Sybil Birling is also about fifty years old and is the wife of Arthur Birling. She clearly comes from a more superior social position than her husband as shown when she corrects him earlier on in the play. She is cold and has little or no remorse over her involvement with Eva/Daisy and says, “I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation” and is very protective over her son Eric until she finds out he’s the father of the illegitimate child.
Sheila Birling is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Birling engaged to Gerald Croft, which is the reason why they are celebrating in the first place until she finds out that he had an affair with Eva/Daisy then she has to have serious thoughts about their future marriage. She shops at Milward’s and this is how she met Eva/Daisy. She displayed a rather cruel and vain attitude in the store and this lead to her getting Eva/Daisy fired from the only real job she ever enjoyed but however unlike her parents and Gerald she feels sorry for her part towards Eva/Daisy’s death and says “I behaved badly too. I know I did. I’m ashamed of it” and also when she learnt that her dad had fired several people and then commented how easy it was to replace them she said “these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people!” so its clear to see she has more morals then the rest of her family.
Eric Birling is the son of Mr and Mrs B and the brother of Sheila. He is rather reserved and quiet and keeps mainly to himself until the latter part of the play. He stays out of the older men’s conversation and like his sister doesn’t agree with their fathers and Gerald’s businesses and their work ethics. He likes to drink and often visits the lower degenerate entertainment venues in town, which is how he met Eva/Daisy. He has a very comic attitude towards life and soon comes to realise like his sister “Oh my God – how stupid it all is” and after the inspector has left he says that “its what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters” showing that he does show remorse for what he and they did.
Gerald Croft is the ‘easy well to do man about town’ .He comes from a very rich well to do industrialist family like that of the Birlings. He is very confident about himself, his family and others. He had just become engaged to Sheila and was celebrating their engagement. He is also about thirty years old. On his relationship with Eva Smith/Daisy Renton he says “I didn’t ask for anything in return” and is the first person to argue whether the Inspector was a real Inspector or not.
Now I have left this character for last because he’s the most mysterious out of them all and is the one character whose purpose is clear in than that of revealing how the characters help Eva/Daisy commit suicide. The inspector is in his mid fifties about the same age of Arthur Birling. As soon as he enters the household he makes a very big impression on the characters and the audience. As I’ve said he’s purposeful and gives an impression of massiveness and solidity as described by Priestly himself. This is my favourite character because unknowing to the family with very little information he manages to make them reveal how they each helped murder Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. He sort of tricks them into confessing if you will, that’s why he is a strong and good character.
As I said at the beginning in a way the play is made up of a whole series of mini climaxes or dramatic moments and each time we learn about a characters involvement with her, it’s a bit of a climax. You can clearly see a pattern emerging while you are waiting to see how the next characters involved. Each interview leads to a small climax as we find out what somebody did, although some moments clearly stand out as being more dramatic then others.
At the end of the second act when you realise the significance of what Mrs Birling has said that is a dramatic moment. She was the hardest for the inspector to crack and find out her involvement and so it’s quite exciting as an audience to see her shown up for what she really is.
Also a dramatic moment and the way in which Priestly delivers his political message is the inspector’s speech. In my opinion the best part in the play because not only do you here the Inspectors final reflection but you also understand Priestlys whole point in writing the play.
Another 2 dramatic moments are the realisation after ringing the Police chief that there is no Inspector Goole and then everyone becomes completely baffled but just after they have recovered after believing it was all a hoax there’s a final dramatic phone call. The phone rings and everyone learns that a girl has just died on her way to the infirmary after committing suicide by drinking disinfectant and that an inspector was on his way round. The ending of the play comes full circle as if the whole thing was to start over again and I can only say one word to that – Brilliant.
The inspector gives a short speech before he leaves and try’s to make them think of what they had done to this poor innocent girl and that how each and every one of them drove her to her own suicide. Priestly uses this speech and the play to display his and may others of the times Political views in a form of his own political message.
