Mrs Birling

Question 1

Social Responsibility

Answer 1

-“But i accept no blame for it at all”
- “
-“I didn’t see any reason to believe one story should be any truer than the other “

Question 2

“But i accept no blame for it at all”
-Mrs Birling
- Social Responsibility

Answer 2

• Declarative/statement, established views/ stubborn/ arragance
• No punctuation, no pauses- has not and will not think properly about it
• “It” Euphemism, dismissive/ ignore, will not talk of her death.
• Emphasises dismissal towards social responsibility

-“at all”, extra information, not needed to deliver point of sentence. Emphasises her dismissal and stubbornness

• Overview:
  Dismissive and stubborn towards social responsibility

Question 4

“I didn’t see any reason to believe one story should be any truer than the other “
- Mrs Birling
- Social Responsibility

Answer 4

• “Any” hyperbole, persuade to see her viewpoint, fully believes she is right. Justification
• ” One story” Emphasises fiction
• respectable opinion, Eva is acting fraudulent to obtain money
• Last character to interact with Eva
• Represents welfare state/ social responsibility of capitalism
• Priestly presents how charities ( run by rich, stubborn people) won’t be moral/ perform proper background checks/ be open to bias and therefore we need the welfare state.

Question 5

Age

Answer 5

• ” As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”
• ” About fifty, a rather cold women”
  -“But i accept no blame for it at all”

Question 6

” As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”
- Mrs Birling
- Age

Answer 6

” As if” Believes it to be ridiculous, emphasises impertinence

“that sort” - Grouping people together, bias, stubborn, closed minded of older people

“refuse money” - Irony, Mr Birling “ lower costs, higher prices”.
Her prejudice is wrong, emphasises the bias and closed mindedness of the older generation.

• Priestly urges younger generation to make a change

Question 7

” About fifty, a rather cold women”
- Mrs Birling
- Age

Answer 7

• “About fifty”- Establishes age, ambiguous, only needs her to be portrayed as old

” Cold” - adjective choice, connotations to uncaring, uncompassionate, heartless

associate old and these negative attributes together, forms prejudice in the audience