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INTERROGATIONS (MRS BIRLING (Mrs Birling is the most resistant into…
INTERROGATIONS
MRS BIRLING
Mrs Birling is the most resistant into confessing her connection to Eva. She lies for two pages of the play saying "Why should I?" before finally admitting that she recognises Eva. Even after that she defends herself and dodges the questions asked until the end of Act 2. The effect of writing her dialogue in this way is that the audience are waiting for a confession from her. Both tension and frustration slowly builds up with every rebuff and refusal to answer the Inspectors questions
Mrs Birling seems to embody everything that Priestley disliked about the behaviour of the middle and upper class women in the Edwardian society. In his radio show, Priestley spoke about women after the war becoming more about themselves and their own lives than helping others. Many of Mrs Birling's characteristics are shared with these women and Priestley uses her as a example with how petty and self centered (egocentric) some people can be. When themselves live easy and comfortable lives whilst others struggle to eat.
In 1912, there was no NHS, no access to contraception and no benefit system. Therefore women were reliant on charities to help them cope when they were struggling. Priestley uses a charity committee who are swayed by Mrs Birling's prejudice to demonstrate how fallible this system was. Mrs Birling makes her opinion about the working class very clear: that they will lie, accept stolen money and they are to blame for their situation. We can infer that her ulterior motive to work on the committee is more to do with how it looks to chair a committee and wield power than the desire to help other who may be in need.
"As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!"- The exclamation mark at the end of the sentence shows strength of Sybil's conviction that a girl like Eva would ever refuse money. This quote shows prejudice because of Eva's social class as Sybil refuses to believe that she would not turn down money. She believes all working class lack morals and her dismissive tone emphasises her snobbish attitude.
"It isn't I who had her turned out of her employment"- Sybil is too proud to except responsibility - she would rather blame other people for Eva's death than except that she is also at fault. It shows that she would rather bring Sheila and Arthur's mistakes back into focus than discuss her own, which suggests that her pride matters more than her own family.
ARTHUR
"Well it's my duty to keep the labour costs down"- It shows a Capitalist's viewpoint and that his main aim is to succeed in business. He cares more about his wealth than people. He argues with the Inspector that he would not raise the worker's pay as he needs to run his business effectively- which means he needs to make as much money as possible. This highlights the selfishness of capitalism. Capitialism was designed to reward the business owners and not the workers.
How do you get on with our chief constable, perhaps I ought to warn you that he's an old friend of mine"- Mr Birling is trying to use his social status to intimidate the Inspector. Mr Birling uses corruption as he clearly sees himself above the law and struggles when he is faced with someone who is morally and insists that justice is served.
"If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the world"
Arthur is hocked and offended by the inspectors abrupt style of questioning. He warns the Inspector that he doesn't "like the tone" of his questions and speaks to him 'impatiently' and 'angrily'
"nothing whatever to do with the wretched girl's suicide"- it shows that Arthur has no regret for what happend to Eva and can't see how his own actions affected her. Calling her "wretched" shows that he has a condescending attitude towards her- he doesn't seem to care that she has died a gruesome death and is frustrated that her death has interrupted his evening.
SHEILA
"But these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people". The metaphor "cheap labour" is effective in showing us that Sheila cannot comprehend how someone can be treated in such a dehumanising way as well as being mistreated. Even though the difference between these two characters is the class, they can be described i a similar way but can be treated in exact opposites. The noun "labour" connotes pain and hard, physical work that Eva is put under as well as the emotion due to the predjuce from Mr Birling about Gender and Class. - Socialist View
"I'll never, never do it again to anybody"
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Sheila is clearly upset by the tragic death of Eva and feels responsible for it- she regrets her actions saying "if I could help her now I would". This suggests that Sheila shows remorse of her death.
ERIC
Eric admits that because of alcohol " in that state when a chap easily turns nasty". Priestley use of the determiner "that"is interesting because Eric seems to be appealing to a common shared belief that his listeners have been drunk and understand exactly what "that"state is. This shows his lack of responsibility for his actions and also suggests that he is using alcohol as an excuse for why he raped Eva. He refers himself in the third person with "a chap"- this is an informal word for a boy or man and has positive connotations of friendliness. It also distances him from the implied rape. By using these words he is positioning himself as a friendly young man who does not take responsibility for his behaviour which is solely due to the influence of alcohol.
Priestley presents us with Eric's perspective about Eva, so we dont know the exact details of wether she was a prostitute. Prostitution and the word prostitute would not have been used in the play at that time other plays were censored for making refrences to prostitutes.
And that's when it happened. And I don't even remember - that's the hellish thing"- His lack of detail on what happened suggests that he can barely bring himself to admit what he has done. It allows us to form our own conclusions on what happened that night.
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GERALD
"I didn't feel about her as she felt about me"- Gerald openly admits to not having feelings for Eva but used her for a sexual relationship and kept her as his mistress. Priestley does this to show that the upper class that what they want, regardless of the impact that t has on others or the emotional strain it has on them.
Gerald did not regret his actions or truly feel sorry about how he treated Eva. Gerald sees himself as the hero who saved Eva and gave her money. Gerald showed no remorse to what happened to Eva and his actions.
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