The message form Priestly is that the individual and the community have responsibilities. That we can all pursue our own self-interests but we have to think about others as well as ourselves. I think he wrote at a time when he felt that some of the more wealthy upper and middle classes, showed no remorse for the more less fortunate and showed off their own wealth and power.
He is not just saying that we should think about others because it is the right thing to do, he’s saying that we should think about others because we cannot escape the consequences if we do not think about them. “If we cannot help the many who are poor then we cannot save the many who are rich”. If we forget about others, then our own selfishness will catch up with us and have terrible consequences e.g. the death of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton by committing her own suicide. The Birlings selfishness does catch up with them in the end.
‘An Inspector calls contains several twists in the plot. The play makes the Birlings ask many questions of themselves and therefore it sends the audience away asking themselves the same questions. Eva/Daisy though a totally poor, immoral and in the lowest part of society is shown to in the last act to be much more moral the most of the Birlings and Gerald Croft.
The girl’s goodness makes you even more shocked at her death. It is not just individuals like Eric who are guilty, but the whole family and so you are unable to just forget about the crime as being an act of an individual but as an act by all of them. You also have to ask yourself how might you behave in your own family in the similar circumstances.
The Inspector, with use of language widens the scope of the responsibility for theirs and our behaviour by making it clearer that “there are millions of Eva’s out there” and that our behaviour could have an adverse impact on them and so you are left questioning their behaviour even more. The Emotions of the various family members and their reaction to the realisation that the inspector was not a real inspector can be examined in such a way that you must question your own feelings on this. The realisation that the inspector was a fake seems to lead the family off the hook, but of course it does not and you know this. This only makes us think about the rights and wrongs of the play. Even the realisation that there may not of been a suicide after all does not stop us thinking deeply about the morality of the situation and that’s one of the main reasons why I think this is an effective play.
As you know the play is set in the Birling household in 1912 before Britain was a welfare state which meant that people did not receive universal welfare benefits and so poverty was much more greater than today. Priestly uses dramatic Irony in that Arthur B thinks that the Titanic won't sink and that there will be no war where as you and me know there was a war and the Titanic did founder on its maiden voyage. I like this sort of dramatic Irony because the characters don’t know the Titanic is going to sink and a great war will happen where as the audience, you and me do.
Another thing why ‘An Inspector Calls’ is an effective play is that the Inspector never shows the people the photos of Eva/Daisy at the same time, so they could be different photos of different people every time. Also by sending characters off stage, out of his line of questioning, the inspector can keep control of interrogations. He keeps people hanging on, telling them they can’t leave yet etc. – more or less implying that they have something important to contribute when it comes to be their time.
Finally, of course, amidst all the feelings of relief enjoyed by the family, and perhaps the audience, we hear that a real life inspector is on his way round. This, of course also has the additional effect on you and me that we wonder even more about the Inspector. Who was he? Was there some kind of supernatural thing happening? I mean foreseeing the arrival of a real Inspector and a real crisis for Gerald and the Birlings. I thin perhaps priestly intended him to be a ghost. Well think about it Goole sounds like ghoul. Anyway it’s a very dramatic moment with a lot of mysterious stuff to end with not to mention the fact you are left with thinking well what happens next as well as all of the moral issues you are left to think about.
Also Inspector Goole is so convincing as an Inspector and yet we find out at the end that he doesn’t exist. This play has a lot of very good dramatic moments and a cast of strong and interesting characters each with their own purpose. Lastly of course it’s a play with a strong political message which made maybe still makes you think about our capitalist society and how the upper and middle classes treat the working classes and that after knowing that perhaps Eva Smith/Daisy Renton might not of died they still do not learn from their mistakes which is a shame because I feel that the main thing that makes us human is that unlike animals we have the ability to learn from our worst mistakes so they don’t happen ever again and that is why I think ‘An Inspector calls is an effective play and why J.B Priestly is one hell of a writer.
Harry Harris 10S3
