What is the importance of Mrs Birling?

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What is the importance of Sybil Birling in An Inspector Calls?

Plan:

  • Strong adherence to convention, hierarchy and what should be done
  • Prejudice, as she believes in classes
  • Egotistical
  • Cold hearted
  • Product of older generation
  • Bad family life
  • Women

 An In Inspector Calls is an allegorical play, which uses the unities of time and place to convey how all people’s actions are linked up in a “chain of events.” The play was written in 1942, however set during 1912 to show the ignorance and selfish behaviour of the upper classes. The play however, is set in a time where society was changing and there was hope during the Edwardian Era for the younger generation to change. Priestley uses the Birling family and Mr Croft to show how ignorant attitudes and lack of responsibility can affect people’s lives. Priestley uses an Inspector to convey that “we are all members of one body”.

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 Mrs Birling is a typical upper class woman during the early 1900s that has a strong adherence to convention and the social systems. One can see that Mrs Birling has high expectations of those around her and anything that she dislikes she describes as “impertinent” and “offensive” to her way of life. Perhaps, Priestley uses Mrs Birling to show that she is product of Victorian upper classes, as they strongly believe that people should act in a certain way.

 Sybil also has strong feelings about the social classes and she feels that she is above “girls of ...

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