Of Mice And Men- Candy Character Profile (GCSE)

Candy

Candy is described as being a ‘tall, stoop-shouldered old man.’ ‘Stoop-shouldered’ suggests that he is weak and perhaps too old to be much help to the ranch anymore, as it gives the reader the impression of a frail and tired old man. However, ‘tall’ gives the impression that, in his day, Candy was a useful and fine young man, which makes the reader sympathise with him because he no longer has his use. One of the first things that is mentioned about Candy is that he has no hand, which further shows that he is of little use and suggests that perhaps his days working on a ranch are numbered. By putting specific emphasis on his injury, we instantly know that it is going to be a problem for Candy later on in the novella. Every time Candy speaks, it is described as being slow and thoughtful. This shows his age, and that he has seen many men come through the ranch and is trying to work out what the best way to approach the situation would be. The way that he is physically described reflects his personality, as it suggests that he is a slow but gentle and intelligent man. We like Candy from the start, because of the positive descriptions of him.

Candy likes George and Lennie from the start of meeting them. He likes them because he realises that they aren’t bad men and that they aren’t mean like the other ranch workers can be. They also allow him to be a part of the dream later on in the novella, which means that he likes them even more, as they are his ‘get out of jail free card.’ George and Lennie like Candy, as Candy is always nice to them. They also clearly trust him, as they let him be part of the dream, in return for some of Candy’s money. They are thankful towards Candy, as his money will mean that they can get the ranch even quicker. Candy likes Slim, as Slim is fair to everyone. Even though Slim is the reason that Candy’s dog ends up being shot, Candy realises that it was the fairest thing to do, and doesn’t hold it against Slim at all. Slim likes Candy and treats him with every bit of respect he deserves. Candy makes a bit of a friend in Crooks for a while after they bonded in Crooks’ room. Candy thinks that Crooks is a nice man, and realises that race doesn't define personality. Crooks almost starts to like Candy after the meeting, but his defences go straight back up again after he leaves, taking back  what he had said about wanting to join the ranch with them all.

One of the key themes explored through Candy is loneliness. Candy’s only real friend on the ranch is his dog. When Candy’s dog dies, it shows that Candy just becomes one of the typical lonely ranch workers. Candy had his dog since it was a puppy, and as such became very attached to it. Candy makes friends with George and Lennie and almost has the chance to start a new life with them so that he doesn’t have to be on his own. When Lennie is shot, Candy realises that he is just going to have to get used to being on his own for the rest of his life, and he ends up with nobody, not even his dog, to keep him company.

Another key theme is the theme of discrimination. Candy is both old and disabled, and so is one of the most discriminated against workers on the ranch. Candy knows that because of his hand and his age he will not be any use to anyone soon, and so is aware of the discrimination he is going to face. He knows that he will be fired, because he saw the same thing happen to his dog- shot because he was old and useless. Candy is almost saved from his fate by George, Lennie and the dream. But after Lennie is shot, Candy must resign himself to the fact that he will have to stay at the ranch until he is no longer needed and kicked out.  

An Inspector Calls- Sybil Birling Character Profile (GCSE)

Sybil Birling

Sybil is described as a ‘cold woman.’ This suggests that she is heartless and does not feel emotions. This foreshadows the rest of the play, as she is the coldest person when hearing her story told by the inspector. She denies all responsibility, admits to being prejudiced against Eva’s case, refuses to show any remorse about the girl’s death and can’t see why everyone else is horrified by the way she is talking. She is called her husband’s ‘social superior,’ which suggests that she has always known wealth and life as a middle-class woman. The beginning of the play doesn’t name her, and, in the description, it only says ‘his wife’ (referring to Mr Birling.) This reflects the attitudes toward women at the time, as they were mainly viewed as exclusively the possessions of their husbands. This all reflects Mrs Birling’s personality, as she has very traditional views. Mrs Birling is stuck in her ways and still sees everyone of a lower class than her as worthless. This especially comes into play when being questioned by the inspector, as he tries (and fails) to make her realise that everyone matters, not just people with influence and money like herself.

