An Inspector Calls - Language Analysis
The opening chapter of An Inspector Calls:
"The dining-room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and home like.
At rise of curtain, the four Birlings and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other, Eric downstage and Sheila and Gerald seated upstage. Edna, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of desert plates and champagne glasses.
... Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech".
"The dining-room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer" is the first line of the description. This is important because right away the reader understands where the scene is set, and the occupation of at least one of the characters. We can tell that this particular character fits into the 'higher class' category because we are told that he lives in a suburban house and that he is a successful businessman. The fact that he lives in a suburban house could reflect the characters personality. It could mean that the character is slightly shy, or that he feel's like he is morally above the many working class that are found in the inner cities.
"It has good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and home like.
At rise of curtain, the four Birlings and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other, Eric downstage and Sheila and Gerald seated upstage."
Priestly uses lots of adjectives to describe the furniture inside the Birlings' house. By doing so, he could be expressing that the household is slightly odd and confusing. This could be symbolizing that the family relationship, as that is the text that follows the passage. The description of the family's sitting arrangement is very formal. This further supports the judgement that the Birlings are a upper class family.
