mrs birling Flashcards
1 “Sheila! What an expression! Really, the things you girls pick up these days!”
-exposes her superficially driven codes of conduct - cares more about etiquette than morality
-opposed to S’s use of colloquial language - emblem of progressive younger generation that challenge her beliefs
-noun “girls” belittles S to dismiss her behaviour + portray it as foolish / uncouth
-reinforces separation between older generation who are robust to newer ways of thinking + younger who seem vulnerable to “pick[ing]” them up
2 “Girls of that class”
-dismisses lower class as an aggregate inferior group that behave the same
-she ties blame to social class - bases her understanding of morality on individual’s position in class system
-collective noun “Girls” belittles E + her social group - has connotations of feebleness + immaturity
2 “He’s only a boy”
-MSB absolves E from his behaviour - example of dramatic irony as we know in reality he is far from an innocent child
-diminutive noun “boy” is almost emotive - she’s trying to evoke pity for him
2 “I consider I did my duty”
-noun “duty” could be a tool to explore the disparity in the perspectives of capitalists + socialists
-for capitalists, upholding the class system was paramount
-thus for MSB, he duty may be to uphold the class gap by refusing E help
3 “[distressed] No- Eric- please- I didn’t know- I didn’t understand-”
-her reaction to learning the truth portrays how she would have behaved differently if she had been aware of the circumstances
-pleading to E, verb “understand” is pivotal to depict how subjective welfare organisation are set to fail + should be implemented by an objective government body
-“[distressed]” shows how unfamiliar she is with being under social scrutiny
-she’s been conditioned to be a member of untouchable upper class
3 “I was the only one who didn’t give in to him”
-her expected guilt is supplemented for orthodox feelings of pride at notion of not conceding to guilt
-her overt selfishness is apparent through her boastful attitude to being immune to guilt
-amplifies suggestion that she represents the cardinal sin of pride if looking at AIC in terms of a morality play
