Mr Birling Quotes

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‘Inspector, I’ve told you before I don’t like your tone nor the way you’re handling this inquiry.’

Shows Mr Birling feels threatened by the Inspector’s dominance and feels that he has no power or control over the situation unlike the Inspector.

‘I must say, Sybil, that when this comes out at the inquest, it isn’t going, to do us much good.’

He feels ashamed of Sybil and feels she will be the reason the inquest happens because of her actions and doings towards Eva Smith. He is trying to pass the blame on.

‘That a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.’

Mr Birling is selfish and only cares about himself and his family. After he says this he is interrupted by the Inspector which shows importance to the story because it shows he won’t take responsibility for Eva’s death showing a key theme.

‘Still I can’t accept any responsibility.’

Shows a key theme in the play and Mr Birling won’t take responsibility for his involvement in Eva Smith’s death.

‘Don’t talk to me like that. Your trouble is – you’ve been spoilt.’

He thinks that Eric has been spoilt. He thinks that if he hadn’t been so spoilt then things would have turned out differently.

‘That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the Infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions’

They all thought they had got away with everything, but this time they need to take responsibility and take everything more seriously.

‘I’ll admit now he gave me a bit of a scare at the time. But I’d a special reason for not wanting any public scandal just now. Well, here’s to us.’ Even though he has found out it was all a hoax, he still continues to take no responsibility for his actions. He is still selfish and full of himself.

'You must give me a list of those accounts. I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can. You damned fool – why didn’t you come to me when you founded yourself in this mess?’

When Eric steals the money from Mr Birling’s business he is furious. He isn’t bothered about the fact he could have had a grandchild on the way or that his son didn’t have the guts to confide in him; all he cared about was what he would look like if it got into the press and what that would mean for his knighthood.

‘If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody, we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward.’

He doesn’t care about anyone other than himself and he definitely doesn’t care about lower-class people.

‘Perhaps we look forward to the time when Crofts and Birling’s are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher prices.’

At this point he doesn’t have any idea about what is going on. The Crofts family has a higher social status than the Birling’s. Mr Birling will do anything to get a higher social status and sees it as a blessing when the Crofts family allows Gerald to marry Shelia.