How does Priestley present Mrs Birling in acts 1 and 2 and how might an audience respond to her?
Mrs Birling is an upper-class woman who was born into wealth. Priestley describes her as “a rather cold woman and
her husband’s social superior”, which creates an image of a woman who rarely shows affection due to the adjective
‘cold’. From the offset, the audience might take some time to warm up to her character.
Interestingly, Mrs Birling is of a higher social class than Mr Birling and demands respect from everyone. Throughout
act 1 and the beginning of act 2, Mrs Birling is narrow-minded and does not show any remorse and responsibility for
the death of Eva smith. If anything, the inspector’s arrival is an inconvenience to Mrs Birling and her family.
Mrs Birling is presented to be a very naive character as she does not think that there are any problems within her
family at all, and all the problems exist on the outside. Mrs. Birling only sees what she wants to see; she does not
take easy to be told what to do and she believes that her own thoughts and feelings are always right. When the
inspector suggests that Eric is used to drinking, Mrs Birling is quick to come to his defense, she says "No, of course
not. He's only a boy." And later "(staggered) it isn’t true." This shows her ignorance in two ways: firstly, she is not
aware of Eric and his drinking habits - she’s in total denial. Secondly, she refers to him using the noun ‘boy’, which is
a term used for someone a lot younger than Eric. Naively, Mrs Birling thinks her children are young and still need
protecting whereas in fact they are grown adults. Another example of this is When Sheila questions where Gerald
was all summer, Mrs Birling warns her ‘that men have important work to do’ and should not be questioned. Not only
does this show the gender imbalance, but also that Mrs Birling refuses to believe that her future son in law could be
doing anything wrong or tarnish their perfect marriage. Furthermore, the adjective ‘important’ suggest that the
work that men do powers over any petty worries Sheila might have. Mrs Birling is shown to be very unaware of what
is going on around her and the problems the family might encounter in the future.
Mrs Birling is seen to act in a very patronizing manner especially towards Eva Smith. Priestley uses a euphemism to
emphasize how Mrs Birling looks down upon those with a lower status. She refers to Eva as ‘girls of that class’ -this
suggests how Mrs Birling views everyone as members of various classes and not as human beings. By doing this, Mrs
Birling is almost de-humanizing Eva and belittling her as if her feelings do not matter. She also assumes that girls like
Eva have no morals by saying that “She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in
a girl in her position”. Mrs Birling finds the idea of a poor woman such as Eva Smith having moral values ‘ridiculous’
and ‘absurd’ – they do not deserve help. Mrs Birling makes the lower class seem like a collective, an identical group
of people. She represents the patronising capitalist generation that Priestley suggests was responsible for the
inequality in society during the time when the play was written. Mrs Birling is put into a negative light in front of the
audience by the disrespectful way in which she talks to people.
Mrs Birling holds no responsibility for her actions and claims she did the right thing when Eva Smith came to her for
help. Mrs Birling accepts ‘no blame for it at all’, Mrs Birling is still completely unremorseful. This shows the readers
and the audience of how cold of a woman she is. She believes that the family has no responsibility to the working
class – her prejudices are so ingrained. She believes she was “Perfectly justified in advising my committee not to
allow her claim for assistance”. The repetition of the adjective ‘justified’ in Act 2 is used to excuse her actions and the
adverb ‘perfectly’ is used to emphasise her stubborn, selfish attitude. She shows off her social power by linking the
committee with the use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ and using the verb ‘allow’ reminds the audience of how she
could have helped if she had wanted to. Mrs Birling is quick to blame the father of the child. She just cannot wait for
the blame to be passed onto someone else and so the bad attention is off of her. She blames “the young man who
was the father of the child she was going to have”. Ironically, the father is her son: at this point in the play, Mrs
Birling is not aware that eric is the father and soon begins to trackback. This not only means she is trying to get the
blame off of herself but also her family. Priestley uses the character of Mrs Birling to convey a message to the
audience about his own views on society. By this method of characterisation, it strengthens his message that a
socialist ideology is better for society.
