Is Mrs Birling unfeeling in “An Inspector Calls”?
This is an essay for English Literature, which received an A. Overall, I received an A* for English Literature. Happy studying!
Inspector Calls: Historical Context and Writer's Viewpoints.
FULL REVISION KIT - AN INSPECTOR CALLS - MATERIAL NEEDED FOR GRADE 9 - AQA SPEC
Tout pour ce livre (40)
École, étude et sujet
GCSE
GCSE
English literature
2
Tous les documents sur ce sujet (247)
Vendeur
S'abonner
jessiebolton06
Avis reçus
Aperçu du contenu
Is Mrs Birling unfeeling in “An Inspector Calls”?
Throughout the play “An Inspector Calls”, Priestley presents Mrs Birling
as unfeeling. She exclaims “It’s his responsibility”. Priestley uses the short,
sharp sentence to create an assertive tone for the audience The third person
pronoun “his” deflects any responsibility away from Mrs Birling. This is ironic
as the audience later learns that this man is Eric, causing situational irony to
form since Priestley displays to the audience how Mrs Birling expects others
to be held to different moral obligations than her and her family. Priestley uses
this double standard to show the audience how Sybil is cold and unfeeling
towards others. This is so that he can teach the audience how the aristocracy
that Mrs Birling represents is uncaring towards lower classes, so that the
audience can hold them morally accountable.
Mrs Birling is even shown to be uncaring towards her own family, saying
it wasn’t I who had her turned out”. In this statement, Priestley uses an
accusatory tone, supported by the stage direction “(agitated now)”, displaying
to the audience how Mrs Birling has no sense of familial loyalty, causing the
audience to dislike her.
However, it is not her family that Mrs Birling is most crue to, but Eva
Smith. Mrs Birling refers to Smith’s story as “a lot of silly nonsense!”. The
informal language and exclamatory remark combine to reveal Mrs Birling’s
disdain for Eva. Later she says “As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse
money!”, where Priestley uses the exclamatory remark to highlight Mrs
Birling’s prejudice against the lower social classes. Priestley displays this to
the audience as part of his socialist message by shaming the cruelty with
which the aristocracy react the lower classes Priestley achieves this by
demonstrating the unfeeling manner with which Mrs Birling treats Eva Smith.
Additionally, Mrs Birling says “I’m sorry… But I accept no blame for it at
all”. The negative conjunction “but” negates the previous sentence, underlining
Mrs Birling’s lack of remorse to the audience. In this way, Priestley further
displays the horrible way that Mrs Birling treats Eva Smith and her unfeeling
treatment of others.
Elsewhere in the play, Mrs Birling describes Eva as acting
“impertinently”. The adverb carries weight and is used by Priestley to highlight
Mrs Birling’s sense of entitlement due to her social class, to the audience. This
Les avantages d'acheter des résumés chez Stuvia:
Qualité garantie par les avis des clients
Les clients de Stuvia ont évalués plus de 700 000 résumés. C'est comme ça que vous savez que vous achetez les meilleurs documents.
L’achat facile et rapide
Vous pouvez payer rapidement avec iDeal, carte de crédit ou Stuvia-crédit pour les résumés. Il n'y a pas d'adhésion nécessaire.
Focus sur l’essentiel
Vos camarades écrivent eux-mêmes les notes d’étude, c’est pourquoi les documents sont toujours fiables et à jour. Cela garantit que vous arrivez rapidement au coeur du matériel.
Foire aux questions
Qu'est-ce que j'obtiens en achetant ce document ?
Vous obtenez un PDF, disponible immédiatement après votre achat. Le document acheté est accessible à tout moment, n'importe où et indéfiniment via votre profil.
Garantie de remboursement : comment ça marche ?
Notre garantie de satisfaction garantit que vous trouverez toujours un document d'étude qui vous convient. Vous remplissez un formulaire et notre équipe du service client s'occupe du reste.
Auprès de qui est-ce que j'achète ce résumé ?
Stuvia est une place de marché. Alors, vous n'achetez donc pas ce document chez nous, mais auprès du vendeur jessiebolton06. Stuvia facilite les paiements au vendeur.
Est-ce que j'aurai un abonnement?
Non, vous n'achetez ce résumé que pour €3,67. Vous n'êtes lié à rien après votre achat.
