Mrs. Birling, in the opening stage directions by Priestley is introduced as a “rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”. This is important since readers realise early on in the story that Mrs. Birling is a representative of the aristocracy and her cold nature would be reflective of her pride on that fact. She is portrayed to be very conscious about her social status and extremely authoritative. She clearly likes being in control of things and demonstrates this trait repeatedly in the play. She is also constantly seen correcting flaws and contradicting members of her family. An example of this would be when she responds to Arthur’s statement about the cooks reproachfully, stating, “Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things”. …show more content…
Birling enters “briskly and self-confidently”, with her social superiority to the Inspector being made very apparent following her social and easy tone. She then proceeds to deny responsibility for Eva’s death, which besides leading audience to form a negative bias towards her, also prompts Sheila to interrupt her and warn her about saying or doing “something that (she’ll) be sorry for afterwards.” This brings about Mrs. Birling’s protective side, with her first instinct being to send Sheila to bed, proclaiming her beliefs and statements to be “nothing but morbid curiosity.” This statement at first glance appears to be a mother sheltering her child from what may be a matter too gruesome to discuss, however, when Sheila denies the request, it is made obvious that the suggestion was made only to get Sheila out of the way, who at this point in the story, according to Mrs. Birling’s beliefs, is greatly impressioned by the Inspector. She conducts in the same manner later in the play, when talking about Eric’s drinking habits, using euphemism to explain his behaviour as “an excitable silly mood” and calling him “only a boy” and also when suggesting that “it would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen” to Gerald’s account of his affair with Eva. This leads the audience to believe that Mrs Birling either does not pay attention to her kids and their …show more content…
This suggests that since Mrs. Birling is of a higher status, her opinions have never been challenged. When disagreed with, she haughtily replies, “I beg your pardon”, perhaps expecting the Inspector to rephrase his words or even change them altogether. However, when he simply repeats what he previously said, she proceeds to call him “impertinent” and proclaims that they have “reason for taking offence”. This leads the audience to develop a negative opinion towards Mrs. Birling, making the character less likable as the play
Birling, just like his wife, only fears a blow to his reputation. This is conspicuous in ‘So as long as we behave ourselves don’t get into the police court or start a scandal -eh?’ this delineates that the only thing he cares about is how the public views him and his family. The noun “scandal’’ further evidences that Mr. Birling is afraid of any nasty thing about his family being publicized, therefore creating conflict as he displays no other interest than in money. The hyphen suggests that Mr. Birling is trying to befriend the inspector and possibly trying to bribe him into forgetting everything and dropping charges, which was quite common in the 1945. Where capitalists like Birling would assume that everybody has a price and can be persuaded by money. Additionally, birling proves to fiercely believe that money can solve all issues even bring back Eva Smith. This is further evident in '(unhappily) Look, Inspector - I'd give thousands - yes, thousands – ‘. The same man who wouldn’t pay 3 extra shillings to Eva Smith would now pay thousands and thousands to cover this all up. This further conflicts as he goes against his own word. The dramatic irony presents how a man who one wouldn’t pay a little, now has to pay the price. The repetition of ‘thousands’ emphasises how birling strongly believes money can solve everything. The contemporary audience would be enraged and distressed as birling finally gets what he
Priestley represents Mrs Birling, as a very posh and high class woman. She, like her husband, can be very self-important, for example, when the Inspector says, "You're not telling me the truth" and she replies, "I beg your pardon!" She seems horrified that somebody could speak like that to a lady of her class. This is not only an example of how she is portrayed as self-important but also
Question 3, (p. 1135): What are the “trifles” that the men ignore and the two women notice? Why do the men dismiss them, and why do the women see these things as significant clues? What is the thematic importance of these “trifles”?
Irene is in an all but loveless marriage with a husband who seems to be asexual at best and apathetic at worst. Her judgement is clouded by her own blind envy of the supposed life of Clare Kendry. Irene convinces herself after being absorbed into the whirlwind of Clare Kendy’s life that she is inferior to the white black-girl. She then convinces herself that her husband is having an affair with Clare, and that everyone knows about it so she must pretend not to know. This is all the culmination on a psychotic break that Irene has that ends with the unclear death of Mrs.Kendry (Larsen,113-114). Irene can be safely assumed to have pushed Clare out of the window due to a bizarre coloration envy that developed from Irene, the woman who passed as a form of getting a control high, and Clare, the girl who passed as a form of escapism and
When told about Eva’s death Mrs Birling speaks in an “easy tone” and she smiles which shows that she doesn’t really care about what has happened to this girl as long as it doesn’t affect her this is also show by her saying “I don’t think we can help you much”. She says this before hearing anything the inspector has to say. This shows that she doesn’t have any interest in what it is that she has been told and that she doesn’t think she has done anything wrong. Mrs Birling's reaction makes her disliked by the audience as the play moves on as she
