How far does Priestley present male characters as irresponsible in the play?

In ‘an inspector calls’ Priestley shows male irresponsibility through both Eric and Mr Birling and their selfish actions to illustrate the deeply rooted flaws in Pre WW1 England and its classism. Through Eric's drunken mistakes and Mr Birling's capitalist mindset Priestley exposes the reality of a flawed society built on the exploitation of its workers. in ‘An Inspector Calls’ Priestly presents male characters as irresponsible through Eric and his treatment of women , especially when drunk, in order to highlight the flaws in Edwardian society and its misogynistic roots. This can be seen throughout the play, as shown immediately in Act one where Sheila states “Eric you seem squiffy” the adjective “squiffy” shows how Eric is a man with a lack of self restraint, as our immediate introduction Eric is him under the influence, this is because Eric is a symbol used by priestley to show how men can evade responsibility through the consumption of alcohol. This is further developed when Eric later states he “used her for the end of a drunken evening” clearly disregarding the fact that Eva Smith is a person and yet she is “used” animalistically, this is because in Edwardian society women were seen as inferior to men solely due to their gender; thus heinous crimes against them were normalised as shown by the fact that he continued to use her repeatedly entirely because she was a “good sport” showing the morbid disregard for morality, this is because the phrase “good sport” continues to treat Eva Smith as a toy due to her status as a working class woman. in ‘An Inspector Calls’ Priestly presents male irresponsibility through Mr Birling and the treatment of his family , in order to embolden the costs of a patriarchal society. This can be seen when during his opening speech he refers to himself as a “Hard headed man of business” and the fact that “a man should mind his own business” exposing his insular mindset and how he believes in capitalism. The line “hard headed” presents how egotistical mr birling is, this is because he describes himself this way rather than expecting others to, this further shows his myopic view where he believes only his opinion shall matter and the fact that he is teaching this to his own son , Eric, shows how he believes his opinion is fact rather than opinion and that the future generations should follow. In addition, Mr Birling states “the issue is- you've been spoilt” when confronting Eric and his troubles, the fact that Mr Birling pins Eric’s issues not on his own failure as a parent to raise a decent child but contrarily the idea that he in fact gave too much as shown by the adjective “spoilt” , this is because Mr Birling, as the patriarch and business owner, is too busy for Eric, so rather than spending time on Eric he only spends money , further developing how he believes money is the solution. Eventually, when Eric’s actions are revealed he states “you aren't the kind of father a chap can go to in trouble” bolstering the familial divide between how Mr Birling believes he is a great father where as Eric entirely juxtaposes this view by representing the effects of a child lacking familial love. This shows us the extent to which Mr Birling is irresponsible, blaming his faults onto his children due to his inability to accept responsibility. This can also be seen with Sheila where Mr Birling tells her to “run along”, the use of the imperative “run” followed by “along” creates the tone of superiority where he speaks down to his own child as if she were an animal rather than a person. Perhaps Priestley does this to show his socialist beliefs where we help one another and using Mr Birling as the antithesis to his views in order to show audiences the cost of capitalism.

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