Characters - Mrs Birling Flashcards
What is Mrs Birlings role in the household?
Teaching Sheila how to be well-mannered.
Making her husband look good.
What is Mrs Birlings role in the play?
To represent the selfish upper-class women, who only cares about her reputation and appearance.
Represent the selfish attitudes that lower-class people deserve their misfortune.
What is Mrs Birlings connection to Eva?
She turned her away from her charity when she was pregnant and begging for help, because she didn’t like her.
What were Mrs Birlings interactions like with the Inspector?
She was unfaced by the revelations and tries to intimidate the Inspector, as she is upper-class.
Does Mrs Birling change?
No, she refuses to accept responsibility and doesn’t care about how her actions affect others.
She is happy to dismiss the event after discovering that the Inspector wasn’t real.
What does Priestly use Mrs Birling to represent?
The uncaring, selfish upper-class women.
She doesn’t care about what she did, only cares about reputation and believes she is above the law.
How does Priestly use Mrs Birling to show the mistreatment of lower-class people?
The lower-class depends on the upper classes, but the upper classes don’t care about them.
She shows how easily the upper classes could ruin the lower classes lives.
“I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this”
She scolds Mr Birling for breaking the pre-war etiquette.
This shows how she only cares about reputation, as she doesn’t want Gerald thinking negative about them.
This shows how women were viewed as fragile and unintelligent.
“It would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen to this story at all.”
This shows that she doesn’t want Sheila to be exposed to the harsh reality of life.
This suggest that upper class people tried to avoid recognising the hardships of lower-class.
“I was the only one who didn’t give in to him.”
She is almost mocking her family for feeling guilty, this emphasises her selfish and uncaring nature.
“She only had herself to blame”
This shows that the upper-class people didn’t care about how their actions affected lower-class people and didn’t accept responsibility.
This shows the cruel and uncaring side of her.
“As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”
This shows how the upper-class people looked down on the lower classes and believed that they were lesser, just because of their circumstances.
“He ought to be dealt with severely”
This shows that she is trying to put the blame on anyone but herself, as she doesn’t want to ruin her reputation, she only changes her views when she realises that Eric was the father.
