MRS BIRLING
It is difficult to find any positive characteristics of Mrs Birling throughout the play. Her sense of superiority is greater than even her husband. She is unkind to her children and shows no guilt at the end at all. The fact she runs a charity to help the poor is more likely a way to raise her status and to show off her wealth than any genuine care for the young women she is supposed to support.
PIVOTAL MOMENTS
-Shows herself as distant but superior at the engagement dinner (Act 1)
-Falls straight into the inspector’s trap and says the father of the child was to blame (Act 2)
-Her reaction when the inspector leaves is consistent with her complete lack of shame or guilt throughout the whole play (Act 3)
PURPOSE
Priestley uses Mrs Birling to show the hypocrisy of the upper classes. She uses any opportunity to suggest “girls” of Eva’s ”class” are immoral but is blind to her own family’s immorality and criminality.
She is also used to show women’s inferior place in society. Despite being a stronger character than her husband, she still wants to ”leave you men” after dinner so that can discuss important issues. She knows a woman’s place and will inflict these ideas on her own daughter.
STRETCH VOCAB
Arrogant
Hubristic
Egotistical
Patronizing
Insincere
Hypocritical
Ignorant
Conceited
Condescending
Supercilious
Pretentious
Key Quotation Analysis
LINKS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
MR BIRLING
Mr Birling is her husband though her higher class means that she has more power than we might expect for a woman of this time. We know her parents were disappointed that she married Arthur; in many situations she seems in charge of the relationship.
SHEILA
Sheila seems distant from her mother and that there is little true love between them. We know she resents how she controls her from the incident in Milwards. Sheila repeatedly tries to warn her mother not to fall into the inspector’s trap, but Mrs Birling’s arrogance means she ignores the advice.
ERIC
Eric doesn’t seem to have the same issues with his mother as he does his father, but the relationship still seems distant. It’s ruined when he finds out she refused to help the mother of his child.
GERALD
Gerald is accepted by Mrs Birling into the family, but her higher status seems to mean that she feels less of a need to constantly suck up to him
INSPECTOR GOOLE
Inspector Goole saves the best to last with his investigations and humiliates Mrs Birling by leading her strait into the trap of blaming Eric for everything. He clearly detests her from the start and his actions at the end seem personal.