Mrs Birling Flashcards
it isn’t true. You know him, Gerald -and you’re a man – you must know it isn’t true.
This is in response to comments about Eric being a heavy drinker. Ironically whilst calling Eric a ‘boy’ she calls Gerald a ‘man’. Why is it that Eric has not developed in to a young male who is recognised as an adult ‘man’ whilst Gerald has? Is this perhaps partially due to faulty parenting by the Birlings? If they cannot parent properly and if the mother does not even know about what her son is truly like then how can they act as models for the rest of society and have a decisive saying in how society should be run? All through the play, Priestley is undermining the credibility of the wealthy English elite and their ability to dominate British society and decide how Britain should be governed.
i’m very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame
This is one of the most important quotes in the play and the very antithesis of what J.B. Priestley is attempting to expound via the play. Eva did not bring all of this upon herself. She was the victim of a society where she had to struggle to survive and suffered. Mrs Birling’s comments are cruel and reflect a lack of pity for Eva’s suffering and also do not take in to account the role of her family in Eva’s sad demise. The wealthy in society cannot exonerate themselves from the suffering of the poor and bear responsibility. This is the fundamental message of the play that Priestley is seeking to promote..
please don’t contradict me like that. And in any case I don’t suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class–
Mrs Birling tells her daughter Sheila not to contradict with her. She is obviously entrenched in a mindset which is heavily hierarchical including the importance of parental authority. All through out her quotes we can see her telling people to do this and do that or not do this and that. She believes in certain norms that need to be conformed to. She is the exact opposite of an agent of change, the sort of change J.B. Priestley is looking for.
The second part of this quote where she says that they cannot understand why Eva committed suicide is implicitly saying that rather than the working class being fellow human beings with common human emotions and needs are almost akin to a different breed of being. The gap between the wealthy and the working class is such that the mindset of the working class would be incomprehensible to Mrs Birling and nor should there be any attempt to comprehend them. They are a lower, inferior species of being as is clear when Mrs Birling rather contemptuously says ‘Girls of that class’. That is of a lower, inferior class.
