Mrs Birling Character Notes

MRS SYBIL BIRLING

“Sybil Birling is an unsympathetic woman with some public influence, sitting on charity organisations and having been married two years ago to the Lord Mayor, Arthur Birling. Sybil is mother of Sheila and Eric Birling. Priestley describes her as "about fifty, a rather cold woman," and her husband's "social superior." She is described as a rather cold woman and is her husbands social superior. She is an icily impressive woman, the only one of all the Birlings to almost resist The Inspector's attempts to make her realise her responsibilities. She has a lack of understanding of how other people live and thinks that all classes behave in a certain way, this is shown in her snobbish comment "a girl of that sort" and in her unwillingness to believe that the a lower class girl would refuse to take stolen money or marry a foolish young man responsible for her pregnancy.”- www.oxnotes.com

“about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”

-Has position and influence in society:  She is a committee member at least one charity, “Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation” and until two years ago she was married to the Lord Mayor. She is very powerful in her own right, but still gives him more power in the family, despite being his “social superior”. The Inspector tells Birling that “social men… have responsibilities as well as privileges” which can also be linked to Mrs Birling as she is a social woman.

-Conservative views: She accepts her place as a woman in society and that women are below men, telling Sheila “men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll just have to get used to that, just as I had to.” In some ways, this sounds bitter suggesting that, even though she accepts it, she isn’t happy about women’s place in society and this could also suggest that her and Birling’s relationship has become stale. In Act 3 she tells everyone to “be quiet so that your father can decide what we ought to do.” She also has very conservative views about the class system and is blind to the reality of people in her own class. When Gerald refers to Alderman Meggarty as a “notorious womaniser”, she is “staggered” but refuses to believe “a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”. She firmly believes that everyone in their defined social class behaves in a certain way- Priestley uses her character to show just how wrong attitudes like this are. Mrs Birling’s views are a product of her era and it is likely that her conservative views are even stronger than her husbands because she is from an upper class.

-Doesn’t know her children: She is shocked by Sheila’s used of the word “squiffy” and scolds her, “What an expression, Sheila!” She has no idea that Eric has been “steadily drinking too much for the last two years”- when the Inspector asks if Eric…