Character Analysis: Mrs Birling

Question 1

What is Mrs Birling used for ?

Answer 1

Priestly uses Mrs Birling to critizes the inequalities of the class system and to highlight the gender bias within Edwardian society

Question 2

How does Priestly present Mrs Birling in the open act ?

Answer 2

A plethora of negative depiction of Mrs Birling as bossy and controlling
- opening stage directions ‘ her Husbands social superior’ which is an interesting inversion of the gender roles within Edwardian society to convey her as a negative character
- Much of her initial dialogue centres on her character attempting to control those around her ‘don’t tease him’ ‘now stop it’ ’your not supposed to say such things’
- by establishing Mrs B as a controlling and demanding character Priestly conveys her as a self centered women
- her ease of giving orders and dominating those around her foreshadows her position in the committee of the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation to influence those around her to deny Eva Smith

Question 3

How does Priestly present Mrs Birlings conflict with inspector Goole?

Answer 3

He sets it up in the first Act
- in Act 2 Mrs Birling complains that his comments are a ‘trifle impertinent’. This clearly displays how she is used to getting her way and Preistly thinly veils his critism of the upper class complacency when it comes to the law through Mrs Birlings discomfort with a police Inspector

Question 4

How does Priestly use Mrs Birling as a dramatic device to develop tension ?

Answer 4

• of all the characters Mrs Birling is the most reluctant to confess her connection to Eva Smith
• She out right lied to the inspector saying ‘no why should I?’ Before admitting her connection
• with every refusal to answer Priestly raises tension and makes the audience wait for the upcoming plateau of her confession
• this is further heightened through the use of dramatic irony as the audience figure out Eric is the father yet she remains oblivious

Question 5

How can we analyze Mrs Birlings position on the committee of the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization ?

Answer 5

• women such as Eva Smith had no access to contraception or an NHS
• women were reliant on charities like the one that Mrs Birling ran
• Priestly uses Mrs Birling to demonstrate how floored this system was
• Mr Birling makes her opinion of the working class clear as they are liars who accept stolen money
• Due to her low opinion of those she is supposed to help the audience are forced to consider that she is on the committee for power and social status rather than to help those around her

Question 6

How does Priestly use the prop of Bells to present Mrs Birlings privallege ?

Answer 6

• She tells Edna she will ‘ring’ if she needs her
• the Birling families use of domestic staff highlights there outdated ways of living
• Talk about why the audience would dislike this and historical events giving women more rights
• preistly inclusion of Edna and Mrs Birlings ordering her about to emphasize the archaic ways of the upper echelons of Edwardian society

Question 7

How does Priestly use Mrs Birling to develop the theme of Gender ?

Answer 7

• we see Eva smith being objectified by male characters such as Gerald and how Sheila is infantilized by her parents
• Even Mrs Birling suffers this inequality of Gender
• despite her ‘social’ superiority to her Husband she still behaves in a manor that conforms to the patriarchal standards of Victorian England
• indeed she promotes this idea to Sheila as she exudes Gerald’s actions telling her that men have more important things to do and spend their ‘time and energy on their buissness’
• Mrs Birling openly accepts the unjust Gender roles of Victorian society which subverts the expectation we have as an audience due to the political reforms taking place due to the suffragette movement
• Priestly uses Mrs Birling to convey the unrealistic idea of women being delicate and in need of protection from the real world and men should work

Question 8

How does Prieslty uses Mrs Birlings attitude to present her conforming to the conventional gender roles of Edwardian society ? ( alcahol)

Answer 8

• in Edwardian England, Middel/Upper class Women didn’t have the same freedom to drink as men
• Mrs Birling is reluctant to drink alcoholic however upon being pushed agrees to ‘just a little’
• this cautious attitude to alcahol is an antithetically pared by her sons juxtaposing aittidues towards it who goes out drinking in Brumley
• Priestley draws our attention to this unfair double standard within the Edwardian gender role of English society