Sybil Birling An Inspector Calls With Quotes

Mrs Birlings sense of self importance and superiority drives her to abuse her privileges as she views the poor as inferior to her. She is ignorant to her own family and remains arrogant throughout the play, unwilling to change. She feels entitled to respect from those below her and to respect those above her so much that she doesnt notice when people aren’t how they present themselves. She denied Eva Smith help from her charity.

Act 1 - As the play begins Sybil is introduced with her class, showing it is important to her character.. ‘[Her husband’s social superior]’ We are made aware of Sybil’s middle class views and how she has been raised thinking she is above others ‘You’re not supposed to say such things (compliment the cook)’ Sybil also normalises traditional ideas of marriage and that men are above women ‘You’ll have to get used to that’ ‘

Act 2 - As the play continues, Sybil talks down on lower classes and says things casually as if they aren’t worth thinking about. ‘Girls of that class-’ Sybil is ignorant of how her son acts and denies that he drinks and babies him when the inspector asks if hes used to drinking ‘he’s only a boy’ She has a similar mindset to her husband as she doesnt care about what happened to Eva and arrogantly goes to blame the father of the child instead ‘I blame the […] father of the child’ Sybil cant see that what she did was wrong and thinks everyone sees things how she does (ignorance) ‘Naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me

Act 3 - After the inspector leaves, Sybil is proud of how she denied responsibility and gloats about it to her family ‘I was the only one that didnt give in’ Mrs Birling’s attitude hasn’t changed by the end of the play, she still undermines the younger generation and does not understand their feelings. ‘In the morning you’ll be just as amused as we are’