Lesson video

Hello there, my name's Mr. Barnsley and I'm here to guide you through today's learning.

I'm really excited as we continue to explore "An Inspector Calls" in today's lesson.

Now I am gonna be expecting a little bit of prior knowledge here.

This shouldn't be the first time that you have looked at "An Inspector Calls." I'm gonna be expecting some knowledge of the plot, some knowledge of the characters.

Particularly in today's lesson we're gonna be talking about Mrs. Birling and Eva Smith.

You're also gonna want to make sure you have a copy of the text in front of you.

I'll be expecting you to look through it and find some evidence from there, so do make sure you have a copy of the text.

Alright, once you're ready to get started, so am I, looking forward to this, let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to analyse how Priestley uses the character of Mrs. Birling to explore the impact of both gender and class expectations.

So some keywords that are gonna really help us unlock the lesson.

The first is patriarchy.

Now this is a system where men hold more power and they dominate roles in society, in family, or in institutions.

Now a hierarchy is a system in which people or things are ranked according to their importance or status.

So in a patriarchal hierarchy, we might be expecting to see men towards the top of this system, this ranking.

Now societal norms, they are things that are perceived usually informal, mostly unwritten.

They're rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions.

The verb to marginalise means to treat someone or something as if they are not important.

And prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual often due to some of their characteristics, which might be class and gender that we'll be looking at in today's lesson.

So keep an eye out for all of these five words.

They will be in bold when they appear in our lesson and see if you can use them in your own discussions and work later.

So there are three learning cycles in today's lesson.

First, we are gonna be exploring experiences of gender and class, making sure we feel really confident talking about these two things.

We're then gonna focus on the text in more detail looking at Mrs. Birling's treatment of Eva Smith.

And we are gonna end the lesson by planning an analytical paragraph focused on the character of Mrs. Birling.

So let's get started thinking about gender and class.

So arguably we could say that Priestley uses the characters in "An Inspector Calls" as a vehicle to explore and challenge those societal norms, those kind of expectations of how people should behave and people should be treated.

So Priestley examines how societal expectations impact how the characters act and how they treat others and how they are treated.

So we're gonna focus on class and gender, you'll remember that from our outcome.

So for class we could say that Priestley highlights how class shapes a character's actions and treatment.

It reinforces inequality and social division.

So you can start thinking about some of those characters who help reinforce the inequality that we see between the upper classes and the working class characters.

We're also gonna be focusing on gender, so we know that throughout his play Priestley explores how societal gender expectations limit women's role and limit their influence, and we also see how it influences their treatment in society.

So the key character we might think about here is Eva Smith and how she is treated as a working-class woman.

But of course we want to talk, we're gonna be thinking about Mrs. Birling and Sheila Birling as well, but in this lesson specifically we're going to focus on Mrs. Birling.

So the characters of Mrs. Birling and Eva Smith engage with these ideas of gender and class.

So although they are both women, their class means they have different experiences.

You may have heard of this word, intersectionality.

This is the idea that characteristics or people's experiences can intersect.

So yes, both Mrs. Birling and Eva Smith will experience the difficulties that women face, particularly in a patriarchal society.

But their class, Mrs. Birling is an upper-class woman, Eva Smith is a working class, means that their experiences of sexism or their experiences of the patriarchy will differ because there is where those two things intersect, at that point, we get very specific experiences, and those experiences differ for upper-class women and working-class women.

So over to you to try and put these ideas into practise and link them to the text.

I want you to discuss what similarities and differences can you identify in how Mrs. Birling and Eva Smith experience society and experience society's expectations of them as women and as different classes.

Alright, if you've got a partner, you can work with them so you can share some ideas.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself at home, you can just think through some of these ideas independently, maybe even make a few notes.

Alright, pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back, I'm sure you were having some fantastic discussions there or you were thinking really carefully about this if you're working independently.

One of our Oak pupils, Andeep, gave this a go and here are some of his suggestions.

He said, for similarities, that both characters face societal expectations regarding their behaviour and are expected to uphold morality.

Arguably, they both have limited autonomy, they have less independence because they both live and exist in a patriarchal society, and they live and exist as women in a patriarchal society, and we know that a patriarchy is a society, laws, systems that have been designed with men in mind and are often run by men.