Sybil’s relationships with other characters do not really vary much through the play. Mr Birling sees her as his possession, and a way by which to further his social standing. Mrs Birling, in return, plays the part of the little wife that does all of her husband’s bidding and serves as an object. Though they both get along, there is very much the presence of an unloving relationship, and Mrs Birling even hints towards the fact that Mr Birling may have had an affair in the early days of their relationship. This relationship has many parallels to that of Sheila and Gerald, but Sheila manages to get out of it before they marry, which shows the start of a time where women are smarter and more independent. Mrs Birling treats both Eric and Sheila in the same way. She sees them as little children, when, in reality, they are adults and more than capable of handling situations. She frequently refers to Sheila as ‘over excited,’ which shows her dismissive views of her children’s opinions and thoughts. This reflects the middle-class attitude of the time, when the children were protected and shielded from anything and everything. Sheila and Eric both play up to this in the beginning of the play- Sheila especially, who calls her parents ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy.’ But, as the play progresses, they both learn to resent Mrs Birling for the way that she is acting and the way that she treats them. Mrs Birling sees Gerald as a worthy son in law, and Gerald, in turn, respects her.

Themes explored through Mrs Birling:

• ·         Responsibility- ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation.'  ‘Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.' ‘I accept no blame for it at all.’
• ·         Women- 'Now Sheila don’t tease him... men with important work…’ ‘Over excited... And she refuses to go.’
• ·         Truth- 'And if I was, what business is it of yours?'
• ·         Social Class- ‘Girls of that class-’

An Inspector Calls- Sheila Birling Character Profile (GCSE)

Sheila Birling

Sheila is described as ‘rather excited’ and ‘pleased with life.’ This suggests that she is childish and not really aware of how the world works. This changes throughout the play, as Sheila’s character, develops into one of the wisest and most selfless characters. Though at the beginning she is very much the stereotypical, materialistic young female character of the time, over the course of the play she undergoes a major character development. One of the first things that Sheila is described as is ‘pretty.’ This is typical of the time, as the vast majority of young women were considered nothing more than good for their looks, especially those of middle-class. Once again, this changes in the eyes of the audience as the play progresses, but most of the other characters remain blinded by the fact that she is a woman and pretty, and therefore shouldn’t have opinions on subjects such as the suicide of a girl and capitalism. The fact that she is described as ‘pretty’ also emphasises her delicateness, which plays a huge part through the play. For example, she is not allowed to listen to the details of the suicide because she is a girl and still considered a child, even though she is twenty.

Sheila’s relationships with other characters change dramatically throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, she has a very close relationship with both her mother and her father, acting like a very small child whilst they both treated her as such. However, as the play progresses, their relationships deteriorate. Mr Birling begins the investigation being very protective of Sheila, and ends it being very much of the opinion that Sheila is young and therefore has no valid opinions. This angers Sheila, as she feels that he is being incredibly selfish and uncooperative towards the inspector, who she sides with. Sybil carries on treating Sheila like a naïve child all of the way through the investigations, but Sheila starts to resent her mother because of this. Sheila’s relationship with Eric changes, too. At the beginning of the play there is a lot of sibling rivalry evident, but during the investigation, Eric is the only person that wholly supports and stands by Sheila. This strengthens their relationship, as it is suddenly the children against the adults rather than all of the adults against Eric. Sheila’s relationship with Gerald changes dramatically. At the beginning of the play, Sheila and Gerald were set to be married and very much in love, with Sheila following Gerald blindly in everything he would do. However, as Sheila gets more confident in her independence and opinions, she realises that Gerald is everything that she dislikes in her father: greedy, self-orientated and with no respect for women. This makes her give him the engagement ring back and ask for some time to think, which shows that Sheila is now tired of being pushed around and used.

Themes explored through Sheila

·         Responsibility- 'I know I’m to blame – and I’m desperately sorry'

·         Truth- ‘Why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows.’

·         Women- 'What was she like? Quite young?' ‘Pretty?’

·         Social class- 'But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.'

An Inspector Calls- Inspector Goole Character Profile (GCSE)

Inspector Goole

The Inspector is described as not a big man, but he ‘creates at once an air of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.’ This foreshadows the dominance the inspector would have over the rest of the character throughout the rest of the play. He is a contrast from Mr Birling who is a ‘heavy looking’ man, and therefore large, but not ‘solid or purposeful.’ The inspector at once makes everyone aware that he is in charge of the whole situation, and immediately establishes dominance over Birling, who is stubborn and, until now, never questioned. The inspector has a ‘disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking.’ This foreshadows the idea that the inspector may have something almost paranormal and supernatural about him, as he seems to work out what the other characters have done before they even say anything. This creates the sense of fear that the other characters feel around him, and explains why the majority of the characters try to dodge the questioning right from the moment they meet him.

