▪ The green are mrs.

Jade quotes
▪ What type of man is Arthur Birling?
Arthur birling is a very arrogant person who is rather interested in the engagement of his
daughter but for more business related reasons and even deliberately expresses this to
gerald. “though crofts limited are both older and bigger than Birling and company – and now
you've brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and
Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher
prices.” he expresses his capitalist principles very often and seems to believe in the
capitalistic ideals like the protection of the business and its profits, as well as the very
individual willpower. things so little as to mentioning things like his dislike for the socialists in
russia and how he shows little care for the labor class and treats it more like an obstacle due
to their strikes. “ you'll be living in a world that'll have forgotten all these capital versus labor
agitations and all these silly little war scares. There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid
progress everywhere – except of course in russia, which will always be behindhand
naturally.” He also seemingly thinks very high of himself with so small details like calling
himself a “ hard-headed business man, who has to take risks and know what he’s about.”
and then discredits eric saying that “Just let me finish, Eric. You’ve a lot to learn yet.” making
reference to how broad his knowledge is.
▪ What is the connection like between Gerald and Sheila?
I think it is possible that sheila and gerald only have a “romantic” relationship and
engagement as a part of somo twisted business arrangement since the two seem hesitant
open to the other and express love without doubts. it feels like they barely know each other
and they are rushing their relationship because of some external force(presumably sheila’s or
gerald's parents or both). This is evidenced in the little kiss sheila gives to gerald. “(she kisses
Gerald hastily)” me, an over analyzer of course interpret this gesture of supposed love, as a
sign of a very rushed one in general. Its a highly undeveloped relationship and it seems that
gerald uses her as a mean to approach the birlings and keeps secrets from her. “ I insist upon
being one of the family now. I’ve been trying long enough, haven’t I? […] Haven’t I? You
know I have.” “I’ve told you – I was awfully busy at the works all that time.”
Sheila seems to be new to love relationships and im sure she still knows love the way people
around her told her she should care about. This is why I argue that she thinks she loves
gerald, based on what her parents told her or what they expected from a romantic partner.
of course these things being money or power. This is generally shown by the still very childish
gestures that sheila does like acting in an overly“(possessively)” manner and not trusting in
geralds words.

▪ What is the relationship like between Arthur and Gerald?

Arthur treats gerald like the son he never had
Arthur has a son but he is very cruel and discouraging with him while gerald is educated,
charming, an upper class aristocrat, ect..
At the same time gerald seems like he is really trying to be the son arthur never had. he just
straight up agrees with everything thant wonder out of his mouth with no doubt. this of
course boasts his pride, his hybris and makes arthur very fond of the all perfect persona
gerald seems to have of him. if I had to describe it, its probably closest to a very egocentric
defined son-father relationship. Arthur is also very fond of the benefits that come with his
daughter marrying him as the good individualistic capitalist that he is. its almost like gerald
is desperate to be close to mr.birling and has used all the tricks in the book to reach this goal.
´I agree.’

‘I know I am [lucky] – this once anyhow.’

‘I believe you’re right, sir.’

‘Oh – I say – congratulations!’

he is the ultimate ass-kisser basically.
▪ Why did Gerald avoid Sheila in past times?
If we are getting truly cliche here, he was probably with another woman.
its just a very common storyline used pretty much everywhere.
I believe this because the way gerald blames work for being away from sheila.
“I’ve told you – I was awfully busy at the works all that time.”
its when the man gets a “business meeting at night” and its “super urgent.”
its a very common excuse used with the purpose of hiding a secret relationship all the time in
books and movies.

▪ What appears to be ‘wrong’ with Eric?

well he is drunk and I would say that maybe he has a little bit of a problem with that. He
seems to have a rather strange behavior from the start. then sheila comments that
“you’re squiffy” referring to eric. his parents appear to be well aware of the issue
because when he showed signs of being drunk they just look at him and did absolutely
nothing, like they became accustomed of this behavior.
“Eric suddenly guffaws. His parents look at him.”
then sheila and eric argue about it for a second but there isn't any mention of the state
off eric from his parents.

The wrong could also refer to the way that he is treated by his parents and especially by
arthur who is clearly annoyed by his son and kind of aggressive in my opinion. since he
had at least a true starting point with the war comment and when he tried to expose his
 argument as evidence of this possible war, he was simply shut up by arthur. “Just let me
finish, Eric. You've a lot to learn yet. And I’m taking as a hard headed, practical man of
business. And I say there isn't a chance of war.” he has a very “If i say its true then, that’s
just the way it is.” actitude generally but more towards eric.
▪ What are the characters celebrating?
They are celebrating sheila’s engagement with gerald but the story makes it clear that they
don't celebrate it from the normality of acceptance, new family bods, or even an important
day in sheilas life but more from a this engagement will be making us money kind of
approach. its like they celebrate that a big business was agreed on and the birlings mostly
concentrated in social pyramid climbing that they would archive with this business.
“your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me.”
Though he isn't lying, he has another intention in mind. So while it would be normal to be
happy about your daughter engagement because she found a person that will take care and
love sheila. He might just say this because all of the money and power they will gain thanks
to that.
by this point I think it might be clear how arthur is a very self interested entity full of
arrogance and delusions of grandeur.
▪ Why do you think Edna is the one to introduce the Inspector?
Edna is just a low class maid and is disrespected by the people he works for, she is
insignificant and has no impact in the high classes she is powerless and represents the labor
class in this play. this makes reference to the miner strikes causing work disruptions which
are a big problem for mineral extraction companies and could cause mayor economic
impacts and have shown rebelion. this weak class brought major trouble to the high class.
and this is represented by Edna. The irony in this is that the insignificant Edna just introduced
the biggest problem of the Birling family.