This article features some of the key quotes for Mrs Birling in the play, ‘An Inspector Calls’ along with explanation and analysis of these quotes.
These quotes can be used in exam answers. Some of the larger quotes do not necessarily have to be quoted in full but just the relevant words or sentence which connects to the point being made.
1. Quotes: Now, Sheila, don't tease him. When you're married you'll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You'll have to get used to that, just as I had.
Analysis: Mrs Birling has a very conservative opinion of gender-relations and believes that a wife is essentially there to support her husband and the primacy of males in society. She is trying to impart these values in to Sheila.
2. Quotes: What an expression, Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!’
Analysis: Again another example of Mrs Birling’s conservatism and she is alarmed by Sheila using the word ‘squiffy’. Image and appearance are important to Mrs Birling and from her general character we can also assume that she would also be concerned about what other wealthy people would think if they heard Sheila use such an expression.
Click on the Link to Read About: Mrs Birling Character Analysis
3. Quotes: Now, Arthur, I don't think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this.
Analysis: This is quite an interesting quote. The usually loyal and compliant Mrs Birling dares to express her disagreement with her husband on this point. She thinks talk of business is inappropriate in a celebratory family occasion such as this. This highlights how money-minded and business-minded Mr Birling is and sometimes at the expense of human relations. However Birling has striven hard in life to reach to the position which he is in now whereas Mrs Birling was born in to a rich family who did not have to work as hard and might find overt mentions of money and business gratuitous and improper at times. There could be two factors at play here. The first being the general human view that this is a family celebration and not a place to mention business. The second factor in that Mr and Mrs Birling both come from different backgrounds.
4. Quotes: please don't contradict me like that. And in any case I don't suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class--
Analysis: Mrs Birling tells her daughter Sheila not to contradict with her. She is obviously entrenched in a mindset which is heavily hierarchical including the importance of parental authority. All through out her quotes we can see her telling people to do this and do that or not do this and that. She believes in certain norms that need to be conformed to. She is the exact opposite of an agent of change, the sort of change J.B. Priestley is looking for.
The second part of this quote where she says that they cannot understand why Eva committed suicide is implicitly saying that rather than the working class being fellow human beings with common human emotions and needs are almost akin to a different breed of being. The gap between the wealthy and the working class is such that the mindset of the working class would be incomprehensible to Mrs Birling and nor should there be any attempt to comprehend them. They are a lower, inferior species of being as is clear when Mrs Birling rather contemptuously says ‘Girls of that class’. That is of a lower, inferior class.
5. Quotes: but I must say that so far you seem to be conducting in a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was lord mayor only two years ago and that he's still a magistrate--
Analysis: Mrs Birling is angry with the inspector who she might well consider to be socially inferior to her and being ‘uppity’ and having the audacity to ask such an important family such questions. She also indirectly threatens the inspector by alluding to her husband’s status as a former lord mayor and that he is a magistrate. The Birlings obviously seem to be accustomed to being treated with deference and respect by nearly everyone, so for them to be subject to questioning like this is a shock to their system. In their rigid and hierarchical world of classism they are important and privileged people.
6. Quotes: No, of course not. He's only a boy.
Analysis: This line contains some of the irony which is rich in this play. Mrs Birling refers to Eric as a boy. However little does she know rather than being a pre-pubescent boy he has actually fathered a child, the ability to sire offspring being one of the key features differentiating a child and an adult. She also obviously doesn’t think of Eric as a ‘man’, thus maybe not as an independent person. Perhaps Eric has been heavily pampered and molly cuddled by his mother.
7. Quotes: it isn't true. You know him, Gerald -and you're a man – you must know it isn't true.
Analysis: This is in response to comments about Eric being a heavy drinker. Ironically whilst calling Eric a ‘boy’ she calls Gerald a ‘man’. Why is it that Eric has not developed in to a young male who is recognised as an adult ‘man’ whilst Gerald has? Is this perhaps partially due to faulty parenting by the Birlings? If they cannot parent properly and if the mother does not even know about what her son is truly like then how can they act as models for the rest of society and have a decisive saying in how society should be run? All through the play, Priestley is undermining the credibility of the wealthy English elite and their ability to dominate British society and decide how Britain should be governed.
8. Quotes: it would be much better if Sheila didn't listen to this story at all.'
Analysis: This is said when Gerald is about to speak of some of his past including with ‘women of the town’. Mrs Birling doesn’t want Sheila to hear about this. Sheila insists that she does. Mrs Birling is very conservative and rather than viewing her children as adults deserving of respect sees them very much as little children. She is very much out of touch with the real world which is much more complex and gritty than the neat and well-defined classist bubble that she lives in.
