Priestly's view on Society in an Inspector Calls

In the first five pages Arthur Birling comes across as a modest, only thinks about himself and money type of man.
Mr Birling is the working type, who isn’t rich through ancestors but by earning it. Priestly describes Arthur in the prologue for Act one (the first page) as a rather portentous man, in his middle-fifties, with easy manners but has a rather narrow mind. Arthur Birling’s role in the play is that of a family man, who takes up the dominant male position throughout. Later on we hear that Birling sacked the ever-mysterious character of Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton from his factory, just because she asked for a little more money. The inspector points this out as one of the starting factors, which then led to the young girl’s death.
Priestlys use of irony on page two shows how much Birling actually knew about his son, Eric. We learn later on in the play that Eric is an alcoholic, and had had the problem years. The stage direction ‘He pushes the drink towards Eric’ (on pag...