is Mr. Burling and Mrs. Burlings daughter, and is engaged to Gerald, Burlings rival. Sheila has a totally different attitude to Burling, and we see this emphasized as the play progresses. She is very happy with life at the beginning of the play, young, and