At the beginning of Act II when Mrs Birling greets the Inspector with what I have described as a warm welcome she is merely maintaining a cool and superficial exterior for the Inspector so that she feels in control. She introduces herself as if the Inspector should know who she is.
‘(same easy tone) I’m Mrs Birling, y’know.’
Her tone of voice is easy as she is relaxed but it is also snooty and full of self-importance. She does not feel threatened by the Inspector and her casual language shows this. However just like Mr Birling when he says,
‘And to that I say fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war.’
She has no idea of what is to come. Mrs Birling is proved to be very foolish as she believes she is above the law yet later she will be involved with the ‘crime’. At this point in the play the audience will think that Mrs Birling is snobbish and thinks too highly of herself. They will know that she is in a high class because of the description of the dining room in the stage directions and of her.
‘The dining room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer.’
Priestley may have wanted to create a character like Mrs Birling because he was a socialist. He wrote many plays and novels and most were light and optimistic in their tone so ‘An Inspector Calls’ was not his usual mood. Many think that ‘An Inspector Calls’ shows Priestley’s beliefs about the class system and life in 1912. The character of Mrs Birling could be based on what he could have thought was the stereotypical high-class mother. He spends a lot of the play adding to her character and the shock at the end of Act II is Mrs Birlings reaction to finding out that she has inadvertently killed her own grandchild.
‘(agitated) I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it …’
She did not seem to be guilty or ashamed about turning Eva away but was worried about the scandal of it all. Even Mr Birling was shocked at her treatment of Eva.
‘(dubiously) I must say, Sybil, that when this comes out at the inquest, it isn’t going to do us much good. The Press might easily take it up -’
Despite Mrs Birlings retorts of doing nothing wrong at this point in the play the audience won’t feel any sympathy for her predicament.
‘I did nothing that I’m ashamed of.’
Priestley has purposefully used her interrogation with the Inspector to show her cruel nature.
Even before Mrs Birling knew why Eva was requesting help and aid from her committee she was prejudiced against her case for using the name Birling and she admits it. She was the head of the committee and if anyone could have helped Eva then she could have. She was the last family member that Eva came into contact with and many believe that she had the most devastating affect on Eva’s well being. Mr Birling was the catalyst as he sacked her from her job at his factory and Mrs Birling finished what her husband started.
As Act II develops Mrs Birling’s cool exterior begins to melt away with Sheila’s hysterics and warnings.
‘(annoyed) Mustn’t - what? Really Sheila!’
Priestley is gradually breaking down Mrs Birling’s exterior so as to present the audience with her real character. The language that he is using in her speech is becoming less casual and relaxed and more uptight. Her tone is becoming slightly aggressive.
Sheila tries to warn her mother not to deny her involvement with Eva as she cares for her mother and does not want to see her embarrass herself.
‘(slowly, carefully now) You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, then the Inspector will just break it down. And it’ll be all the worse when he does.’
Later in Act II Mrs Birling disregards this warning as during her interrogation with the Inspector she denies recognising Eva, and refuses to answer his question about her committee. She didn’t understand or care what Sheila meant and so her warnings fell on deaf ears. However the audience understood as they have already watched the Inspector interrogate Mr Birling, and Sheila. They all started confidently and one by one they revealed their involvement with Eva and in her death. The audience now see Mrs Birling as incredibly foolish.
Sheila is obviously becoming increasingly distressed by the news of Eric’s involvement in Eva’s life yet Mrs Birling tells her to ‘be quiet’ and claims she is ‘behaving like an hysterical child’. This shows that Mrs Birling is not close to Sheila and there is no sign of affection. She is obviously annoyed at Sheila’s inappropriate behaviour. She wants Sheila to uphold a cool exterior like she does, or tries to. The audience would view their relationship as very strained.
I think that Priestley has successfully presented Mrs Birling throughout Act II to match his original description of her. Many of the stage directions for Mrs Birling in Act II represent this first description.
‘(angrily)’, ‘(with dignity)’
These quotes support the description that she is a cold woman with a high social position. The audience will have seen this description portrayed through Mrs Birling’s actions. When the audience find out about Mrs Birling’s involvement with Eva and the death of her grandchild they feel as though justice is being done as her reluctance to accept any responsibility as been taken away and she now has to face up to what she has done.
