“Arthur!” and on another occasion “Eric!”
Another noticeable fact is that Mrs Birling leaves the room quite early in the play, and does not return for quite a while. This gives us a hint as to her involvement in the family, suggesting that although she likes to keep everybody in order, she does not participate in many of the families issues.
She does not return until later in the play, after the Inspector has arrived, and is about to start questioning Gerald Croft. She arrives, and is very sociable and polite, however she becomes agitated by the behaviour of Shelia. This shows Mrs Birling to be a rather cold woman towards her family in terms of their attitude in front of strangers. Due to Sheila’s unusual behaviour, whilst the Inspector is at the house, Mrs Birling seems to try to dismiss her daughter, telling her,
“You’re looking tired, dear. I think you ought to go to bed – and forget about this absurd business.”
This is the first example that Mrs Birling makes to show that she believes and treats her sibling’s as children, even though they are both in their twenties.
Mrs Birling is very aware of her social class, and in a variety of situations uses it to her advantage. She has a complete lack of knowledge of society, and refuses to be any part of it. The harsh reality of Mrs Birling’s character is summed up it one quote, when she talks of the girl Eva Smith,
“I don’t suppose for a moment that we could understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class – ”
This comment about girls of lower class than herself, shows what Mrs Birling thinks of the people around her, including the Inspector. This would not be something which could generally be due to her upbringing, this is part of Mrs Birling’s personality as she is very socially aware of people, which one of her most dislikeable qualities. She is a very confident women, mostly due to her status.
The first time that this confidence is shaken is when Mrs Birling discovers some of the secrets of the family. She becomes ‘staggered’ on the discovery of Eric’s drinking habit, and refuses to believe the information that she is told. The fact that she refuses to believe the secrets of her children, shows that she does think of them as children and not as adults, possibly as children are more innocent, which leaves us to wonder if she brought up in a similar fashion. After finding the news of Eric, she replies,
“It isn’t true. You know him Gerald – and you’re a man – you must know it isn’t true.”
There is a similar reaction from Mrs Birling when she finds that Gerald Croft was also associated with the girl Daisy Renton who committed suicide. When Gerald begins to talk of his association with the girl, Mrs Birling still refuses to believe, and continually asks questions, such as
“ Women of the town? … Don’t talk nonsense Sheila… There’s no need to be disgusting, surely you don’t mean Alderman Meggarty?… I don’t think we want any further details of this disgusting affair – ”
Throughout the play there is a constant reminder of Mrs Birling’s approach to her siblings. She truly believes in the confidence of her class, that only lower class people would act in such different ways to herself. We are however able to notice that when listening to Gerald’s story she is shocked, however she doesn’t seem to make much fuss about the event as she is not so shaken, because it is not her own family behaving in this manner. We can also take not that she makes no objection when Sheila hands back the ring to Gerald, hinting that she is secretly satisfied that Shelia does not want to marry Gerald, and disapproves of him.
Another bad quality of Mrs Birling’s is her nasty temper. She becomes very annoyed with the inspector, and disapproves of his tone of voice. This becomes obvious when the Inspector begins to enquire into her involvement with Miss Smith. She recognises the photo, however refuses to admit it, which shows a rather dishonest side to the woman, especially with her high social class, and her reaction to others behaviour, this seems particularly unusual, and in some cases hypocritical. This anger and dishonesty is shown in the following quotation,
“ I meant what I said y’know.”
However, when Mrs Birling says this quite aggressively, both the inspector and the audience knows that she is lying, which as I said before is quite unusual for such a critical women.
The point in the play which makes us consider Mrs Birling as a wholly unlikeable person, is when she is not moved or affected by this horrific death of a young girl and refuses to accept any responsibility over her death. Most people in an audience would agree that this is cold, and rather selfish, even for a woman such as Mrs Birling. She even admits to being prejudiced against the case of Miss Eva Smith, however she still refuses to claim any responsibility for the death of the girl. She is slightly shaken by the sheer brutality of the Inspectors speech to her about responsibility, however she tries to pass the blame to the father. The nearest Mrs Birling comes to showing some feelings towards the girls is when she says,
“ I’m sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it all.”
Mrs Birling enjoys to have control of all situations, however when she is blamed for event she claims no responsibility what so ever.
“Go and look for the father of the child. It is his responsibility.”
This cold and frivolous act makes us realise that Mrs Birling is really a very cold hearted woman who scarcely cares for anybody around her, except herself.
The irony of the story is that Mrs Birling is so wrapped up in attempting to pass the blame onto the father that she fails to recognise that it is her own son who is the father. We return again to the fact that any behaviour which may be classed as unacceptable has anything to do with her family, indeed her siblings. The second act ends with Mrs Birling repeating,
“I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it…”
We are constantly reminded that Mrs Birling is quite shallow in believing that her daughter and son are very innocent and naïve children, who have not done a thing wrong, and would not do a thing wrong in society.
The first signs of concern and distress shown by Mrs Birling is when she is told that Eric has stolen money, and only when faced with the realisation that her actions have led to the death of her grandchild does Mrs Birling actually break down and it is suggested that she leaves the room crying. Throughout the play this is the greatest level of emotion shown by Sybil Birling. However when she returns and Eric lunges at her, she become very distressed on stage. As I have mentioned many times before, Mrs Birling treats her son like a child, and she is faced with this harsh reality when Eric shouts at her;
“ You don’t understand anything. You never did. You never even tried – ”
This is the only point in the play in which we can realise that maybe Mrs Birling is not wholly unlikeable, and that there is a small possibility that she is not aware her cruel behaviour to others. Overall, Mrs Birling appears to be a very cold and unappreciative woman, who is aware of her social class and others around her and uses this power to affect others. She is able to treat people how she wants, illustrated by the immature attitude she has with her children. On the whole, I believe it is this that has made Mrs Birling the dislikeable person she is, but we are left with the idea that she is unaware of how cruel she can be, which leads me to conclude that Mrs Birling is not wholly dislikeable.
