Eric Birling

Character Summary: Overview

• Wayward son of the Birling family

• Drinks heavily

• Raped Eva

• Stole money for Eva from Mr Birlings company

Character Summary: Key Characteristics

• Anxious

• Impulsive

• Irresponsible

• Ultimately repentant

Character Summary: Role

• His relationship with Eva, who was pregnant with his child, represents the damage that irresponsible and selfish people inflict upon themselves

Character Summary: Themes

• Generational conflict

• Responsibility

• Guilt

Why is Eric Important? - Drinking Problem

• Known by his peers - including Gerald - to drink heavily

• Becomes aggressive

• Forced himself onto Eva while he was drunk

Why is Eric Important? - Poor Relationship with Father

• Appears to be jealous of Mr Birlings respect for Gerald

• Does not confide in his father

• Steals from his business

Why is Eric Important? - Able to Accept Responsibility

• At the denouement, he and Sheila are the only ones to accept their roles in Evas death

• He is stricken with guilt

• Willing to face the consequences

Language Analysis: Exclamatory Language

• Prone to sudden exclamations

• “(Involuntarily) My God!”

• “(Bursting out)”

  • Highlight his impulsive and immature tendencies

Language Analysis: Dramatic Irony

• Act 2 ends with the audience realising Eric is the father

  • We know because Eric is the only one left to be interviewed

• Sybil does not realise this and encourages the Inspector to punish the child’s father

• One by one, the other characters realise she is falling into his trap

• The truth becomes obvious

• Eric enters

• The acts ends

Language Analysis: Confrontational Dialogue

• Erics dialogue with his father is frequently confrontational

• Act 1: he openly disagrees that workers should not strike for higher wages

  • Mr Birling often dismisses him

• Mr Birling immediately dismisses Erics fears of war

• Indicates a strained father son relationship

“Why shouldn’t they…

try for higher wages?”

“Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”

• Act One

• Direct challenge to capitalist pursuit of profit over human welfare

• Exposes the double standard of his father

  • Views business as a ruthless endeavour when it comes to their own profits but condemns workers for showing the same drive when wanting a basic living wage

• Underscores the stark reality that workers were desperately trying to survive against increasing costs

• Priestley used Eric as a symbol of socialist awakening, showing the younger generation was beginning to realise the human cost of capitalism

“The girls still dead, isn’t she?

Nobody’s brought her to life, have they?”

“The girls still dead, isnt she? Nobody’s brought her to life, have they?”

• Act Three

• Refusing to let his parents believe nothing happened

• Eric forces them to confront the moral reality that their selfishness destroyed a life

• Highlights the massive generational divide

  • Mr and Mrs Birling only care about public scandals

  • Eric and Sheila are deeply scared by guilt

• Eric acts as a mouthpiece

• You cannot reverse past cruelty or resurrect victims of a heartless capitalist system

“I was in that state when…

a chap easily turns nasty”

“I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty”

• Act Three

• Sharp criticisms of class, toxic masculinity and morality

• Uses third person to distance himself from his horrible actions

• Suggests upper class drinking rituals normalised male aggression and expected to be excused for it

• ‘That state’ and ‘nasty’ downplay his abusive behaviour, hiding his lack of moral compass previously

• Abused his power as a privileged, wealthy man to exploit a working class woman

  • Blames his actions on alcohol rather than accepting his choices

Character Development: Act One

• Lacks confidence and is uneasy

  • Foreshadows Erics drinking problem early on

  • Sheila calls him ‘squiffy’

  • Disagrees with his father at several points, but is not strong enough or sober enough to contradict Mr Birling with confidence

Character Development: Act Two

• Eric is the father

  • Inspector reveals Eric to be the final link in the ‘chain of events’ connecting the Birlings to Eva

  • When Sybil refused to help Eva, she effectively sentenced her grandchild to death

Character Development: Act Three

• Erics transformation

  • Reveals his role in Evas death

  • Admits to stealing money to support her

  • Shows deep remorse

  • Argues forcefully against his parents and Gerald when they deny responsibility

  • Eric and Sheila end the play changed for the better

Character Interpretation: Erics Redemption

• Guilty of atrocious behaviour toward Eva

• Stole money to support her in secret rather than being honest

• Modern audiences may struggle to forgive him

• Redeemed by guilt and willingness to accept the consequences of his actions

• Embodies Priestleys message of redemption

• Demonstrates even the most irresponsible are capable of becoming positive forces for change in society

Character Interpretation: Capitalism vs Socialism

• Vital part of Priestleys attack on the hypocrisy of 1912 and 1945 society

• Openly condemns Mr Birlings capitalist principles

  • Reveals socialist tendencies by arguing Eva and her fellow workers were right to strike

• Points out that Mr Birlings praised Evas work

  • Factory owners like him are always seeking to charge higher prices

• Act 3: ‘bitterly’ mocks his father for not telling the Inspector that it must be ‘every man for himself’

  • Highlighting the absence of conviction among powerful men

    • Behave in the most convenient way