An essay about the book 'An Inspector Calls', the characters in the book and how they are portrayed.

‘An Inspector Calls’ Essay

I am going to write an essay about the book ‘An Inspector Calls’, the characters in the book and how they are portrayed. The family in this book are called the Birlings. There is Mr Birling who owns his own company and thinks he knows everything, Mrs Birling who is a snob and is wealthy because of her husband, Sheila who is the daughter and is getting engaged to Gerald Croft and Eric who is the son and a drunk. They are an upper class family who think very highly of themselves and expect respect from the lower class families. They live in the year 1912, I know this because it says in the book ‘Why a friend of mine went over this new liner last week – The Titanic – she sails next week.’ This shows they live in 1912 because the Titanic set sail in 1912. They live in a town called Brumley but it is not said where that is exactly.

Mr Birling runs his own company and has a large house with a servant. This shows they must be quite wealthy to afford a servant and a large house. The play shows that they are rich with the nice things they have such as fine cigars, a big house and a servant. In the time when the Birlings lived people had different attitudes to life, money and human welfare. They were not very nice to their employees by giving them low wages and sacking them for going on strike and because there were no unions in those days, the workers could do nothing about it.

At the start of the play the Birlings and Gerald Croft are celebrating Gerald and Sheila’s engagement and generally being happy. They are drinking and talking and being merry. I know they are drinking because it says in the book ‘Giving us the port Edna? That’s right!’

This is a preview of the whole essay

When the police inspector arrives the women have left the room and gone to the drawing room. When he arrives he creates a big impression on the men. I know this because it says in the book ‘The Inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.’ He then tells the men that a young woman has died in the Infirmary after swallowing some strong disinfectant, which burnt her insides out. I know this because it says ‘Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course.’ This shows he is telling the men what has happened and is trying to make then feel worse by telling them what the disinfectant did to her. The Inspector then asks Mr Birling a few questions about this woman who turns out to be named Eva Smith. Mr Birling doesn’t like how the Inspector is treating him and threatens him by saying he knows the Chief Constable Colonel Roberts and will report him to the chief.

We find out that Mr Birling sacked Eva from his company because she was one of the ringleaders of a strike against low wages. It says in the book ‘She was one of my employees and then I discharged her.’ This shows he fired her from his company. Mr Birling feels that what he did was justified and that he did nothing wrong however the Inspector feels that he started a chain reaction, which caused her to commit suicide.

Eva Smith then got a new job at a shop called Milwards where Mrs Birling and Sheila shop a lot. Sheila got Eva fired from Milwards because she thought she was laughing at her because she didn’t look nice in a dress she was adamant to try on. It says in the book ‘I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the shop again’. Sheila feels bad about what she did and wishes that she hadn’t been in such a bad mood and taken her anger out on an innocent woman.

Gerald had an affair with Eva but she had changed her name to Daisy Renton to try and get a fresh start. Gerald broke up with Daisy and because he was looking after some flats for a friend, gave her a room to stay in. He gave her some money and made frequent visits to see her. He then had to break up the relationship because he was moving back to Brumley. Gerald feels quite upset about what he did and wishes that Daisy had blamed him entirely for breaking up with her. He says in the book ‘She didn’t blame me at all. I wish to god she had now.’ This shows she didn’t blame him but he feels worse because she didn’t.

We then find out that Eric also had an affair with Daisy Renton. He made love to her twice and got her pregnant. He found out she had next to no money and stole some from his father’s company to help her. Eric feels ashamed and won’t forget about what he did. Mrs Birling then refused to give Daisy help from her organisation because she didn’t like the way she acted and forced the rest of the committee to reject her. Mrs Birling doesn’t feel she has done anything wrong and blames Daisy for what happened to her. She says ‘But I think she had only herself to blame’. This shows she doesn’t really care and accepts no responsibility.

The younger characters in the play feel ashamed and disgusted with themselves and are prepared to accept responsibility for their part in Eva’s death whereas the older characters do not seem to care about the actual death or their part in it, just how it appears to everyone else. They also seem to want to pass the blame to others as Mr Birling says ‘You’re the one I blame for this’ to Eric as he feels Eric is the main culprit. He is more concerned that everyone will find out about the affair between Eric and Eva and that there will be public scandal.

Mr Birling, Mrs Birling and Gerald are concerned with the fact that the Inspector maybe fake and that someone is trying to trick them and force them to admit to something they didn’t do to humiliate them. Eric and Sheila are disgusted and horrified with their parents because they will not accept any responsibility for what they may have caused. Even though it may be a hoax Eric and Sheila have learnt a valuable lesson and feel very different and appalled at themselves. They realise it is too late to say sorry and this plays on their conscience.

If something like this happened today then the person pretending to be the police inspector would be arrested for impersonating an officer of the law and the confession from the Birlings and Gerald wouldn’t mean anything. The papers would make a big deal out of the story from the Birlings and Gerald, as they would probably sue the person impersonating the police inspector.

I think all the characters played an equal part in the death of Eva/Daisy and that they should all share the responsibility for the part they played. What they did was awful and they should all be equally punished for their actions and not allowed to forget about what they potentially could have caused.

As the author wrote this play in 1945 he makes reference to all the important things that have happened before he wrote the play. For example he makes reference to the Kaiser and that there isn’t a chance of war but the audience know this not to be true as World War II has already occurred and ended. He also makes reference to the Titanic being unsinkable which again the audience know not to be true as the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. He refers to Russia always being economically behind the rest of the world but this again is not true as Mr Birlings views turn out to be incorrect. I think Priestly had intent to make ironic points about the future and about people’s views on the future at that time.

Martyn Symonds