Karakteranalyse af Mrs. Birling i 'An Inspector Calls'

Mrs. Birling is so full of a sense of social and moral superiority that her downfall seems inevitable. She is extremely class-concessions, self-righteous and judgmental. The only thing she cares about is herself and what people in town is thinking of her and what they are going to think of her and the rest of the family after this conversation with the inspector. It even shines out of her how worried she is over her reputation in the town because she used to be “one of the finest ladies”. She thinks that the whole family is the most perfect you ever could find. A man with a high position might even receive a knighthood and two children who never had done anything wrong. She can’t face the truth about Eva’s death and really can’t understand what they have done wrong. Especially herself. She says “I really don’t understand you, Inspector” and “What do my family have o do with this case?”. She think she knows all about her children, and when she, later in the story, finds out that they turns to have a different personality, she still can’t face it and keep being snobby and selfish.

We can compare Mrs. Birling with her daughter, Sheila. I would say that they almost have changed roles in the family. Sheila is the one who’s acting like a parent and an adult, while Mrs. Birling is the spoilt and immature child. Sheila realize that she had done something terrible wrong about having Eva Schmidt fired and feel sorry for her death and her unborn child. She discovers the seriousness in the case and in life. Sheila learns what’s wrong and right and is begging her mother to face the truth. She says in the text: “Oh please mother, stop it” a few times in the text. I think that Sheila thinks that her mother is very embarrassing about it all, and maybe she tries to act like the adult to the Inspector.