9. Quotes: well, really! Aldermand Meggarty! I must say, we are learning something tonight.
Analysis: Mrs Birling lives in a bubble and is out of touch with reality. She thinks Eric is a little boy, thinks working class people are totally different and have a mindset alien to the rich and are not even worth trying to be understood. Her ignorance of reality is further highlighted by the fact that she finds out that Meggarty is a prolific womaniser. The world is not as it appears to her. She is a very limited person with limited life experience stuck in her own small rigid bubble. In the following line her daughter Sheila says that everyone knows how lecherous Meggarty is. However Mrs Birling did not know what was common knowledge as she is out of touch and stuck in her own bubble.
10. Quotes: I don't think we want any further details of this disgusting affair--
Analysis: Mrs Birling is ignorant and in her own world, her own bubble. She does not know much about the real world in general or even the affairs of Brumley. She does not want to hear about Gerald’s affair with Eva Smith and labels it ‘disgusting’. But why is it ‘disgusting’ in her eyes and is Gerald thus ‘disgusting’ and therefore unfit to marry Sheila. We can infer from what we know of Mrs Birling that it being ‘disgusting’ could very much be linked to her contempt for the working classes as lower and inferior so the idea of a member of the wealthy elite having a relationship with a lowly working class girl appals her.
11. Quotes: Yes, I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate – and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.
Analysis: She finds Eva calling herself Mrs Birling impertinent (rude) but she doesn’t seem to have the same sort of anger towards the fact that Eva has died, that Eva is a victim of a flawed society.
12. Quotes: i'm very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame
Analysis: This is one of the most important quotes in the play and the very antithesis of what J.B. Priestley is attempting to expound via the play. Eva did not bring all of this upon herself. She was the victim of a society where she had to struggle to survive and suffered. Mrs Birling’s comments are cruel and reflect a lack of pity for Eva’s suffering and also do not take in to account the role of her family in Eva’s sad demise. The wealthy in society cannot exonerate themselves from the suffering of the poor and bear responsibility. This is the fundamental message of the play that Priestley is seeking to promote..
13. Quotes: I'll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility.
Analysis: Whilst trying to defend herself and her ‘honour’ she passes blame on to the father of Eva’s child. Little does she know that that father is in fact the person she called a ‘boy’, her son Eric. If it is Eric’s responsibility then a man from a rich family bears part of the blame for Eva’s demise and ultimately by extension on a more fundamental level his parents for not being able to raise him in a manner that would prevent him from doing this. The Birlings are shown in the play as a very flawed family, and Priestley is trying to tell the wealthy upper classes in society that they are far from perfect.
14. Quotes: Oh, stop it, both of you. And please remember before you start accusing me of anything again that it wasn't I who had her turned out of her employment – which probably began it all.
Analysis: The pressure builds up to the point that the normally very deferential Mrs Birling has a go at her husband and even goes as far as to saying that him sacking Eva started all this. If we then consider that she is saying that the father of Eva’s child should have been responsible for the child and that Mr Birling’s dismissal of Eva from her job started all this, she is ironically condemning her own family for their actions and attributing blame to them. Mrs Birling lives in a world where she and her family are ‘good’ people and superior the lowly and inferior working class, so for her to perhaps in a moment of anger accept her family’s role in Eva’s demise means that she would have to ultimately accept they are not as wonderful as she might like to think they are.
15. Quotes: whatever it was, I know it made me finally lose all patience with her. She was giving herself ridiculous airs. She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position.
Analysis: Another comment reflecting Mrs Birling’s very cold and insensitive attitude to Eva. Mrs Birling does not seem to understand that a working class person like Eva can have complex feelings and emotions and also have a certain standard of morality and dignity. This clearly views the working class, though not as criminal, as clearly inferior and lacking morality. Is Priestley highlighting this because this sort of attitude is all too common amongst the wealthy in English society at that time.
16. Quotes: she said that the father was only a youngster – silly and wild and drinking too much. There couldn't be any question of marrying him – it would be wrong for them both. He had given her money but she didn't want to take any more money from him.
Analysis: Again irony as the ‘father’ is Mrs Birling’s son, the person she referred to earlier as a ‘boy’ which would seem to reinforce notions that he is indeed a ‘youngster’. The other irony is that there would be no question of marriage between him and Eva because it would be the classist and unsympathetic Mrs Birling who would perhaps be the most opposed to such a marriage.
