Mrs. Birling During Her Interrogation In An Inspec

1260 Words6 Pages
Mrs. Birling During her Interrogation in An Inspector Calls How does Priestley present the character of Mrs Birling to the audience in Act II, during her interrogation by the Inspector? In ‘An Inspector Calls’ Priestley presents the character of Mrs Birling in many ways and using many different devices. Before the dialogue of the play begins there is a short description of the set, lighting and characters. This is mainly to help the director of the production but it is also useful to the audience as it sets the scene for the play and gives a brief insight into the characters. Prior to Mrs Birling re-entering the play in Act II the audience only have this short description and the beginning of Act I to develop a first impression of her. ‘His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.’ Having read this description and with Act II about to begin the audience would expect Priestley to reinforce this original description with cold and inhospitable behaviour towards the Inspector. In contrast to their expectations she greets him with a warm welcome. ‘(smiling, social) Good evening, Inspector.’ However gradually throughout Act II Priestley does present Mrs Birling’s character to mirror this original description and the audience are reassured that their original impressions of Mrs Birling’s character were right all along. During Act II Priestley presents the character of Mrs Birling through her use of language and tone, her reactions towards her daughter Sheila, and her harsh viewpoint of Eva Smith. All of these factors that Priestley has used to present Mrs Birling’s character combine and reach a climax at the end of her interrogation by the Inspector in Act II resulting in her true character being revealed to the audience. At the beginning of Act II when Mrs Birling greets the Inspector with

More about Mrs. Birling During Her Interrogation In An Inspec

Open Document