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Summary An Inspector Calls ( Mrs Birling), ISBN: 9783125752139 English
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A Summary of Mrs Birling's character and how Priestly portrays her
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How does Priestley convey Mrs Birling’s opinions aboutsocial class?
Priestley passes across Mrs Birling’s opinions about social class very
clearly. She is presented as a ‘typical’ upper class woman who thinks
anyone beneath her is as good as dirt and that’s exactly how she treats
them.
From the very start Priestley displays Mrs Birling’s opinions about social
class. Within the first few lines, we know exactly what she thinks about
social class- ‘Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things.’ This was
said when Mr Birling complimented the cook. The issue wasn’t the
complimenting, it was the fact that Mr Birling associated himself with
people who work for him and praised he for simply doing her job. Even the
way it was said: with a condescending tone, shows how she tried to make
herself sound better. The use of ‘such things’ depicts how she cannot
even name the ‘sin’ that Mr Birling committed. Soon after this, when the
inspector first arrived, she immediately tried to distance herself and her
family from Daisy Renton. She even said: ‘ I don’t suppose for a moment
that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that
class-‘. Before the inspector even explained the story to her, she was
claiming that there was no way she could possibly understand someone
from the working class. She always shut down what the inspector said
with some sort of reference to social class. It’s almost as if she thinks they
are part of some separate human race. At that point, she still claimed that
she did not know the girl, yet she had made this whole assumption about
her, just because of her class.
In Act 2, when accused of being part of the suicide of Daisy Renton, she
tried to escape by bringing up the fact that her ‘husband was Lord Mayor
only two years ago and that he’s still a magistrate.’ In that moment, there
was really no need to bring this up, however Mrs Birling thought that this
might intimidate the Inspector or get them off the hook by showing they
are of a high class. By doing this, she created an impression that her and
her family could never do such a thing because they were upper class.
Another thing is she always tried to sound superior in the way she
structured her sentences. When she realised this did not phase the
inspector, she resorted to passing on the blame and of course it was put
on the man who got someone pregnant who he was neither married to nor
in the same class as.- ‘I blame the young man who was the father of the
child she was going to have. If as she said, he didn’t belong to her class…’
She wasn’t necessarily faulting the man for what he did, it was more of
the fact that it was with a lower-class woman, that’s what disgusted Mrs
Birling. She thought he was to blame because it was his fault for getting
involved with people of lower class. The use of ‘If as she said’ depicts her
feelings about social class even without her even realising it. She could
not assume this ‘girl’ was telling the truth because, again, she was in a
lower class. Whenever referring to Eva, she was called ‘the girl’ which is
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