Birling's Monologue

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Recommended: Pride and prejudice and social class

The act takes place in the dining room in a new Birling’s’ house in Sheiffied, in the North Midlands. It is an evening in spring, 1922. The baronial, high-rise house, built by the Scottish workers in the 1560s, that was bought and furnished by Mrs Birling, after her husband’s death, has an enormous amount of rooms and a spacious dining room with a large, wooden table. At the rise of the curtain, all the characters are seated at the table, as the tea has just started and everyone is talking.

Shiela: (nervously laughing) At least I don’t have that handcuff any more.
Sybil: (cutting in) Your daughter is here! And what about a new expression you picked up for an engagement ring? Stop it! Remember Gerald! You loved him…
Shiela: I am a thirty-one-year-old …show more content…

Minnie, a daughter of Shiela and Gerald, is leaving the dining room after kissing her mother.

Sybil: (to Elina) My dear daughter-in-law, now you are married with Eric, and you are pregnant, so you are a part of our family, I think it’s the time for you to know everything… (after a pause) Every year, the same day, we’re gathering all together to remember, what happened, considering today- ten years ago.
Eric: An inspector arrived and blamed us on the suicide of a young woman, Eva. We all participated in her life, and our participation made her commit suicide.
Shiela: (watching the fire, in the fireplace) But, the man wasn’t a real inspector. We still do not know who was that. He talked to us, showed us all of our mistakes and disappeared. No one knew him or heard about him.
Eric: Do you still believe it was a ghost?
Shiela: (angrily) Ah, says you!
Sybil: You two, please, stop it!
Eric: Whatever, when a real inspector arrived, my father, Arthur Birling, who was shot by accident, while coming home from the work, paid an enormous amount of money to the real inspector, in order to avoid the …show more content…

Sybil: (with a quiet voice) He was your husband…
Shiela: (angrily) Our marriage was for avoiding the scandal. He left me and his daughter and went to the army to show off. Do not encourage me. I am an independent

woman with a lovely daughter. I am the owner of the “Milwards” shop. And I am delighted with that. Mother has her own company, and…
Eric: (cutting in) That is enough. We understood everything.
Shiela: (to Eric with a hysterical laugh) Don’t be an ass, Eric. I told you the same phrase ten years ago, but never mind. You have a fabulous young wife, who is pregnant. You had several dinners with the Royal Family, you and George V know each other quite well. You are a well-known man…
Minnie: Mummy…
Shiela: (surprisingly) My dear, what are you doing here?
Minnie: The lady, who comes to me each year… The white lady came again. Her name is Eva, she asked me to call her Daisy, because she was so fragile, as a flower, when she was alive. She told me that. I’m a bit afraid of her.

As everyone frightened and looks pale, the curtain

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