The inspector’s relationships within the play vary between characters but do not really change over the course of the play. The inspector and Mr Birling have a power struggle from the very moment they meet. Mr Birling tries desperately to make the inspector feel uneasy and threatened, but really it is him that ends up looking like a fool. Mr Birling dislikes the inspector, thinking that he is rude for questioning him. The inspector clearly does not think much of Mr Birling either and does his best to discredit him in his investigation, making his whole capitalist ideology look ridiculous. The inspector and Sheila form an alliance fairly quickly in the investigation when Sheila realises that the inspector’s message of socialism makes a lot of sense. Eric, towards the end, also joins this team. This was the inspector’s intention all along, as he says to Mr Birling that the younger ones are usually more impressionable. Mrs Birling and the inspector have a bad relationship from the beginning of her questioning. She is perhaps the least cooperative out of all of the characters and refuses to admit any sort of wrongdoing- even when the rest of her family agree that she was in the wrong. Mrs Birling goes as far as to call the inspector ‘impertinent.’ The inspector, once again, makes a fool out of Mrs Birling by making her inadvertently push her own son under the bus with her blaming. The inspector and Gerald have a fairly straightforward relationship in that he recognises he did something wrong but refuses to take all of the blame for what happened to Eva. Gerald does not trust the inspector and suspects that something is wrong from the very beginning of the investigation, but he is not overly rude to him.

Key themes explored through Inspector Goole:

• ·         Responsibility- ‘We are all members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’
• ·         Social Class- ‘If there weren’t, the factories and warehouses wouldn’t know where to look for cheap labour.’
• ·         Women- ‘Used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person.’
• ·         Age- "We often do [make an impression] on the young ones. They're more impressionable."

An Inspector Calls- Gerald Croft Character Profile (GCSE)

Gerald Croft

Gerald is described as an ‘attractive chap,’ ‘too manly to be a dandy,’ and the ‘well-bred young man-about- town.’ ‘Well-bred’ shows that his family is important and well off, very much the stereotypical upper-middle-class family of the time. This also shows the importance of his background in relation to the play, as this is what Mr Birling finds to be the best thing about Gerald. ‘Too manly to be a dandy’ suggests that he is not like all of the other young men of his class, as he is more interested in other things than his clothing and things of that nature. ‘Attractive man’ is important as it is another one of the superficial attributes that is weighted so heavily throughout the play. Sheila, for example, is obsessed with how things and people look at the beginning of the play, and so it would make sense for her to choose a partner based on something as shallow and superficial as attractiveness. Gerald knows the importance of his family and business and is very much like Mr Birling in this regard.

Gerald’s relationships with other characters do not change a dramatic amount over the course of the play. Gerald and Sheila start the play madly in love, flirting and joking with each other at the table like any newly engages couple would do. Gerald gets her an engagement ring at the beginning, which shows how serious they are about each other. There are hints that the relationship isn’t as perfect as they make out, as Sheila mentions that he didn’t go anywhere near her last summer. After Gerald’s confession, Sheila gives him the engagement ring and tells him to leave, showing that she cannot trust him after finding out about what he did. At the very end of the play, she hints that she may take him back, but they would have to start again in learning to trust each other. Gerald and Eric never really get along, and they both make jokes and quips at each other throughout the play. Gerald and Mr Birling maintain a good relationship throughout the play, even during hearing what Gerald had done to Sheila. This is because Mr Birling sees the potential in a marriage between Sheila and Gerald, and so is willing to forgive him for breaking his daughter’s heart just to ensure his business success. Mrs Birling and Gerald get along also. At the start of the play she is seen to be sucking up to Gerald, and she too is quick to forget all that Gerald had done.

Themes explored through Gerald:

• ·         Social Class- ‘Perhaps I ought to explain first that this is Mr Gerald Croft- the son of sir George Croft- you know, Crofts Limited.’ ~ Mr Birling to Inspector
• ·         Responsibility- ‘Everything’s all right now, Sheila.’
• ·         Truth- ‘No. I wasn’t telling a complete lie when I said I’d been very busy at the works all that time.’

An Inspector Calls- Eric Birling Character Profile (GCSE)

Eric Birling

Eric is described as ‘not quite at ease,’ ‘half shy’ and ‘half assertive.’ ‘Not quite at ease’ suggests that Eric is hiding something, which foreshadows the rest of the play when we find out that he was the one to get Eva pregnant. This could also be hinting at the fact that Eric is hiding a drinking problem and so is not very comfortable around alcohol or in social situations where he must control himself. ‘Half shy’ describes what he is like when sober. When he is with his family at dinner, he is not very loud or brash. He speaks and argues slightly with Sheila, but overall he appears to be a fairly quiet person. However, later in the play we find out that he is also ‘half assertive.’ This seems to be when he is drunk, like the way that he pressured Eva into sleeping with him. This shows that Eric has two very different sides to him, and this isn’t made clear to his family until later when the Inspector brings it all out again.

