Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Sybil Birling

Sybil is described as a ‘cold woman
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This foreshadows the rest of the play, as she is the coldest person when hearing her story told by the
inspector
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She is called her husband’s ‘social superior,’ which suggests that she has always known
wealth and life as a middle-class woman
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) This reflects the attitudes toward women
at the time, as they were mainly viewed as exclusively the possessions of their husbands
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Mrs Birling is stuck in her ways,
and still sees everyone of a lower class than her as worthless
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Sybil’s relationships with other characters do not really vary much through the play
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Mrs Birling, in return, plays
the part of the little wife that does all of her husband’s bidding and serves as an object
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This relationship has many parallels to that of Sheila and Gerald, but Sheila manages to get out of it
before they marry, which shows the start of a time where women are smarter and more
independent
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She sees them as little
children, when, in reality, they are adults and more than capable of handling situations
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This reflects the middle-class attitude of the time, when the children were
protected and shielded from anything and everything
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’ But, as the play
progresses, they both learn to resent Mrs Birling for the way that she is acting and the way that she
treats them
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Themes explored through Mrs Birling
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Responsibility- ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation
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It’s his responsibility
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Women- 'Now Sheila don’t tease him
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And she
refuses to go

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