(Character) Mrs Birling Flashcards
Role in the family
Although she is of a higher class than her husband, she is subservient (lets him control her) to him in a patriarchal (male ruled) household and society. She is in charge of the household and of teaching Sheila how to be a good-mannered young lady who understands pre-war etiquette perfectly.
Role in the play
Priestley portrays a stereotypical upper-class pre-war woman – she is concerned about her reputation, social status and appearance. Her priorities are to keep an unblemished (perfect) reputation and dress well so as to show off her husband’s wealth. She shares her husband’s capitalist ideas about people only looking after themselves – she is uninterested in how her actions affect others. Mrs Birling represents the selfish attitudes of the wealthy higher classes. She thinks lower-class people deserve their misfortune and thinks they are completely inferior to her.
Connection with Eva
When a pregnant Eva approached the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation for financial help, Mrs Birling (who chaired the committee) took a disliking to her and refused to give her any help.
Uncaring upper class
Priestley uses Mrs Birling to really bring out the uncaring, selfish, self-centred nature of the upper classes in society.
He felt that these were the people who needed to change in order to improve wider society.
People like Mrs Birling needed to care about other people to accept the changes that needed to happen to improve everyone’s lives (not just those of the upper classes).
Mrs Birling refuses to even cooperate with a police detective, showing that she feels she is above the law – instead, she challenges him and calls him ‘impertinent’ for doing his job.
Cold-hearted
Priestley highlights Mrs Birling as cold-hearted and unlikable throughout the play.
Right from the start, she scolds Mr Birling for a small social error.
Interactions with Inspector Goole
She is the only character to stay completely unaffected by Inspector Goole’s revelations – she shows no emotion about Eva until she learns about Eric’s involvement.
Mrs Birling also tries to intimidate Inspector Goole into leaving and lies to him outright.
Later in the play, she tries to deny truths that she doesn’t want to believe because they tarnish (ruin) the perfect image of the family (such as Eric’s drinking and Gerald’s affair with Eva).
Accepts no blame and doesn’t change
Although she comes to accept her children’s faults by the end, Mrs Birling refuses to accept that she played any role in Eva Smith’s death.
She does not care at all about the lives of the lower classes, and feels that Eva’s misfortunes were her own fault.
By the end of the play, Mrs Birling has also not changed at all. She wants to dismiss the whole evening.
Is this why they get a second visit from a real police inspector? Does Inspector Goole act as a warning, which they do not take?
Significance of Mrs Birling
Mrs Birling highlights the negative aspects of capitalism and how the upper classes mistreated lower-class people.
Mistreatment of lower classes
Mrs Birling also helps to show how terrible life was for lower-class people in pre-war Britain – their lives depended on higher-class people making the decisions for them. If their social superiors chose to mistreat them, or not help them, there was little that lower-class people could do to have a happy life.
Negative aspects of capitalism
Priestley uses Mrs Birling to highlight serious social issues in British society – capitalism bred people who did not care for anyone but themselves, and who saw lower-class people as less than human. This means that they did not care how they treated these people. Priestley presents Mrs Birling as a villain to encourage the audience to understand the horrible consequences of a capitalist society – he knew that social attitudes needed to change for society to become fairer and more caring.
‘I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this.’ (Act 1 )
Etiquette-
Mrs Birling, being of a higher social class, understands the rules of pre-war etiquette (custom behaviour) very well.
She scolds (tells off) her husband for discussing business at the dinner table, when they are celebrating and her daughter is present.
Society and reputation-
Mrs Birling is obsessed with how she and her family are perceived by others – she does not want to risk Gerald thinking that they do not know how to behave properly in society because this could damage the Birlings’ reputation.
Women-
She also disapproves of Mr Birling mentioning business matters in front of Sheila.
This is because it was not considered appropriate to discuss business with women, who were thought to be too fragile, unintelligent and emotionally unstable to take part in such conversation
‘It would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen to this story at all. (Act 2)
Family-
Mrs Birling focuses on how her family should behave around other people – she feels that Sheila should not be exposed to the nasty reality of the tale of Eva Smith.
She tries to protect Sheila from the harsh truths of life.
Class dynamics-
This suggests that the upper class did their best to avoid recognising the hardships of working-class people – these harsh truths are considered inappropriate for Sheila to hear.
Mrs Birling is happy for Eva Smith (who was around the same age) to experience them first-hand – because she is lower-class.
‘I was the only one who didn’t give in to him.’ (Act 3)
Refusal to accept blame
Mrs Birling views it as a victory that she did not accept any of the blame the Inspector tried to lay at her feet.
She is almost smug in this statement because she mocks the others for answering Inspector Goole’s questions truthfully.
In some cases, she mocks people for feeling the guilt he was trying to get out of them.
Again, this emphasises her selfish, uncaring and cold nature.
