Theme Of Individuality In An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls explores the concerns of wider society contrasted with selfish individuality. The playwright J.B. Priestley hated the attitude of viewing the lower class as different people, and Mrs. Birling is a woman who has this attitude. She is a cold and selfish woman who is out of touch with the reality of life. Throughout the play she remains the most self-centered as she demonstrates no responsibility and no remorse.

In act one there is a stage directions describing the setting of the house and the setting of the house is a complete reflection of her. It is described that the house is ‘fairly large’- nothing quite pleases Mrs Birling and she is never fully satisfied. The furniture is ‘solid’ which gives the effect that it is ‘substantial …show more content…
This is because she rebukes her husband for complimenting the cook: ‘(reproachfully) Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things –’ and she is also her husband’s social superior. She is very aware of rules of etiquette and social behaviour, although she shows a lack of understanding in of how other people live other than herself. She expresses her lack of understanding of how the lower class live through her snobbish comments. In Act 2, page 47 she categorizes Eva when she says ‘a girls of that sort’ and by saying this she is discriminating Eva, not just to Eva, but all the working class people since Eva is from the lower class. Eva’s surname, Smith, is very common English names and it suggests that she is just like all the other from Mrs Birling’s perspective and in other words – she’s like the rest of the people from lower class and she has no respect for them. As an actress she will emphasise on the word ‘that’ as though she is a piece of garbage and has no value, and she believes she is above all. ‘That’ also suggests she prefers to detach herself from anyone who belongs to a class lower than her own, hence she prefers to detach herself from Eva and she believes she doesn’t have anything to do with her because she is from a lower class. She is a woman who is very judgmental and aware of social classes making …show more content…
She dismisses it purely because she is not able to see – being the ignorant woman that she is – how a poor person’s death could of any interest to, or connected to the Birlings. Her social status seems more important than anything else as she is ignorant of Eva’s death and seems to think that lower class people have different feelings to their own, and that they’re less human than she is. As well her ignorance of Eva’s death, she is also unwilling to believe the girl’s reason for refusing to take the stolen money, or marry the foolish young man responsible for her pregnancy. She turns her from the charity when she needs as the girl is penniless and pregnant- but lying as no girl ‘of that sort’ would refuse money. Her lack of understanding extends to her family as she’s unaware of her son’s drinking. She tries to deny things she doesn’t want to believe: Eric’s drinking, Gerald’s affair with Eva, and the fact that the working class girl would refuse money even if it were stolen. By her denying these things, she believe that she’s socially correct – she doesn’t believe she’s correct; she knows she’s correct. If she feels that her position has been suitably acknowledged she’ll be courteous, but if not she will take ‘offence’ at what she considers ‘impertinent’. In Act 2, she once again categorizes Eva by saying ‘Girls of that class—’ and when