An Inspector Calls
In ‘An Inspector calls’, Priestly looks at many characters, their stage actions, language and their ideas in great detail. In this essay I will be exploring and analysing the relationship between Arthur Birling and his son Eric. After reading the play, I found out that Mr Birling and his son Eric did not have a strong relationship. This is because Arthur did not realise when his son started drinking so much and stole money from his office. Making a girl pregnant could not be hidden from a father, but Arthur did not come to know anything about it until the end. I will be using quotes and stage actions to show the relationship between Arthur and Eric.
At the start of the play, when the inspector had arrived and was talking to Arthur about Eva Smith/Daisy Renton, Eric was constantly accusing Arthur and telling him that what he did was bad and he shouldn’t have done that, and this is evident as Eric had said, ‘He (Arthur) could have kept her (Eva Smith) on instead of throwing her out’ (pg.15). Here all Eric was doing was making Mr Birling (Arthur) feel guilty. This proves one of my points where I had mentioned about Mr Birling and Eric having a weak relationship, because normally in a situation like this a son would be doing his best to sort out a problem his father has. But here all Eric was doing was trying to make Arthur feel guilty, which obviously wasn’t working.
