Social Class

Though the play is primarily about the horrendous treatment of the lower classes by those who are wealthier than them, class divisions are clear right from the opening. The social divides and aspirations are evident around the dinner table:

Mr Birling has made his own money and, although he's rich, he doesn't have his wife's aristocratic roots. He dreams of marrying his daughter into the aristocracy and hopes of a knighthood for himself.

Mrs Birling is a former aristocrat, but she is also a snob and we can't help but feel that she would have resented marrying a man who was her social inferior. She looks down quite aggressively at those who she deems as being from "that class."

Gerald Croft has the highest social standing at the table (as a man, and a member of the aristocracy) but Mr Birling clearly hopes that Gerald's marriage to Sheila will raise the social standing of the whole family. Although Birling lectures him, there is a real sense that he's desperate to be liked by Gerald as well - the bit where he privately talks about his knighthood is a great example

Most of the play, however, is about the treatment of the working class Eva Smith / Daisy Renton by those above her, and each of the characters mistreats her in their own way:

Mr Birling casually fires her for trying to win a pay-rise for her and her colleagues. He can do this because he owns the business.

Sheila has her fired from her job, because she was jealous at how pretty Eva was. She can do this because she's rich and the shop want to pander to her needs.

Gerald takes advantage of her situation - she was starving when he met her - and then uses her for sex, before casually dropping her when he's done. He can do this because he's rich and has a "spare house" she can live in.

Mrs Birling was so offended that she used the Birling name that she refused to help her. She can do this because she's rich and controls the decision over who gets support from her charity.

Like Gerald, Eric used her for sex (the suggestion is that he raped her.) He got away with this because by the time Eva met him she had been so brutally treated by everyone else that she had no-where else to go.

All the characters mistreat Eva simply because they can.

The inspector, however, represents the newly formed MIDDLE CLASS, a group who were educated and often had the law on their side. The inspector sees to it that the family do not get away with their treatment of Eva without being forced to face what they have done.

While the family see someone from Eva's class as being something "other" the inspector makes them see that "we are all part of one body" and "we are all responsible for each other."

“Perhaps I ought to warn you that the inspector is an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly frequently.” Mr Birling tries to bully the Inspector by using his relationship with other upper class men. The inspector is not impressed.

Mr Birling sees Eva as just one of “several hundred young women” who worked at his factory - he says "I don't know, they keep changing." This highlights the vulnerability of the working class in those times, something that was socially acceptable.

Mrs Birling’s snobbery develops to a point later in the play when she calls Eva a “girl of that sort.” She represents the ignorant, older generation who still cling on to the class system that put them in then position they were in.

Mrs Birling also refers to Eva saying "Girls of that class" - the determiner "that" really highlights how she sees the working classes as being fundamentally different to her.

Mr Birling is keen to be knighted to cement his hard-fought rise to the upper class.

Birling, like a lot of the upper classes, simply uses Eva Smith as cheap labour - Sheila argues against this recognising that there is more to Eva than just her class - "but they're not cheap labour, they're people."

Sheila used her position as some from the upper classes when she became jealous of Eva's good looks and had her fired from Milwards.

Gerald is prepared to marry Sheila, because she was of a similar class to him; Eva, however, was of a much lower class than Gerald and so he used her when he wanted to and then discarded her when he was done.

Eric is awkward about his "public-school-and-Varsity" life, and, like Sheila he has been "spoilt" by his parents to the extent that he has never grown up. In the end, Eva patronises him for being childish because he has been so protected by his class that he has never grown up.

Mrs Birling was disgusted that someone socially inferior to her used her name and used this as a reason to punish someone she was prejudiced against.