Mr Birling - The Stubborn Capitalist
Mr Birling is Priestley's poster boy for everything wrong with capitalism. His dismissive attitude shows when he calls Eva's suicide "nothing to do with the wretched girl's suicide" - notice how the apostrophe distances him from any blame.
Even when faced with evidence, Birling stays defensive and self-absorbed. The stage direction "(jovially)" when he says "the whole thing's different now" shows how unseriously he treats the matter. He's more worried about avoiding responsibility than showing genuine remorse.
His dramatic irony really hits hard when he calls the Titanic "unsinkable" and dismisses the possibility of war as a "silly little war scare". Priestley uses this to show how wrong the older generation's confidence really was.
Remember: Birling represents the older generation who refuse to change their capitalist ways, making him a symbol of everything Priestley wants to criticise.
