Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Mrs Birling - Coggle Diagram
Mrs Birling
More quotes
-
-
"I must say, we are learning something tonight"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
even more quotes
"If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him."
Sybil coldly blames the father of the child here and doesn’t accept that anyone else could be to blame.
-
"I did my duty"
Theme Responsibility-Priestley's use of the noun "duty" is used to expose Mrs Birling's perception of duty as limited to a capitalist social duty of keeping the rich people rich and the poor people poor. In doing so, she neglects her moral duty to provide assistance to those most in need.
-
-
"A trifle impertinent"
Mrs Birling attempts to convey a demand of respect through her formal and complex vocabulary, evidenced by her accusing the Inspector as being "a trifle impertinent"
-
-
-
Personality
-
She doesn't change
She is self-centred. She doesn't notice Eric's drinking problem and dismisses her daughter's worries about Gerald.
-
-
-
"A rather cold woman"
Priestley's use of the stage directions to describe Mrs Birling as a "cold woman" would have been perceived as an oxymoron at the time. Contemporary societal norms dictated that women were meant to be loving, maternal and emotional. Therefore, describing Mrs Birling as emotionally "cold" is perhaps an attempt by Priestly to convey that such a detached attitude towards suffering is unnatural.
-
-
-
-
even even more quotes
"Disgusting affair"
Theme Class-She is critical of Gerald's "disgusting affair" as a result of its inter-class nature, rather than because of his disloyalty to Sheila.
"girls of that class"
Theme Class-This makes it clear that her rejection of Eva's case was purely based on prejudice, shown by Mrs Birling's generalisation "girls of that class". The determiner 'that' demonstrates contempt of the working class and is further evidence of how deep-rooted the class divide was in 20th century Britain.
-
-
Impression Of Character
Snob, very aware of the differences between social classes
-
Judgemental, "Girls Of That Class"
"about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior."
Key Messages/ Themes
-
-
Social Responsibility - Her charity only helped "deserving" cases traditionally used to distinguish between the poor who physically can't help themselves and those who are undeserving and shouldn't be helped
Relationships
-
Mr Birling Relationship-shes dominant, social superior
Cold
Mrs Birling is very unsympathetic when describing Eva Smith's position. Sybil assumes instantly that because Eva is pregnant and single she is a bad person.
"She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position."
She assumes that just because Eva is unmarried and pregnant that she is unable to have 'fine feelings', a very cruel and cold opinion to have.
Ignorant
When the Inspector suggests that Eric is used to drinking, Mrs Birling jumps quickly to Eric's defence.
"No, of course not. He's only a boy." And later "(staggered) it isn’t true."
She shows her ignorance in two ways, first by defending Eric 'of course not' when the Inspector suggests that he is used to drinking. Secondly by stating that Eric is only 'a boy'. He is not a boy but a young man, Sybil refuses to see this. Her shock at this revelation '(staggered)' is further evidence of this.
-