An Inspector Calls Character Study Mrs Birling In this essay I am going to look at the way in which Mrs Birling

g is portrayed and her views on social class and status. I will examine the way in which J.B.Priestley has shown her to be the character with the highest social standing in the play. Firstly, in the first stage directions we are told that Mrs Birling is a rather cold woman and her husbands social superior. This means that she has married down in social ranking. Straight away, this gives us some idea as to her character as we see that she has married Mr Birling for his money. It shows her to be someone who is very concerned with her own well being and future. This is a characteristic of capitalism that was the main idealism of the upper class in that time period. We see the class division when Mrs Birling talks about girls of that class. In this quote we see the way in which Mrs Birling almost dehumanises the lower class creating a social barrier between her and them, which she suggests with her tone, should not be crossed. Her emphasis on the word that shows that she has disgust and contempt towards people who are of a lower ranking than her. This division between the social classes is very clearly portrayed by Mrs Birling in her words and airs. Next, we see the way in which her main concern is upholding the reputation of her family so does not seem to pay much attention to the well being of her children and only their outward appearance to society. We can see this in her surprise to find out about Erics drinking habits. Your not the type - you dont get drunk-. This shows us that Mrs Birling did not pay attention to what her children were actually going through and did not know them well enough to be able to see that something was wrong. This gives us the impression that her social standing and views made her inaccessible to her children and that she acted more as someone who told them how to behave respectably in society than as a proper mother. All this shows us the way in which Mrs Birling controls the familys social standing and is very socialistic along with her husband. She was brought up to have nothing to do with the lower classes and does not acknowledge that her family could be involved in a scandal. Altogether, we see the views that Mrs Birling has, making her a person who is only concerned with her and her familys image and does not associate with people she considers below herself.

Sarah Evans