Mrs Birling Essay
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this question.
You should use the extract below and your knowledge of the whole play to answer this question.
Write about the character of Mrs Birling and the way she is presented in An Inspector Calls.
In your response you should:
refer to the extract and the way she speaks and behaves;
the play as a whole;
show your understanding of characters and events in the play.[40]
5 of this question’s marks are allocated for accuracy in spelling, punctuation and the use of
vocabulary and sentence structures
An Inspector Calls was written by J.B Priestley in 1945, based in the Industrial city
of Brumley in 1912. Priestley presents Mrs Birling as an arrogant, supercilious
character, emphasising great importance on class distinctions and treating her
social inferiors in a condescending manner. Throughout the play, her insular
perspective and unempathetic behaviour towards the lower classes remains
unchanged - highlighting her intransigence and lack of responsibility for her part
to play in the death of Eva Smith.
In the stage directions, Priestley effectively exhibits Mrs Birling’s
traditional values, and her compassionless character, described as: ‘His wife is
about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior’. Priestley
uses the noun phrase ‘his wife’ to highlight that she is a traditional Edwardian
matron – introduced to the audience as a belonging or possession of her
husband, rather than her name or as an individual of her own. The adjective
‘cold’ portrays her lack of emotions and incapability of feeling empathy,
displaying almost her inhumanity towards the situations of those in need –
foreshadowing her involvement with Eva’s death. Furthermore, the adjective
phrase ‘social superior’ signifies her class consciousness, and how she feels she
is better than her husband due to her higher social rank. The adjective ‘superior’
suggests her also prejudice towards the lower and higher classes – she believes
the class of a person determines their morals and character - denoting how
narrow-minded and shallow she is. Deeper connotations could emphasise her
self-importance as Priestley pairs this adjective phrase with the noun phrase ‘her
husbands’; the pronoun ‘her’ suggesting that in the context of social status she
feels she is the one in control of their marriage and hinting at her rebukes
towards her husband as the play progresses.
At the beginning of the play, Priestley successfully reflects Mrs Birling’s
gender stereotypes and supercilious behaviour, as she advises her daughter,
Sheila about her marriage to Gerald Croft. She states: ‘When you're married
, you'll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend
nearly all their time and energy on their business. You'll have to get used to that,
just as I had.’ This illustrates Mrs Birling’s expectations of marriage and
submission of the roles that society teaches. The adjective ‘important’
emphasises her capitalist views – she implies the work of a man should be more
of a priority than his wife. This highlights how clearly she sees the hierarchal
distinctions between men and women, yet seems unbothered by the apparent
inequality. This is further proven in the phrase ‘get used to that’. The dismissive
tone of this sentence depicts the little value Mrs Birling holds towards women
due to her eager acceptance towards society’s norms, implying her shallow and
insular perspective. Alternatively, deeper connotations could also allude to a
tone of resignation in Mrs Birling, suggesting she has perhaps tried to change
this idea of inequality to no avail, further exemplified by the use of the past
tense verb ‘had’ to create the impression Mrs Birling has experienced this
before. In spite of this, an antipathy is created in the audience as she seems to
support patriarchy, undemonstrative towards her daughter advising her with out-
dated views on gender positions.
Priestley further exhibits her imperious character, unaware of the
generation gap between her and her children, or that they are grown adults. She
scolds Sheila for her use of colloquial language: ‘What an expression, Sheila!
Really, the things you girls pick up these days!’. Here, Priestley conveys Mrs
Birling’s expectations of her children - she believes they should speak in manner
suited to their social class. The use of an exclamative expresses her strong
disapproval towards Sheila, and how important it is to use the mannerism of and
appear like the higher classes are to her. The noun phrase ‘these days’ connotes
to the generation gap between Mrs Birling and Sheila – the determiner ‘these’
portraying the different upbringing Mrs Birling had to that of Sheila; her
condescending tone showing that she expects her daughter to act the same way
she does, which shows how controlling and meticulous she is about maintaining
their social position. Furthermore, she infantilises her children, telling Sheila and
Eric: ‘Now, stop it you two.’ The use of the imperative verb ‘stop’ demonstrates
her lack of warmth or affection towards her children, the patronising language
implying perhaps she does not understand or view her children as the adults
they are – foreshadowing her later shock when learning of Eric’s heavy drinking.
Priestley here presents her undemonstrative behaviour toward her children and
inadequacies as a parent as she seems more concerned about teaching her
children the facade of being higher class individuals than morality. This creates
irritation in the audience towards Mrs Birling, and her bigoted views on class and
gender.
Further through Act One, Priestley skilfully presents Mrs Birling’s capitalist
philosophy, referring again to class and gender stereotypes which highlights how
deeply implemented these views are inside of her. She approves of Sheila’s
obvious infatuation with the ring Gerald has given her for their engagement,
commenting: ‘So you ought, darling. It’s a lovely ring. Be careful with it.’ This
reveals Mrs Birling materialistic character – rather than be concerned with the
man her daughter is marrying, she expresses more concern for the ring her has
