How Is Mr Birling Presented In An Inspector Calls

How is Mrs birling presented in An inspector calls

In an inspector call, Mrs Birling is presented in a way that makes her unlikeable. She is shown to be rude and condescending as well as arrogant.

She can be seen as condescending as she often corrects her family members, especially at the begging of the first act, she is very concerned with keeping up appearances and making sure that her family behaves properly. For example, when Mr Birling tells Mrs birling to tell the cook that it was a good dinner Mrs birling says “You’re not supposed to say such things” this is condescending because the stage directions show that she is saying this “Reproachfully” this shows that it is not just a light-hearted joke between husband and wife but instead

This is evident when she says “that- I consider- is a trifle impertinent, Inspector” this shows how arrogant she is, the inspector isn’t being inherently rude as he simply agreed with Sheila and because Mrs birling sees herself above the inspector in status she sees it as “impertinent” that the inspector should speak plainly to her because she is a fairly wealthy woman whose husband was a “lord mayor only two years ago and that he’s still a magistrate-“ and so the inspector should be giving her the proper respect. She sees herself as the most important person in the room at any given time and feels that everything affects her even when it doesn’t like when Gerald is talking about his affair with Eva, Mrs birling cuts in and says she doesn’t want to hear any more even when it doesn’t affect her and nothing is stopping her from leaving the room until it is her

She avoids questions, gives non-answers, and outright lies for at least three pages of text before giving the truth. At the start of the inspector’s questioning, she says that she doesn’t recognise Eva. Then when the inspector asks about the charity, she doesn’t answer him. She believes that the inspector has no right to be questioning her as she says, “and if I was what business is it of yours?” she seems to feel she is above the law and doesn’t need to answer to the inspector and at this point, she has already been arrogant and condescending throughout the play, so the audience doesn’t like her and is just waiting for her downfall and perhaps they are rooting for it, so her stubbornness is just building the audiences dislike of her as well as their