So their experiences as women existing in this patriarchal society mean they have limited independence and autonomy, and that's a similarity between both women.

However, Andeep acknowledged there were differences and he said that Mrs. Birling has societal power and protection whilst Eva lacks both, and this is a result of the differences in their social classes.

Mrs. Birling enforces these class divisions.

We see that in her behaviour, that she at times, you know, she actively tries to keep the working class in place, in position.

And we see Eva suffers as a working-class woman.

We know that whilst Mrs. Birling might not hold the authority that a man might in a patriarchal society, her class still allows her to hold authority in society in a way that Eva can't.

And as a result, Eva is exploited in a way that Mrs. Birling never is.

So, which similarity or difference then do you think has the most impact on their experiences? Do you think it's gender or do you think it is class that has the most impact on their experiences as characters in this play? Why don't you pause the video and have a think? You can discuss in pairs or just think through this independently.

What do you think? Over to you, press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, there's no right or wrong answer there, so it'd be really interesting to think about what you said and why.

Alright, before we move on, let's do a quick check to make sure we're all understanding.

True or false? Arguably, Priestley suggests that societal norms do not impact how characters act or are treated.

What do you think, is that true or false? Pause the video, pick your answer, but make sure you justify, think, why have I chosen this answer? Press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said false there, and why might we have said false? Well, we could say that Priestley may be suggesting that societal norms and expectations, they definitely do impact how characters act and are treated.

For example, we know Eva is exploited due to the fact that she's working class.

While we know Sybil, Mrs. Birling, upper class status actually this protects her from quite lot of judgement , even though she's a woman existing in a patriarchal society.

So the Edwardian period when this play was set could definitely be considered a patriarchal society, and this means that men predominantly held power and influence.

So some examples of this might include that men dominated politics, they dominated law, they dominated work, women had kind of much fewer rights in comparison to men and they had much fewer opportunities.

This means gender roles more often than not confined women to home life, they domesticated women.

Men were leaders, men were providers, and women worked at home.

Of course, this wasn't something that happened for all women.

We could see from the Birling women were definitely expected to be domesticated, but actually Eva as a working-class woman still had to go out and find work as well.

So the patriarchy as a system was reinforced by law and culture.

And though suffrage began, it was was beginning change, so if you remember the suffragette movement, the fight for women's rights, we were still at the time the play was set in a very patriarchal society which was reinforced by law and culture and had men in dominant positions, leadership positions in politics, law, and work.

So we could argue then that Priestley reveals how societal structures like patriarchy can limit the individual freedoms and opportunities, particularly for people like Eva Smith, and we see this throughout the play.

However, I think the character of Mrs. Birling is really interesting here because we could also suggest that Mrs. Birling too is a victim of these societal norms, and actually Priestley is using all of the characters, not just Eva, to critique the flaws of gender and class structures in Edwardian societies.

So yes, most obviously we see this as a critique of how the working-class women, or working class in general but specifically working-class women like Eva are treated.

But we can take a wider lens and have a think about, is Priestley being more critical about gender and class structures at a more wider level? So over to you then.

What examples from "An Inspector Calls" do you think demonstrate that Mrs. Birling is a product of these social norms and expectations? So some of the maybe decisions she makes, the choices she makes, shows that she too has been influenced by living in this patriarchal society.

Over to you to think through this one and if you've got a partner, think through with them, or work through this independently.

Pause the video, give it a go, and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back, I'm sure you had some fantastic ideas there and really well done to any of you who are talking through specific examples from the text, perhaps, you know, that Mrs. Birling reinforces these structures in the way that she treats or, you know, in the way that she treated or spoke about Eva Smith.

Alright, let's do another check before we move on then.

Edwardian society could be considered patriarchal, but what does patriarchal mean? Is it A, that women have equal power and influence in all societal roles and decisions? Is it B, that social roles are based solely on individual merit, not on gender? Or is it C, that men hold the majority of power and authority in politics, work, and family life? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you've got the answer.

Welcome back, well done if you said C.

Alright, onto our first task then in today's lesson and it's gonna be a discussion task, so if you've got a partner or you can work in a small group, that's great, let's have a really well-structured discussion.