17. Quotes: all a lot of nonsense – I didn't believe a word of it.
Analysis: Mrs Birling did not believe anything Eva said largely based on her prejudice towards the working class, seeing them incapable of having the same sort of complex emotions as the wealthy and having no great standards of morality. They were an ‘other’ who were inferior and were not worthy of associating with unless it were to occasionally give some charity and even that may have stemmed from appearing to ‘look good’ to other members of the wealthy elite of Brumely rather than genuine concern for their welfare.
18. Quotes: Oh – she had some fancy reason. As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money! Inspector: ( st
Analysis: All these comments referring to Eva as: 1. ‘Girls of that class’ 2. ‘..a girl in that position’ 3. ‘a girl of that sort’. This implies a sort of distance between her and those ‘sort’ over there. The inferior poor. As mentioned above she viewed Eva as a member of the inferior working class who simply did not possess any great standards of morality such that they would refuse money.
19. Quotes: secondly, I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have. If, as she said, he didn't belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler, then that's all the more reason why he shouldn't escape. He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him.
Analysis: Little does Mrs Birling know that the ‘young man’ she is referring to is in fact very ironically her son. She cannot later turn around and then absolve Eric of blame when she has already declared that the man responsible for fathering Eva’s child must shoulder blame for her fate. As mentioned before by extension she and her husband could also be blamed on a more fundamental level for poor parenting.
20. Quotes: then he'd be entirely responsible – because the girl wouldn't have come to us, and have been refused assistance, if it hadn't been for him
Analysis: This is said in response to the inspector saying what if Eva’s claims that the father of her child had indeed stolen money. What this shows us that contrary to Mrs Birling’s ignorant and prejudiced limited world view that the rich are inherently morally superior and the poor are morally inferior, in this case it is the other way round the man (Eric, her son) from the wealthy classes was in fact guilty of theft and the working class, Eva refused to accept stolen money. Priestley is showing morality is not the monopoly of the rich and the real world is a much more complex place than Mrs Birling might imagine where there is good and bad amongst all human beings regardless of their social status
21. Quotes: certainly. And he ought to be dealt with very severely
Analysis: This is her reply to the Inspector saying that now Mrs Birling accepts the father of Eva’s child is the ‘chief culprit’. Would she have said that he ought to be punished ‘severely’ if she had known it was her son. We cannot be certain but the answer might be that one of Mrs Birling’s chief considerations would be the impact on the family reputation. If no one knew that Eric did this perhaps it could be concealed, Mrs Birling anyway has little care for Eva’s suffering.
22. Quotes: Eric, I can't believe it. There must be some mistake. You don't know what we've been saying.
Analysis: Mrs Birling’s first words when hearing that it is her son who is the father of Eva’s child. She is in a state of denial, unable to believe this. This is almost immediately after she has declared that the man who has fathered Eva’s child bears responsibility for her death.
23. Quotes: But I didn't know it was you – I never dreamt. Besides, you're not the type – you don't get drunk
Analysis: Mrs Birling’s ignorance of the true reality of her son mirrors her more fundamental reality of society and the world, her ignorant attitude towards the poor. Perhaps this is common amongst people of her social class and thus they need to be exposed to the true reality of society which a play like ‘An Inspector Calls’ helps to do. Mrs Birling has a highly erroneous view of her son but also a highly erroneous view of the world and the poor in general.
24. Quotes: Eric! You stole money?
Analysis: Mrs Birling’s reaction to find out Eric has stolen money. Disbelief, shock.
25. Quotes: I should think not. Eric, I'm absolutely ashamed of you.
Analysis: Mrs Birling’s words after her husband tells their son that he will be working unpaid from now on as punishment and not be allowed to go to bars and womanise. She is ashamed of Eric. But the deeper question that analysts of the play might ask is to what extent should she be ashamed of herself and her role in this in terms of parenting?
26. Quotes: (triumphantly) Didn't I tell you? Didn't I say I couldn't imagine a real police inspector talking like that to us?
Analysis: This is after hearing that Gerald has just spoken to a member of the police force who says they know of no one like inspector Goole so the Birlings assume the inspector is a fake. Mrs Birling is a lady of prominence and privilege and would find it unimaginable and shocking in heavily classist Britain at that time that a man from a social status lower than her could have the audacity to question her family in such a manner. This demonstrates how privileged and powerful she is.
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