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Transcript

In the quotes below, who is Mrs Birling speaking to?

What do the quotes below have in common and what do they tell us about her character?

‘(reproachfully) Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things – ’

‘(smiling) Very well, then. Just a little, thank you.’

Mrs Birling in Act One

‘Now, Sheila, don’t tease him.’

‘What an expression, Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!’

‘Now stop it, you two.’

Mrs. Birling has very few lines in the opening act of the play; most of her lines from Act One are on the previous slide.

Most of the lines are either giving instructions, or offer reprimands (a telling off). Her motives here, and elsewhere in the play, are linked very closely to her beliefs about what should be considered correct manners and behaviour for people of her social position and class.

Priestley uses dramatic irony later in the play when Mrs Birling criticises Eva Smith for having the morals and manners that her 'social superiors' - especially Mrs Birling - fail to live up to. Priestley makes the audience ask if the manners and honourable behaviour that the upper-classes pride themselves on, are in fact false. In reality they are as flawed or imperfect as everyone else and the divisions they have created in society are equally false and unfair.

‘Now, Arthur, I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this.’

‘Eric!’

‘Much nicer really.’

‘Well, it came just at the right moment. That was clever of you, Gerald.’

‘Arthur!’

‘Eric – I want you a minute.’

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