How Does Priestly Make This an Exciting and Intriguing Beginning to the Play?

How does Priestly make this an exciting and intriguing beginning to the play?

J.B. Priestley uses the issue of the social class, Mr and Mrs Birling different attitude towards Gerald and Gerald’s absence during summer to make the beginning of the play exciting and intriguing. During the inspector’s interrogation, all these issues were shown to link up the whole play.

J.B. Priestley uses the issue of the social class to make the beginning of the play exciting and intriguing.  Gerald’s mother, Lady Croft, comes from an old county family, but Mr Birling is just going to have a knighthood to be in the Honour List. Although two families are high class family, there are still some difference in terms of social status between the two families. The fact that Mr Birling is trying to show that the Birling family has the same social status as high as Gerald’s family makes this part of the play exciting and intriguing.

Priestley uses the sharing of port with Gerald by Mr Birling to show that Mr Birling wants to raise his social status as high as Gerald’s family. Mr Birling tries to make Gerald as a part of the Birling family, but Lady Croft disapproves of Gerald marrying Sheila for the difference in social status. Mr Birling wants to show the Birling family has the same social status as high as Gerald’s family because Sheila is going to engaged to Gerald. Although the Birling family is a high class family, it does not have as much power as Gerald’s family. When Mr Birling said “it's exactly the same port your father gets”, it seems that he wants to say “we, the Birling family, can afford what your family can afford” to Gerald. This may be due to he wants to show that Sheila and Gerald is an appropriate match. Mr Birling is also very aware of people who are his social superiors.

The different attitude between Mr and Mrs Birling towards Gerald makes the beginning part of the play exciting. Mr Birling always wants to emphasize his “high social status” (industrialist) and quite proud of himself when he praises “the dinner is very nice and good”. When he says “it’s exactly the same port your father gets” to Gerald, he wants to show the Birling family is a family as great as Gerald’s family. However, Mrs Birling is aware of the differences between social classes. When she said “Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things”, she was irritated by him when he made the social gaffe of praising the cook in front of Gerald because she knows that their family is not a powerful family as Gerald’s. To a certain extent, Mrs Birling treats Gerald as a guest, but maybe Mr Birling treats him as a part of the family as he has said or he just wants Gerald to become his son-in-law as soon as possible because of Gerald’s family social status.