But do not worry if you're working by yourself.

You can just take this as a moment to think through the questions, maybe make a few notes if you wish.

Alright, I want you to discuss the following statements and considering to what extent you agree.

Do you fully agree, do you fully disagree, or are you somewhere in between? So our first statement is that Priestley presents Mrs. Birling as someone who enforces societal expectations, she forces these on others.

Our second statement is that Priestley presents Mrs. Birling as a victim of social expectations.

She's constrained by her role in the upper class and her need to uphold family reputation.

What do you think? Really interested to hear what you're thinking so far, building on all of the work that we've done so far in today's lesson.

Alright, pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back, I hope you were piecing together lots of the discussions that we've already had in today's lesson and of course using evidence from the text to support your discussions.

Alright, two of our Oak pupils, Lucas and Alex, gave this a go.

Let's have a look at what they had to say.

So Lucas said, "Mrs. Birling's role in the charity committee reflects how she uses her position to maintain control over those below her.

It demonstrates how she enforces the expectations of upper-class women to preserve their reputation." Really interesting.

Alex said, "Priestley shows that Mrs. Birling's refusal to accept any responsibility reflects how upper-class women are constrained by social expectations to maintain their image, even at the expense of justice." So Alex arguing here that Mrs. Birling, because of her experiences or her life as an upper-class woman, she has to value her image, her presentation, her reputation, and actually she has to value this above justice for Eva Smith.

What do you think then? To what extent did you agree? Did you have any similar ideas to Lucas and Alex? Can you consider, can you develop any of their answers further with examples from the play? Why don't we take a moment before we move on to our next section of the lesson just to reflect on the discussions we've had so far, and if there's any of Lucas's or Alex's ideas that you like that you didn't discuss, why don't you make a note of them now? Alright, press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Time for us to look at some more specifics now, and we're gonna look at Mrs. Birling's treatment of Eva Smith.

So Mrs. Birling we know is interrogated by the Inspector in Act 2, and I think we see in this act that Mrs. Birling's responses reflects this internalised patriarchal views.

What does that mean then if Mrs. Birling has internalised these patriarchal views? Well, this means that Mrs. Birling has accepted the values of patriarchal society, and therefore her attitudes and her actions conform to these expectations of a patriarchal society.

So yes, we're saying that a patriarchy is a system that's been designed for men, by men, and men lead it.

But actually, Mrs. Birling as a woman has kind of accepted this, she's taken this on board, and actually we see this through her attitudes and actions.

So I want you to see if you can find some examples of this and you're gonna read Act 2.

And if you're using the Heinemann version, this will be page 42 and I want you to read to the end of page 49, so you're gonna start with the Inspector's line who says, "Mrs. Birling." And I want you as you're reading this to discuss the following questions.

Again, you can do this in pairs or you can just think through this independently.

How does Mrs. Birling's response to the Inspector show her belief in social hierarchies? And how does Mrs. Birling's treatment of Eva reflect this internalised patriarchal view? Alright, over to you.

You need your copies at the ready, reading through, and have these two questions in the forefront of your mind as you are reading.

Alright, give yourself plenty of time for this and press play when you think you are done.

Welcome back, I'm sure you're doing some really great detective work reading through very carefully the text, trying to find evidence that supported your arguments for those two questions.

Again, two of our Oak pupils, Aisha and Sofia, gave this a go.

Let's have a look at what they were saying.

So Aisha was saying that Mrs. Birling's response to the Inspector shows she believes in social hierarchies because she marginalises Eva Smith.

Okay, she kind of pushes her to the margins of society.

She refers to her as undeserving, she dismisses her based on class.

We can also see Mrs. Birling's prejudice reflects the upholding of social hierarchies.

She blames Eva for her situation.

So she says she used the word impertinent, which suggests that Eva's actions were deserving of punishment.

And we could perhaps go so far to say that she believes Eva deserves this because she's a working-class woman.

And these prejudices reflect that social hierarchy and, you know, and Mrs. Birling is protecting herself or sees herself as being kind of more important and therefore more worthy than Eva Smith.

So have a think at those two ideas that you've seen on the screen there, Aisha's view and Sofia's view, and compare that to the discussions you were having as you did this activity.