Mrs Birling is an upper-class woman who was born into wealth. Priestley describes her as “a rather cold woman and
her husband’s social superior”, which creates an image of a woman who rarely shows affection due to the adjective
‘cold’. From the offset, the audience might take some time to warm up to her character.
Interestingly, Mrs Birling is of a higher social class than Mr Birling and demands respect from everyone. Throughout
act 1 and the beginning of act 2, Mrs Birling is narrow-minded and does not show any remorse and responsibility for
the death of Eva smith. If anything, the inspector’s arrival is an inconvenience to Mrs Birling and her family.
Mrs Birling is presented to be a very naive character as she does not think that there are any problems within her
family at all, and all the problems exist on the outside. Mrs. Birling only sees what she wants to see; she does not
take easy to be told what to do and she believes that her own thoughts and feelings are always right. When the
inspector suggests that Eric is used to drinking, Mrs Birling is quick to come to his defense, she says "No, of course
not. He's only a boy." And later "(staggered) it isn’t true." This shows her ignorance in two ways: firstly, she is not
aware of Eric and his drinking habits - she’s in total denial. Secondly, she refers to him using the noun ‘boy’, which is
a term used for someone a lot younger than Eric. Naively, Mrs Birling thinks her children are young and still need
protecting whereas in fact they are grown adults. Another example of this is When Sheila questions where Gerald
was all summer, Mrs Birling warns her ‘that men have important work to do’ and should not be questioned. Not only
does this show the gender imbalance, but also that Mrs Birling refuses to believe that her future son in law could be
doing anything wrong or tarnish their perfect marriage. Furthermore, the adjective ‘important’ suggest that the
work that men do powers over any petty worries Sheila might have. Mrs Birling is shown to be very unaware of what
is going on around her and the problems the family might encounter in the future.
Mrs Birling is seen to act in a very patronizing manner especially towards Eva Smith. Priestley uses a euphemism to
emphasize how Mrs Birling looks down upon those with a lower status. She refers to Eva as ‘girls of that class’ -this
suggests how Mrs Birling views everyone as members of various classes and not as human beings. By doing this, Mrs
Birling is almost de-humanizing Eva and belittling her as if her feelings do not matter. She also assumes that girls like
Eva have no morals by saying that “She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in
a girl in her position”. Mrs Birling finds the idea of a poor woman such as Eva Smith having moral values ‘ridiculous’
and ‘absurd’ – they do not deserve help. Mrs Birling makes the lower class seem like a collective, an identical group
of people. She represents the patronising capitalist generation that Priestley suggests was responsible for the
inequality in society during the time when the play was written. Mrs Birling is put into a negative light in front of the
audience by the disrespectful way in which she talks to people.
Mrs Birling holds no responsibility for her actions and claims she did the right thing when Eva Smith came to her for
help. Mrs Birling accepts ‘no blame for it at all’, Mrs Birling is still completely unremorseful. This shows the readers
and the audience of how cold of a woman she is. She believes that the family has no responsibility to the working
class – her prejudices are so ingrained. She believes she was “Perfectly justified in advising my committee not to
allow her claim for assistance”. The repetition of the adjective ‘justified’ in Act 2 is used to excuse her actions and the
adverb ‘perfectly’ is used to emphasise her stubborn, selfish attitude. She shows off her social power by linking the
committee with the use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ and using the verb ‘allow’ reminds the audience of how she
could have helped if she had wanted to. Mrs Birling is quick to blame the father of the child. She just cannot wait for
the blame to be passed onto someone else and so the bad attention is off of her. She blames “the young man who
was the father of the child she was going to have”. Ironically, the father is her son: at this point in the play, Mrs
Birling is not aware that eric is the father and soon begins to trackback. This not only means she is trying to get the
blame off of herself but also her family. Priestley uses the character of Mrs Birling to convey a message to the
audience about his own views on society. By this method of characterisation, it strengthens his message that a
socialist ideology is better for society.
