SYBIL BIRLING.
I’ve been thinking about Sybil a lot in the last week or so, about her treatment of Eva, and how it resonates with current questions about our treatment of the poor in times of need.
1/
It’s significant that JBP introduces Sybil as an almost comical character. Remember: Sybil’s generation would have all but died out by 1945, and those in the audience in their 50s or 60s would recognise themselves in Sheila and Eric, and their parents’ gen. in Mr and Mrs B.
2/
So Sybil sits on stage at curtain up, presumably dressed to stand out as her “husband’s social superior”, a relic of the Victorian upper class.
And her first contributions make her seem deliberately out of date:
3/
She commands Edna, the servant. She chides Mr B for a faux pas about the cook. She makes a facepalm-worthy comment about men spending ”all their time on their business” (more on this later). She scolds Sheila for the word “squiffy”, and scolds Mr B for ”talking business”.
4/
All of this establishes her as old-fashioned, out-of-touch, at worst a little ignorant about the lives of her family. But benign, really. You can even imagine the character being played for laughs, like the matronly elder woman in an Oscar Wilde play.
But.
5/
As the play progresses, and Sybil part in Eva’s death is revealed, we realise there’s nothing comic about her.
And this is why I’ve been thinking about Sybil, whenever I read a tweet asking why the poor can’t just cook cheaply, or go to food banks, or why do they need TVs.
6/
If you have wealth and influence, being out-of-touch is toxic. Being ignorant is dangerous. Clinging to the assumptions and prejudices of a previous era can cause untold harm.
Sybil’s naivety about her family and the society around them isn’t benign AT ALL.
7/
After Sybil tells Sheila about “men with important work to do”, we ask later on if Mr Birling was unfaithful to her in past years, just like Gerald was.
Did Sybil know? Is she really naive, or is she warning Sheila not to ask too many questions about what Gerald gets up to?
8/
To Sybil, men and women occupy totally different spheres. We see this in the way she manoeuvres Sheila around the home (and away from men talking). Her surprise at the news of Alderman Meggarty being a “sot and rogue” comes from a lifetime of tactical ignorance about men.
9/
But that ignorance is a type of complicity.
Mrs Birling hears her future son-in-law admit to an ongoing affair with Eva, making a mockery of his engagement to her daughter, and has exactly ZERO to say about it.
Not a word of anger or disappointment does she utter.
10/
Because Sybil wouldn’t challenge a man on his private business or, most likely, on his treatment of a woman.
As the men around her exploit vulnerable women, Sybil, untouched by such unpleasantness, turns a blind eye.
11/
CORRECTION: several of you have pointed out that Sybil does in fact call Gerald’s affair “disgusting” to his face.
But.
She is silent on how it might impact her own daughter. She is silent on the breaking of the engagement. And she welcomes Gerald and his...
12/
“clever” explanation of the Inspector’s ”hoax” at the end.
So I wonder if her “disgusting” was more in the vein of when Sheila says ”Oh why had this to happen?” on hearing about Eva’s suicide. More troubled by the invasion of her worldview than the event itself.
13/
Sybil inhabits a class mentality in which upper-class, high-status people are morally superior to those beneath them in society.
Sybil and those like her don’t just have more wealth and a finer lifestyle; they actually ARE better people.
14/
(Interestingly, Sybil’s willingness to turn on Mr Birling at a couple of key moments suggests a class rift between them that has never fully been bridged. She considers herself superior, too, to her industrialist husband).
15/
Sybil's "charity" work may help some of those in needs but it also perpetuates social difference and inequality.
Sybil is no more interested in Eva as an individual human being than was Arthur, Sheila or anyone.
16/
Look at Sybil's initial reaction to hearing about the suicide:
"I don't suppose for a
moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class --"
For all her work helping women in need, she still views them as unknowable, a different species.
17/
I would connect this comment to when Mr Birling says of his workers "we have hundreds of young women...and they keep changing."
This is the working class viewed as a homogeneous blob.
And the wealthy owner classes prefer it when the lower classes KNOW THEIR PLACE.
18/
Another useful link would be Sheila saying of Eva "if she'd been some miserable, plain little creature I don't suppose I'd have done it."
Sheila feels comfortable when the working class are miserable and plain. Mr B feels comfortable when they're meekly obedient.
19/
And SYBIL likes it when the poor women who approach her are miserable, hopeless, grateful, and fit neatly into her vision of the poor.
The line "she was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position" is really important.
20/
Eva is TOO MORAL for Sybil. Her unwillingness to accept stolen money ("as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!") actually helps to prejudice Sybil AGAINST her. Instead of showing the empathy that might have led her to understand Eva's situation fully...
21/
Sybil slams the door on a girl who disrupts her view of the poor as an immoral, inhuman class.
Meanwhile, Sybil clings to her view that her own class is swathed in a cloak of morality, insisting that she did her "duty" and is blameless, and being blind to Eric's drinking.
22/
"Why don't poor people just eat more cheaply? Why don't they stock up on potatoes? Why do they need TVs? Why don't they move to cheaper areas? Why don't they stop smoking? Why do they have smartphones? Boiled egg: 18p. Slice of toast: 2p. A whole chicken can feed you for a w
23/
I hear Sybil in the pontification of smug, affluent people convinced THEY would handle privation with thrift and panache. I hear her when someone says that the "poor" aren't really poor, or are just making bad choices, or choose to live off benefits.
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At the end of the play, Sybil considers herself somewhat above all the events that have unfolded. She trades criticism with Mr B, thanks Gerald for letting them off the hook, and prepares to settle back into life as it was before.
25/
There's probably a more sympathetic view of Sybil, considering the struggles that all women faced in the 19th and early 20th c, considering the mindset into which she was raised, considering the good that her charity work probably did do.
But...
26/
AIC is a play about what sort of society the audience will build in 1945. A warning not to return to old attitudes.
Being old-fashioned, or outdated, or a product of her time does not make Sybil less harmful.
These were some thoughts on Sybil. Hope you found them useful.
/end
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