Mr and mrs B as parents Flashcards
Sheila! What an expression! Really, the things you girls pick up these days.
This exposes her superficially driven codes of conduct as she cares more about etiquette than morality. She is opposed to Sheila use of colloquial language as she is an emblem of the progressive younger generation that challenges her beliefs . Through the use of the noun “girl” she directly belittles Sheila in order to dismiss her behaviour and portray it as foolish and uncouth, she reinforces the separation between the older generation who are robust to these newer ways of thinking and the younger ones that seem vulnerable to picking ‘ them up as if they are a disease
“He’s only a boy”
Mrs b absolves Eric from his behaviour , although this is an example of dramatic irony as we know in reality hr is far from innocent child.
Reader astonished by her delusional behaviour.
The diminutive noun “boy” is almost emotive , she is trying to evoke pity for him.
“I was the only one who didn’t give into him”
Her expected guilt is supplemented by unorthodox feelings of pride at the notion of not conceding to guilt . Her overt selfishness is apparent through her boastful attitude to being immune to guilt. This amplifies the suggestion that she represents the cardinal sin of pride, if looking at AIC in terms of a morality play.
Mr b “you’re the one to blame for this”
Mr birling without hesitation throws his son under the his and blames him for Eva’s death an loosing his knighthood demonstrating the capitalist ideologies of selfishness and is exerting the views that Everyman for themselves
Sheila “mummy daddy” to mother and father
Semantic field of childishness produced through Sheila’s Use of infantile language emphasises her immaturity and ignorance . Priestly deliberately uses childish language to present her as spoilt and innocent of world. Switch in nouns highlights Sheila’s enlightenment to her parents selfish and ignorant mindset .
Eric “you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to”
Birling is not the ideal guardian or head of a family as a father figure, if such capitalist cannot be great fathers or leaders of a family how can they then lead society in general. If sons can’t turn to such wealthy industrialist in times of trouble then how can society rely on such people. Priestly critical of capitalist as he presents them as unreliable. Perhaps poor parenting contributed to the void that Eric might be feeling which he attempts to fill by alcohol
“He certainly didn’t make me confess”
Mrs b overtly proud of rejection of responsibility.
Very confess has connotations of crime , she assert that she has not been unlawful in her actions to implicitly suggest she is not responsible. “Make” hints another reason for rejection , trying to keep afloat of power struggle between her and insp. mrs b lexis here insinuates that admitting responsibility would be conceding to the insp which threatens her social role .
