In the introduction of Act One, we are given a few brief details about Mr Birling by the author. We are told that he is a 'heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.'
             So we already know that Mr Birling is a man of some significance who is quite well mannered. Although, just by the way in which the author has mentioned that even though all those things are visible, the way he speaks shows him up. He is not a highly intellectual man of upper-class grace, but a man who still speaks with limited interests and narrow-minded views, a man who may well have moved up a level or two in social grouping but still lacks refinement and good taste.
             At the start of the play, we discover that the Birling's are in the middle of a dinner party, to celebrate the engagement of Mr Birling's daughter, Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of a rival factory owner.
             Mr Birling behaves in a very high-spirited manner and is extremely euphoric because he is pleased about his daughter's engagement. Some Fathers would be saddened to see their daughters married off and others maybe quite pleased because they are safe in the knowledge that their daughter has found a nice partner to care for them. However, Mr Birling is the latter but he also appears to be more enthusiastic than the couple in question! He is very gallant and brash. He would gain a great deal from this marriage as well. Now we know he is a brave but vulgarly self0assertive man who always declares himself to be true.
             'Oh-come-I'm treating Gerald like one of the family.'
             'It's one of the happiest nights of my life.'
             'You're just the kind of son-in-law I've always wanted. Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now-though Crofts Ltd are both older and bigger than Birling & Company - and now you've brought us together.'
             He means this on a social and economic scale. He is basically more conc...