Priestley's Presentation Of Mrs. Birling In An Inspector Calls

Priestley presents Mrs. Birling as a snobbish, unfair and unkind woman. She feels herself to be above other people who are in a different class to the one she is, and when the inspector arrives she treats him like an inferior.

She does not meet the inspector until Act Two. In the meantime, he has been questioning other characters and there has been an argument between Sheila and Gerald. When Mrs. Birling enters the scene she is not prepared for this. Her mood is very strange and she does not seem to pick up on the atmosphere and the effect is to make her seem like a busybody. Sheila uses the metaphor not to build a wall. She is trying to tell her mother not to stop the inspectors inquires but to go ahead and listen, but Mrs.Birling does not understand and she gets very annoyed.She is also rude to the inspector, saying that his comment is ‘a trifle impertinent’.
The word impertinent shows how her attitude to others is a superior one

Priestly sees this as part of the problem with the rich in Edwardian times and since there is no government assistance charities need to help. Although Mrs.Birling belongs to the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation, she only helps those who she thinks have earned it. So when Eva Smith, who is pregnant, asks for help and calls herself Mrs. Birling, The real Mrs. Birling is extremely angry and tells her committee not to assist. This is an example of irony because Mrs. Birling doesn’t know that Eric is the unborn baby’s father. To make things worse, she then tells the inspector when questioning her that the father of the child should be made to pay and be ‘dealt with very