How the play links with the Seven Deadly Sins

[Large Samuel]

Priestley cleverly links the play with the seven deadly sins. As the majority of his audience was Christian at the time and the seven deadly sins were part of Christian teachings, they would find it easy to relate to the seven deadly sins. Each character is linked with one of the sins. Mr Birling’s sin is greed; he wouldn’t pay his workers fair wages. Sheila’s sin is envy; she was jealous of Eva Smith and got her fired. Gerald’s sin is lust; he had an affair with Eva. Eric’s sin is gluttony, seeing as if he was not drunk, he wouldn’t have raped Eva. Mrs Birling’s sin is pride; if she hadn’t been so proud and felt so outraged when Eva used her name, she wouldn’t have contributed to her death. The strong correlation towards the seven deadly sins clearly helps the Christian audience at the time to understand that each of the characters did things that could happen in everyday life and that these things are wrong. I feel that this message is still valid today as many of us commit several of the seven deadly sins and should be looking at the seven virtues instead.

[Fructose]

You could also tie in that Mrs Birling is also seen as prideful as she failed to admit to any of her failings to being a mother to Eric, she never cared much for any of her children, seeing as she was genuinely surprised when she found out that Eric is a drunk, which to any public eye would seem apparant. Mrs Birling failing to admit to this is in addition showing how prideful she is, you could also say that she is also very greedy as upon Sheila finding out about Gerald cheating, Sybil Birling, her mother, HER MOTHER, said "you'll just have to put up with it." This represents a lack of care for her sons and daughters, she only cares if they profit her, or help her in some way or form, unlike any other characters, there are no positives to Sybil Birling, in the Stage directions she is stated to be a "Cold Woman." She too, is materialistic and fits in perfectly with the idea of the "Older" Generation, too stubborn and unwilling to change for the greater good of mankind.