Mrs Birling

‘Arthur you’re not supposed to say such things’

Mrs Birling is socially superior to mr birling, she believes she is permitted to chastise her husband for indescretion

she is attempting to be 'the angle in the house' but failing to do so due to the lack of empathy

'you'll realise that men with important work to'...'spend nearly all their time and energy on their business'

'you'll realises, links to idea that women in this era were supposed to accept men and like Gerald's behaviour, and the only way to truly alter their lives was through marriage. Mrs Birling is preparing sheila to accept rather than change. women don't have enough power to change

through her understanding of her social hemisphere she knows that love and marriage don't often correlate

'girls of that class'

dismissive of anyone socially inferior

'girls' use of a collective noun, Eva is dismissed and generalised as almost immature when she is in fact a young woman

'the girl had begun by telling us pack of lies'

audience is able to understand Mrs Birling's initial reaction, but as Eva would rather give up everything than take stolen money or marry Eric, the audience is able to see how awful Mrs Birlings actions are by denying her help and reducing her choices, forcing her back to Eric, yet she admits no responsibility for her actions

'I'm Mrs Birling y'know'

nonchalant and self assured tone, highlights how she feels she is superior and free from judgement, this idea she has constructed for herself separates her from the likes of Sheila

'only a boy'

desperately trying to justify her sons actions links to the theme of self deception and a capital society causing corruption

Mrs Birling has just said that the blame is on the father of the baby who 'ought to be dealt with very severely'

but now Mrs Birling knows it is Eric 'he is only a boy'

the use of the adverb 'only' highlights how she deceives herself so much that in her eyes her son, a respectable young man, couldn't have possibly done that and so reduces him to a bot, in turn reducing his mistakes to that of childhood misdeeds. But the reality is that Eric is a young man who forced himself upon Eva, assaulting her in w way that was so horrid she would do anything than have to go back to him

priestley

uses her to criticise the inequalities of the system evident within the edwardian society