eric birling — DONE

She was pretty and a good sport

→ objectifying her, saw her as a game

She was easy to use/play because she was desperate, reveals UPC male privilege

→ ‘good sport’ colloquial and euphemistic suggesting compliance/tolarence eventhough eva was clearly exploited/ taken advantage of (he forced himself onto her)

Implies eva was cheerful/ or accepted the poor treatment which minimises erics responsibility because he frames her as willing

Also reflects erics current imaturity and lack of empathy

→ adj ‘pretty’ reduces eva to her physical appearance showing how values she is for her looks and makes her seem two dimensional/ shallow as a person- but its only because he didn’t acknowlege who she is as a person - shallow male perspective focuses on visual appeal

→ objectifying language reinforces how woman, WC, were seen as disposable objects of desire - casual sexism of edwardian class

Why shouldn’t they try for the highest possible wages? We try for the highest possible prices

→ rhetorical question to challenge the capitalistic double standards

He confronts his dad’s hypocrisy and demands fairness/ forces people to confront the injustice

→ modal verb ‘shouldnt’ carries moral judgement eric believes the workers have a right/ deserve to demand better wages

→ superlative ‘ highest’ implies ambition and aspiration for the working class, the workers demands are reasonable

→ collective pronoun ‘we’ capitalistic class eric includes himself hes self aware of his privileges he benefits from this system

→ parallelism eric mirrors the phrase forcing audience to compare and challenges hypocrisy of Mr B

To birling “ because you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble”

Conjunction : because signals eric is explaining his behaviour - hes revealing a deep emotional barrier in the family, makes us feel sympathy

→ direct address- confront mr b personally shift in power

→ colloquialism of ‘chap’ truth and honest talk with mr b is unnatural for eric- he feels like he can’t be vulnerable with his father, shows lack of emotional support within UPC families especially between fathers and sons— toxic masculinity and stoicism

This quote reveals how a patricarchal/ capitalistic society- where business and success come first can damage relationships in the family

To mr b after he said i was almost certain for a knighthood “ laughs rather hysterically, for Gods sake! Why does it matter now”

Stage direction : adverb ‘hysterically’ suggests a loss of control, mental strain— his laugh is not humorous but disturbed.

Eric is psychologically breaking down under weight of his guilt but also conveys teh absurdity and frustration he feels towards his parents obsession with appearances

→ exclamatory phrase - emotional outburst and total disbelief about his fathers first worry

(Shouting) and i say the girls dead and we all helped to kill her- and thats what matter-

→ stage direction verb bursting- hes angry, bursting out

→ blunt language , monosyllabic ‘dead’ and ‘kill’ harsh and emotional, cut through any illusion/denial

→ he no longer uses euphamisms to describe his actions hes honest and blunt.

→ verb ‘helped’ semantics of kindness but here its twisted to show how ordinary actions can lead to tragic concequences

→ collective pronoun understand his reponsibility and everyone elses and personal pronoun + asseritveness ‘i sat’ directly challeneges his parents

→ emphatic phrase - eric shuts down the distractions and focuses on the moral truth - concequences matter more than excuses

He was our police inspector all right

→ collective pronoun ‘our’ - shared responsibility, eric recognises that the inspector was there for them not just to investigae a death, the inpsector wasnt just a figure of the law but a symbol of moral judgement

→ eric speaks with certainty, rejecting any attempt to deny the inspector authority just because he may not be real

→ past tense verb ‘was’ acknowleges that despite the inspector left his impact remains and marks erics moral development and that he values accountability as well as keeping the lessons he learn close to him

“ i dont see much nonesense when a girl goes and kills herself’

→ blunt words challenging his parents dissmisveness , hes fustrated and serious

Negation ‘i dont see’ rejection of denial and his refusal to sugar coat the reality

Abstract noun ‘nonesense’ mirrors how his parents tried to downplay the inspectors warnings, he repeats the word back on them and changes its purpose to expose their emotional coldness

Indefinite article ‘ a girl’ reflects how eva represents every working class woman, one of many victims of the capitalistic system