Who do you agree with most and why? Pause the video and have a think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, whilst discussing the questions, Izzy made this statement, let's read through Izzy's statement together.

She said, "Interestingly, Priestley might reveal that being a woman doesn't mean that you are free from internalising patriarchal views.

Mrs. Birling, despite her gender, still enforces oppressive beliefs towards women like Eva." Wow, I think this is really, really interesting.

This argument that just because you are a woman and you yourself might suffer at the hands of the patriarchy and, you know, be oppressed by patriarchal ideas and values, that doesn't mean that you can't oppress other women or kind of enforce these oppressive beliefs on other women.

And Izzy's arguing we see this in Mrs. Birling.

Yes, she might be a woman.

Yes, you know, she doesn't have the independence that she would do if she was a man because she's a woman who exists in a patriarchal society.

But actually, we see Mrs. Birling enforcing and continue that oppression and making that oppression even worse for other women like Eva, really interesting.

I want you to see now if you can find specific examples from Act 2 which could demonstrate Mrs. Birling's patriarchal views of societal norms. So again, get that text open from what we've just been reading and see if you can find some specific examples which could help Izzy prove her point.

Alright, over to you, pause the video and give this a go.

Welcome back, I'm hoping you found lots of evidence there.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

So which word does Mrs. Birling use to describe Eva Smith's case? Is it A, unacceptable; B, undeserving; or C, unjustified? A, B, or C? Pause the video, pick your response, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, well done if you said B, undeserving.

I think this is just a really great example of where we can say Mrs. Birling is continuing to oppress Eva Smith, so she's using her position in her social class to do this, but we could also argue that she's using her position as an upper-class woman to do this.

So even though they are both women, it doesn't stop her oppressing other women like Eva Smith.

Alright, over to you then for this question.

We're gonna be planning an answer to this question in the final part of today's lesson, so I want you to consider it carefully before we do any planning.

How does Priestley use Mrs. Birling to highlight the impact of societal expectations of gender and class? I'd like you to annotate this question by underlining the keywords in the question and identifying any ideas from the play that you could use to support this question.

Alright, pause the video.

Let's annotate this question.

Press play when you think you're done.

Alright, welcome back.

Let's have a look at some of the annotations that you may have made.

Of course this is not the perfect answer, this is not the only answer, but you will be able to take some ideas from this as well.

So I would've chosen to underline Mrs. Birling.

We know she's a main character, one of the main characters, and when we're talking about Mrs. Birling I really want to think about how she represents these traditional upper-class values.

I also want to underline "the impact of societal expectations" and "gender and class." These are all kind of the key bits I want to talk about.

Mrs. Birling, societal expectations, gender, class.

And what ideas from the text are coming to mind? Well, I would probably want to be talking about how Mrs. Birling enforces social hierarchies, especially for women.

So therefore she's internalised the patriarchy.

Mrs. Birling's views reflect gender and class inequalities.

So we know that there are inequalities in societies due to gender or class, and actually Mrs. Birling's views reflect those.

And we could say that Priestley uses Mrs. Birling as a vehicle to critique these societal structures.

So if we want to see, you know, if we are arguing that Priestley is critiquing these structures, well, I think his presentation as Mrs. Birling as this unforgiving, quite unlikeable character shows that he's critiquing these societal structures that Mrs. Birling wants to uphold.

Well done if you said something similar to what you can see on screen.

Of course you might had slightly different ideas as well and that's great.

Why don't you pause the video and if there's anything on the screen that you want to add to your own annotations, now's the time to do so.

Okay, welcome back.

We are on to the final part of the lesson and we are gonna plan an analytical paragraph on Mrs. Birling.

So we're gonna be using a single paragraph outline in today's lesson.

Let's have a, hopefully you might have used these before in your planning, but if you haven't, let's have a quick reminder.

They look something like this.

Three sections, our topic sentence, supporting detail, concluding sentence.

Our topic sentence will always outline the arguments of each paragraph.

They'll include any of the key question vocabulary.

Our supporting detail is always written in note form.

This is where we focus on the writer's methods or any structure.

It's where we focus on which of the main quotes that we're gonna use and analyse and explode and explore in lots of detail.

It's also where we're gonna keep any supporting quotations that are gonna help prove our topic sentence.