Eric’s relationships also change over the course of the play, but not quite as dramatically as some of the other characters. At the start of the play, Eric and Sheila argue and have quite a lot of sibling rivalry, but this comes across as more playful and joking than serious. By the end of the play, they are a lot closer due to the fact they both have the same opinions on the matter of the death and how things should change. Sheila and Eric both have new found respect and a new alliance by the end of the play. Eric is not fond on Gerald from the beginning of the play. His father seems to favour Gerald over Eric, which makes Eric somewhat jealous of Gerald. Gerald does not respect Eric and is quick to throw him under the bus when the situation arises about his drinking. Eric and Mr Birling don’t get along at the start or end of the play. In the beginning, Mr Birling suggests that he would rather have Gerald as a son than Eric, which of course makes Eric dislike his father. As the play progresses, their relationship gets steadily worse, the breaking point of which being when a shouting match breaks out between the men. Eric and Mrs Birling’s relationship is not really explicit at the start of the play and appears to be a normal relationship a mother and a son would have. However, by the end of the play, their relationship is completely destroyed. Eric blames his mother for sending Eva away when she needed help, even accusing her of murdering her own grandchild. Mrs Birling has, by this point, already expressed her opinions of the boy that caused the pregnancy, and it is too late to take all of that back just because she has found out that it is her son. Both of them, by the end, have lost all respect they had for each other.

Themes explored through Eric:

• ·         Social Class- ‘I don’t see why she should have been sacked just because she's a bit more spirit than the others. You said yourself she’s a good worker.’
• ·         Truth- ‘You know, don’t you?’
• ·         Responsibility- ‘The fact remains that I did what I did.’

An Inspector Calls- Arthur Birling Character Profile (GCSE)

Arthur Birling

Arthur is described as a ‘heavy-looking, rather portentous man.’ ‘Heavy-looking,’ suggests that he is fat, probably due to his rich diet as a middle-class man. Another way in which this could be meant is that he is heavy ‘looking.’ He gives the impression of someone that has weight (power, authority) but inside he is really quite hollow. He is in his middle fifties, which suggests that he would have a lot of life experience, but also perhaps a lot of prejudices. As it is with a lot of older generations, Mr Birling still has the opinions of someone living in the past. This is one of the reasons why Sheila and Eric don’t agree with him in the end- they are able to see things from a modern point of view. The way that Birling is physically described reflects his personality in many ways. He is a show-off. Mr Birling is dressed in tails and white ties, which suggests that he is well off. It also suggests that he enjoys having any reason to show off his wealth and family significance, and takes great pleasure in being middle class.

Mr Birling has different relationships with different characters. Mr Birling likes his wife (Sybil) but we are lead to believe that he likes the idea of her more than her as an actual person. She is his ‘social superior,’ and so, by having a well-off wife, Mr Birling, by default, is also well-off. He doesn’t ever admit any love, or give any impression of feelings, towards her at any point in the play. Sybil likes her husband, but it once again seems like an entirely looks-based relationship. Sybil even says to Sheila, later on, that she had to get used to Mr Birling working a lot. This leads me to believe that he had an affair like Gerald. Mr Birling tries to protect Sheila in any way he can, trying to shield her from the real world at every gruesome detail. He treats her as if she is a little girl, even though she is in her twenties. He does not have the best relationship ever with her, as she disagrees and argues with him about the inspector’s message. Sheila dislikes her father by the end of the play, as she has grown to realise that he is a self-obsessed man. Eric and Mr Birling don’t have a good relationship. Mr Birling doesn’t like Eric because he has his own opinions and doesn’t act in the way that Mr Birling expects his son to act. Eric hates his father for the most part, as Mr Birling acts as if Gerald would be a better son than Eric, which upsets him. Birling really likes Gerald, because of Gerald’s family, social standing and the business opportunities that come with having him as a son in law. Birling sucks up to Gerald, even buying the same port that his father gets. Gerald likes Mr Birling and takes great pleasure in ganging up alongside him against Eric, and trying to establish himself as a major part of the family.

Themes explored through Mr Birling:

• ·         Social Class- 'There's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List.' Just a knighthood, of course'-'But it’s a bit too early for that. So don’t say anything.'
• ·         Responsibility- ‘I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward'
• ·         Truth- ‘It has nothing whatever to do with this wretched girl’s suicide. Eh, Inspector?’