In Act 1 the Inspector enters and the stage directions command that lighting is to change from “pink and intimate” to “brighter and harder”. The use of the comparatives “brighter and harder” creates an image of an interrogation with a “brighter” light exposing the whole family’s misconducts. This is evident when Inspector Goole enters and forces the family to accept responsibility for Eva’s death. Eva drank disinfectant that “burnt her inside out”. The gruesome imagery that comes from the emotive verb “burnt” shocks the Birling family. This contrast from the nonchalant idiom “inside out”. The juxtaposition between these two ideas were purposefully used by Priestley to emphasise the grave nature of this incident, evoking a sense of pathos from the audience towards Eva because they are aware that these events happened as a result of the Birling’s actions. Cleverly, here Priestley draws the audience back to social responsibility and the lack of it within this household. Alternatively, Priestley might have been showing that the Birling family will never learn and it will only be “harder” to redeem from their myopic view. Priestley continues to convey this theme throughout the play through Goole’s impactful messages. As the Inspector was about to leave, he teaches the Birlings that “we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”. The anaphora of the repetition of the pronoun “we” emphasises the much-needed care for one another and also preaches the socialist ideal of the community over the individual. It also has connotations of a human body, because if one part of the body, such as the heart, were to stop working the whole of the body would shut down. This links to the Birling’s because if one of them stops caring about the lower class others will follow. The pronoun “we” suggests that the Inspector is
Sheila is portrayed as a beautiful young lady in her early twenties with a rather selfish and arrogant nature. Using her compelling personality she is able to obtain anything in which she desires through her father. She makes inconsequential remarks and speaks in a childish manner. However she is the only one to accept immediate responsibility for her role in Eva Smith’s death, making her most probably the furthermost sympathetic character throughout the play. She is horrified by her own part in Eva's death; she feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and blames herself and she is genuinely remorseful for her actions. She is very perceptive towards the inspector, first to wonder who he really is, realising he already knows much of what
" The character Mrs. Birling automatically tries to pass the blame and responsibility of the suicide of Eva Smith onto someone else, willingly creating a scapegoat, "Go and look for the father of the child, it's his responsibility", she tells the Inspector. Although Sheila Birling's views are more socialist she represents the younger generation in society, she is more concerned with fashion, her appearance and family life, rather that the
This can be seen when she says, “Nobody can’t blame a person for looking” however the George calls her ‘poison’ and ‘jail bait’ meaning the other workers don’t like her at all and describe her using foul words. However this would be expected in this time period. Even though she is married she is still lonely because of problems in their relationship. She even wishes Curley had his other hand broken. She says she had a dream to become a Hollywood and Curley promised he would make her dream come true but that was all lies and instead is being taken advantage of and is in a position where she almost can’t escape. In section 4 we see that she is harsh to the other men who did not go into town, calling them the ‘weaker ones’ and intimidating them. This is ironic because she is also one of the ‘lonely ones’ and she is very cunning but also vain as she tries to seek out those who are weaker to get to the other men and gain more attention.
Mrs Birling is described as "…her husband's social superior". She is a snob and is very aware of the differences between social classes. She tries to deny things that she doesn't want to believe a prime example would be Eric’s drinking she says at the beginning of Act 3 “you don’t get drunk” this line really emphasises the extent at which Eric is not only insignificant to the older generation but ignored. The reader is shocked by this statement as we know at the beginning of the play he is a drunk by the way he responds and sits in his chair ‘half at ease’ and it is ironic that his own mother is oblivious to it. As they are higher class than Eva Smith they also feel as though the death is less important, as Mrs Birling states 'Girls of that class -” this shows that she was prejudice towards the girl due to her class and her position (getting pregnant and not being married) she was therefore in Mrs Birling’s eyes not worthy of receiving any money from the charity, this is echoed when she says “I'm Mrs Birling, y'know” using a patronising
During Act Two, our impressions of Gerald are altered upon his part in Eva/Daisy’s death and his reaction. Firstly, he denies recognising the name of Daisy Renton, this suggests he is not as willing as Sheila to admit his part in the girl's death to the Inspector as he initially pretends that he never knew her. Does this suggest he is a bit like Mr Birling, wanting to protect his own interests? We learn that Gerald was in fact having an affair last summer with desperate Eva/Daisy and had
Birling is also very dismissive of Sheila; we witness this when he says “nothing to do with you, Shelia. Run along”, the way in which he speaks to her is quite belittling and we are made to believe that although she is his daughter, women are second class to men, he truly believes that she is not worthy of being spoken to with regard to the inspectors visit. Birling is a very single minded man who does not take kindly to opposition to his beliefs. This is seen when he says “we’ve had experience – and we know” this shows he is no longer prepared to discuss the topic any further, when discussing war with his son Eric.
for putting on airs and that if we've any sense we wont try", and "And
The concept of race is being criticised utterly. We need a racist in the story to really make this clear. This person is Clare's husband, who is unaware of the fact that Clare did pass. He is clearly racist and not shying away to show and communicate it. Irene feels extremely offended by this. She is shocked and while hiding her true feelings she overreact with
Marion Hall commonly known as Lady Saw was born in Galina St. Mary, Jamaica on the 12th of July 1972. Marion Hall started her career in reggae music at the age of fifteen, while recording with some local sound systems. Hall’s stage persona as Lady Saw is a distinct contrast to her true self, the way she is now and when she was growing up. Her decision involved taking on a name that paid tribute to the influential male deejay, Tenor Saw, and writing lyrics that were heavy on the slack (the term used for extremely explicit sexual lyrics and performances). Most of her songs are heavily influenced by dancehall music and it reflects some of the major issues that are prevalent in the Jamaicans’ society today. Dancehall Music is popular type of music that originated in the late 1970s, as a result of varying political and socio-economic factors. Dancehall music was heavily influenced by the Rastafarian culture and it is characterized as a deejay singing and