In "An Inspector Calls," Priestley sets up Mrs Birling as an arrogant, morally blind, and prejudiced character, symbolic of the Edwardian upper class. Her dismissal to the working class, refusal to accept responsibility, and her resistance to change is her hubris. Priestley uses Mrs Birling and her faults to put "An Inspector Calls" as a didactic play, in which the moral lesson is a critique of the class system. Priestley presents Mrs Birling as dismissive of the working class, portraying her as the embodiment of upper class arrogance and prejudice to criticise how the upper class viewed themselves as superior and dismissive of those below them. The social structure is constantly on her mind despite there being a horrific tragedy of Eva Smith's death. Her initial treatment is to call her "girls of that class", a dehumanising tone that reflects Mrs Birling's lack of empathy. She linguistically separates her from the Birlings, as the Eva Smith and the whole working class is described as "them." This collective pronoun contrasts with the way Birling describes herself as "us," creating a divide between the upper and lower class. In fact, her prejudice is so clear, that when she is pressed on if she was "prejudiced against her case" by the Inspector, she coldly utters "yes." Her cruelty showing no bounds as she dismisses any chance of Eva Smith to receive any help. Priestley uses Mrs Birling to criticise the old Edwardian class system, as during the time of the play's release, change was rapidly happening. A time of rising socialistic views, Priestley was a socialist, who believed that the upper class was prejudiced against those who actually contributed to society. His socialistic view meant he viewed the upper class unfavourably, which is clear in how he portrays Mrs Birling as an arrogant, dismissive, and prejudiced character. Priestley explores Mrs Birling as a hypocritical character, who refuses to accept responsibility. Here, she symbolises the upper classes, used to expose the damaging effects of social hierarchy. When confronted about her involvement in Eva's death, she refuses to accept responsibility, instead declaring that she "did nothing I'm ashamed of" and claiming she "accepts no blame for it at all". These emphatic, short, delcarive statements demonstrate Mrs Birling's moral blindness, showing how her self-righteousness prevents her from feeling empathy. Dramatic irony further reveals her hypocrisy as she spews on and on about "blaming the father", insisting that he should "Look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility" and calling him a "drunk idler". Her failure to realise that her own son impregnated Eva and her refusal to listen to her daughter Sheila, who did realise it was Eric, is a consequence of her failure to accept responsibility in the first place. Her behaviour is ironic - by insisting the father should be responsible, she damns her own son to "confess in public his responsibility". This behaviour is typical of the upper class in the Edwardian era, as it took her own son to be revealed as the father, and her refusal of anagorsis up to the end, reveals how privilege shields the upper class from responsibility. Priestley uses Mrs Birling as a symbol of the entrenched elite and the moral double standards of Edwardian society, how it is okay for her to condemn the father when the he is of lower class, but to cover up Eric's wrong to protect her social status. Lastly, Priestley explores her resistance to change that characterises the Edwardian upper classes. He does this to criticise the social hierarchy and call for reform. Despite her eventual anagorsis by the Inspector's revelations, she remains defensive of her actions, attempting to protect herself from the consequences and change. Her declaration that the Inspector "has no power to make [her] change [her] mind", suggests her resistance to social change. This is built on, as she belittles Sheila and Eric of taking on the Inspector's lesson. This creates a paradoxical situation where she assumes the role of the mother, but is outdone by her own children for taking more responsibility and being more open minded than she is. The supposed 'you children' that she describes is far more mature than she is - and Priestley does this to highlight how, Mrs Birling, as the only real upper class and her husband's social superior, still refuses to accept the change needed in her behaviours. That maybe the working class isn't to blame and that she needs to adapt to better understand those who need help - a role she is already supposed to have as head of a woman's charity. The result of Priestley using Mrs Birling as an example of the dismissive, hypocritical and stubborn upper class, is that the audience is denied an cathartic ending. Priestley does this on purpose, warning the audience that the society they live in still needs reform. The cyclical structure, when the Inspector picks up the calls at the end of the play, is symbolic of how the fight to end the cruel, unfair and unjust class system never ends. This is the message that Priestley is conveying in his diadic play - that reform must be needed.