And we're gonna finish with a concluding sentence, and in our concluding sentence we always summarise the argument of each paragraph and we have a really sharp focus on what the writer's purpose is because remember, whenever we're analysing literature, we always want to bring it back to what is the writer trying to do, and that concluding sentence is always really useful for doing that.

Alright, quick check.

We can remember how a single paragraph outline works.

Which aspect of the single paragraph outline should you write in note form? Is it the topic sentence, is it the supporting detail, is it the concluding sentence, or is it all the above? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you've got an answer.

Welcome back, you should have said B, supporting detail.

We want to write our topic sentences and our concluding sentences in full sentences.

Alright, so on the next slide I'm gonna show you an example of a single paragraph outline.

It's gonna be based on the question that we looked at in the previous learning cycle, how does Priestley use Mrs. Birling to highlight the impact of societal expectations of gender and class? As you read that single paragraph outline, I want you to check the following.

Does that topic sentence link to the question, does it have a very clear focus? Is the supporting detail in note form and does it identify the writer's methods and key quotations that we're gonna use? And does the concluding sentence link to Priestley's purpose? Okay, so clear topic sentence that links to the question, supporting detail in note form, and concluding sentence that links to Priestley's purpose.

Let's have a look at an example.

So the topic sentence.

Arguably, Priestley presents Mrs. Birling as a victim of societal expectations constrained by her role in the upper class and her need to uphold family reputation.

Supporting detail, Mrs. Birling's role in the charity reinforces class divisions.

That word deserving shows her belief in hierarchy.

She dismisses responsibility, she maintains upper-class image, the dialogue duty shows she has a compliance to societal role.

Concluding sentence, Priestley uses Mrs. Birling's actions to demonstrate how societal expectations trap individuals within rigid class roles.

Okay, let's have a look.

Did you spot the features there of a single paragraph outline? So we saw the topic sentence there used words from the question has a clear focus, so societal expectations, class, but this is all focusing on family reputation.

The supporting detail is in note form and I hope you saw that I identified the writer's methods and quotations.

And the concluding sentence then considers Priestley's purpose here, and this is how Priestley, what's he trying to demonstrate? Well, he's demonstrating that lots of people, everyone, really, can find themselves getting trapped within rigid class roles.

Well done if you spotted all those things as we were looking through that together.

Alright then, over to you then for our final task in today's lesson.

You are gonna write your own single paragraph outline for the question that you annotated in the second learning cycle.

There is a structure there, there is a framework for you to use, and I want you to just bring together all the discussions that we have had in today's lesson.

Really looking forward to seeing what you put down.

Best of luck, pause the video, give it a go, and press play when you are done.

Welcome back, really great to see you checking your spelling, punctuation, and grammar as well before you put your pens down, particularly in the topic sentence and the concluding sentence which we know should be written in full sentences.

Alright, before we finish today's lesson, we're gonna take a moment to self-reflect on and self-assess the work that we've just done.

So I want you to use the three questions that you can see on the screen to self-assess your single paragraph outline.

Does your topic sentence link to the question and have a clear focus? Is the supporting detail in note form and does it identify the writer's methods and key quotations? And does the concluding sentence link to Priestley's purpose? Alright, pause the video, take some time to reflect on your work, and press play when you are done.

Okay, that's it, we've reached the end of today's lesson and it's been an absolute pleasure learning alongside you.

On the screen you can see a summary of the learning that we have covered in today's lesson, let's quickly go through it together so you can feel super confident before you move on.

We've learned that, arguably, Priestley uses his characters as vehicles to critique the flaws of gender and class structures in Edwardian societies.

We know that Mrs. Birling embodies some of these traditional Edwardian norms of both gender and class and she reinforces these societal hierarchies.

We could argue that Mrs. Birling's responses to the Inspector reflects her internalised patriarchal views.

We could also say that Mrs. Birling's treatment of Eva could show the prejudice of the upper class against working-class women.

We also used single paragraph outlines today and we know these are a really useful planning tool for analytical writing.

Alright, great work today.

I really hope to see you in one of our lessons again soon.

Thank you for joining me today and have a lovely day with the rest of your day however you choose to spend it.

See you all soon, bye-bye.