Sheila Birling - Sheila is the most sympathetic of the Birling's. She is a very knowledgeable character, who is the first to realise that the Inspector is no ordinary policeman, and that he has an almost supernatural knowledge. “Why you fool he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet.” She is also the first to notice that Eric is that farther of Eva’s baby. Sheila has always been suspicious of Gerald, ever since he hardly visited her over the summer. She looks at the Inspector in a different way to the others in the family, she begs her mother not to patronize the Inspector, “You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.” The way she is hurt by what she has done to Eva shows that really she is an honest and goodhearted person, who has been misled by her own freak selfishness – on the other hand Mr. and Mrs. Birling, are selfish and insensitive all the time. Sheila is able to admit her guilt and to speak out honestly, even when she knows this is not considered the ‘right’ thing to do (by her parents). Shelia shows genuine sadness for what she did to Eva, and will never repeat what she did on that dreadful day. This shows that she can learn from her past mistakes in life, but the older generation (Mr. & Mrs. Birling) won’t.
Gerald Croft – he is very much like Mr. Birling, he shares the same views, he also isn’t capable of learning from his mistakes. Gerald and Mr. Birling think that what the women don’t know it can’t hurt them. This is what happens later in the play. Gerald flatters Mr. Birling, by agreeing with his pompous opinions and doesn’t argue with him (unlike Eric). When Birling is explaining why he sacked Eva, Gerald approves of his decision “I know we'd have done the same thing.” Gerald is quicker to grasp the situation that he is in, and after a half, hearted attempt to persuade Sheila to leave the room so as to be protected from hearing of his creepy affair, seems to accept that she isn’t going to leave.
Mrs Birling is a rather cold woman, extremely snobbish, and sees people who are in a lower social level as ‘beneath’ her. Just because she is a lady of the upper class with an important husband, she firmly believes that she ‘deserves’ to be treated with complete respect and not to be told what to do. She likes to bully people because of her superior position in society just like Mr. Birling does. Mrs Birling feels no guilt whatsoever for what she did to Eva Smith “I accept no blame at all.” Mrs Birling's behaviour towards Eva is possibly the most dreadful, for while Sheila and Eric also acted selfishly, Mrs Birling's actions affected not only Eva herself, but also her child, “your own grandchild.” Sybil is just as delighted as Arthur when she hears that Goole was not a real policeman; she is smug and triumphant, congratulating herself “I was the only one who didn't give in to him.” She shows no guilt for what she did, and her first words after Goole's final speech are to blame Eric “Eric, I'm absolutely ashamed of you.” She doesn’t learn from the Inspector's visit, and remains as snobbish and corrupt as ever.
Eric is the younger child of Arthur and Sybil. He is different from his father, because where as Mr Birling had to work his way up the social ladder, Eric was born into a wealth and so lacks the instinctive ‘self-made man’ attitude of his father. Eric is an alcoholic and he is “familiar with heavy drinking”, this shows his weak character. This is probably the reason that Eric has never told anyone about it. Eric stole money to give to Eva through an act of kindness, but this was also cowardly because yet again he wanted to keep it a secret from. Although he is cowardly he is genuinely deeply upset at what has happened to Eva. Eric takes the same view as Sheila about the Inspector, agreeing that “it doesn't make any real difference.” This shows at least he has learnt something from the Inspectors visit, unlike the older generation where accepting responsibility is concerned. He feels guilty and in capable of improving his behaviour
The Inspector arrives at the house for what had seemed like a routine visit, but it turn out that it was far from that. The Inspector is a very dominated character in this play. His character is very strong and he tended to cut people down and show them that they are not in control he is. The Inspector remained calm and unruffled His language is often blunt, sometimes deliberately harsh: “Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She'd been taken there this afternoon because she'd swallowed a lot of disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course.” He had a habit of staring coldly at the person before actually speaking to them. This makes the people feel more intimidated. He is not only inspecting the case, but he also inspecting their beliefs as well. Mr Birling has to be reminded by the Inspector that public men have responsibilities. The inspector leads each character through each event in chronological order. He tells the Birling family he knows a lot of information about Eva because he found a ‘sort of diary.’
Eva Smith and Daisy Renton is the same person. She never appears in the play yet she leaves a huge impact on their lives. She is very young and fresh and a victim of selfish people abusing the power that they have. She was a hard worker in Mr Birling’s factory, and all she wanted was a pay rise so she could live a little better. For this she was thrown out and branded a trouble maker. Out of desperation and poverty she becomes a sexual victim of Eric and Gerald. She has absolutely no money and at one point she is “actually hungry.” In this state she was easy pray for “womanizer” like Alderman Meggoty. Gerald eventually became tired of Daisy Renton as his mistress, “Pays her off.” When Eva was pregnant and was most vulnerable because she was extremely poor and had no friends for company, she appealed for help. She was refused because she used the wrong name and Mrs Birling felt offended. Even after she was rejected she does give Eric to his mother. This shows that even though she is the poorest and she is kicked from place to place, she has the strongest moral and integrity in the whole play.
The Inspector could be one of a couple of things;
- Simply an impostor who played an elaborate hoax on a group of “posh” people who deserved to be frightened.
- Some kind of spiritual being or emissary with a moral mission to punish selfish behaviour among the rich on Earth; the name ‘Goole’ may imply ‘Ghoul’ (ghost, spirit). The fact that he seems all-knowing, possessing knowledge which it seems he could not have known by normal means, supports the theory that there is something supernatural about him.
- A collective conscience. Your conscience is the ‘voice within’ which tells you when you are doing something you know to be wrong; the Inspector performs this role, but is a physical manifestation of conscience perhaps the Birling’s' and Gerald's shared, a subconscious idea of what ‘conscience’ would look like and how it would act.
I think that he was carrying out a moral inspection on the Birling’s and it was brought on them by their collective conscience building up. This is how it is shown in human form.
Eva was the first woman on the planet according to the bible. Smith is one of the most common names used all across Britain. Eva smith represents the hard working class of people that should be encouraged and thanked by such families as the Birling’s
I don’t think that Eva Smith was meant to be one person. She is a symbol of common people all throughout the country. Smith is one of the most common names in Britain and Daisy is the most common flower. So I think that the girls are a symbol of many people all around Britain who are in exactly the same position as Eva was. The daisy is walked over all the time without us even noticing it and I also think that the name is a symbol for this.
I think that the Birling family represent people of power; they could do so much with all the money that they have, but they chose not to. People like Eva need a lot of help to get them started, and the Birling’s could help them do that.
To conclude this I believe that the Birling’s should have helped Eva and given her more of a chance but also they shouldn’t do this for one person only. They should treat all people in a ‘lower classes with more respect and treat them better. I think that no one person was to blame for the death of Eva Smith, but it was all them altogether.
