Before we get to social Darwinism we need to understand what the man himself, Charles Darwin, had to say about things. Before Darwin, people generally believed that God created the world and why bother worrying about anything else.
Rather that us having been dropped on earth by a big hand from the sky, Darwin said that all life had gradually changed over millions of years to be what it is today. His idea was “the survival of the fittest” in that the strongest animals were around longer to have more babies and therefore pass on the parts of them that made them stronger. For examples, the giraffe with the biggest neck got more to eat as he could get to the higher leaves. He then lived longer to have more of his own baby giraffes that inherited his long neck from him. Mr Rhino with the big horn got the same deal. The lions wouldn't mess with him so he would live longer and have more children than his stubby horned Steve his rhino mate. This seems simple now but was an absolutely groundbreaking idea that has made Darwin one of the most famous scientists of all time.
Social Darwinism rocked up in the late 1800s in which Darwin’s theory of evolution was used to justify certain political views. Darwin didn’t link his ideas to humans but he nicked catchy phrases like “survival of the fittest” from men like Herbert Spencer and Scrooge’s mate Thomas Malthus to sell his theory to the public. Spencer applied the idea of “survival of the fittest” to unrestricted capitalism. He believed that people could genetically pass traits like morality and frugality (being good with money) onto their children and opposed any laws that helped workers, the poor, and the genetically weak; such laws would delay the extinction of the unfit he claimed! Charming chap.
So what’s the link? Well Priestley wrote the play at the end of the war fighting Nazis (as you know, these guys were definitely big on Social Darwinism). They took a very extreme view on how to eliminate those they felt were genetically inferior to themselves. Negative eugenics was the term used to describe the idea that you could get rid of those deemed weak through mass murder or sterilisation. The holocaust was a truly awful example of this. But as Spencer shows, Victorian Britain wasn't immune to popularising ideas linked to negative eugenics. In the 1870s, Francis Galton invented the term eugenics and said that eventually through breeding we would end up with a genetic underclass who would be ‘enemies of the State’. He said they would give up ‘all claims to kindness’ which sounds deeply worrying and very like the ideas of Nazi Germany 60 years later. Priestley would have been aware of the debate about genetics that had raged in the generations before his.
Even if these ideas had died down in Britain by 1945, the British class system was that you “knew your place”. People like Mrs Birling would have believed the working class would be subordinate, immoral and ugly; an unchangeable law of nature. Eva is punished by society for simply not knowing her place. Eva “had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go” but Birling lets those willing to be subordinate stay. Gerald was comfortable with the subordinate Eva who initiated their meet with a “cry for help”. He even rejects the "hard-eyed" women and goes for the softer Eva who he can manipulate. Her subordination to Eric goes upsettingly further but she is then punished when she has morals that are above her place and refuses his money. The idea that immorality is genetically hard-wired into the “girls of that sort” is shown in the utter disbelief of Mrs B that she would ever turn down the money. Eva’s beauty also goes against Social Darwinism. If she had been a “plain little creature”, Sheila wouldn’t be bothered (zoom in on “creature” there guys).
I reckon Priestley’s little final message though, to show that this idea is total hypocritical nonsense, is that there is one other person who doesn’t know his place and want to climb. That is Mr Birling and his survival in public life is about to come crashing down with that phone call at the end.
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