Mr Birling is a heavy looking, somewhat significant man in his mid fifties. He is a high class business man who is quite confident and thinks that his wealth and status mean everything to him. Mr Birling believes a man must look after himself and his family and that everybody else can look after themselves. (“The way these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive community and all that nonsense”). Mr Birling’s only interest is making money. His workers mean nothing to him, and refuses to take responsibility for what happened to Eva Smith after he sacked her. (‘Still I can’t accept any responsibility.’)
Inspector Goole is not a very big man, but creates at once the impression of immensity, solidity and purposefulness. He is a man in his fifties also. He speaks very cautiously, weightily and has a disturbing habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking to them. He believes that everybody should look at everybody else. We are all one in a community. (‘We do not live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’). Unlike Mr Birling who has completely different views. The Inspector thinks everyone should be treated fairly; however Mr Birling thinks workers are there to make him rich, and can be easily replaced if sacked. The Inspector often speaks more like a prophet or a judge. He makes comments about the actions of the characters in the play and about society in a way that would be unsuitable for a police officer. He walks proud and tall, and is in control of the situation, in spite of the Birling family, and Gerald Croft’s social standing. The Inspector makes Mr Birling very agitate until he tells him he is not the only one he has come to see.( ‘Well of course, if I’d known that earlier, I wouldn’t have called you intrusive and talked about the reporting to you’) He made Sheila feel very guilty about her actions, in getting Eva Smith sacked from her job. Inspector Goole name hints that the Inspector as not of this world and at times he seems supernatural or spiritual.
The tone at the start of the play is tranquil. Everyone is settle and is having a nice dinner. The Inspector’s appearance is meant to show ambiguity. The audience see that the Inspector is serious and there to his job. When he arrives Mr Birling says ‘Edna….. Give us some more light’. The change in lighting signals that the mood has changed in the Birling house since the Inspector arrived. It has added tension and menace. As the doorbell rings, Birling is giving a speech to Eric and Gerald how everyone should look after number-one, and community is a load of rubbish, which is ironic as the Inspector thinks that everyone should look after everybody else and we are all one in a community. Here Priestly is trying to show the differences how the Inspector and Birling view people.
Everyone is curious to find out what the Inspector wants. The Inspector shows the picture of Eva Smith to everyone at different times. This could suggest it a different photo each time. He is questioning each character one by one, so each has time to think f what they have done, and how they all played a part in Eva Smith’s death. By doing this he is able to get Mr Birling Sheila, Eric, Mrs Birling and Gerald to reveal their relationship with Eva Smith. It would seem he knows about aspects of the Birling’s life and Gerald Croft that he couldn’t know. He says that Eva Smith left a suicide note. At the end of act one Eva Smith changed her name to Daisy Renton. On saying the name Daisy Renton, Sheila could see from the girl, ‘you gave yourself away as soon as he mentioned her other name.’ Gerald asked her not to say anything to the Inspector, but Sheila could tell the Inspector already knew, ‘Why you fool he knows of course, he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see, you’ll see.’ Sheila knew the Inspector knew more and had a lot to tell and must have been asking themselves who was next. Did everyone in the dining room have a apart to in Eva Smith’s death?
Inspector Goole is not a real Inspector. He just wants the characters to confront their guilt rather than punish them through the law. He is the voice of social conscience. He is also the voice of the author.
Through Inspector Goole, Priestly is trying to show the vast difference between social classes in 1912. Birling is a very wealthy business man, who does not care about people beneath him. I f the guilt from Eva Smith’s death affected him than it may reflect his attitude towards his workers. However if it did not than he will still carry on treating his worker the same way he usually does, which will put many more of his workers into the same position that Eva Smith was in. As shown in this play wealth and social standing do not make better people, but very self centred arrogant, selfish people. It is better to be part of a community and help others as the Inspector stated. The Inspector plays judge and jury for the Birling’s and Gerald in confessing their voice of social consciences. The Inspector feels everyone should treat others the way they want to be treated. The centre meaning of this play is that the actions of individuals effect society as a whole. I feel that Priestly got his point across in the play very well using Inspector Goole to get the firm point across to the audience.
