When inspector Goole arrives, he seems very professional and level headed, particularly in response to the offer of an alcoholic beverage-
‘No thank you Mr Birling, I’m on duty’.
Furthermore, he is in no way intimidated by Mr Birling’s impatience and lack of welcome, after he declines the alcohol, this being an inquisition into the legitimatemacy of the inspector’s role-
‘You’re new, aren’t you?’
This is not without its sense of irony, considering that he is, indeed, an impostor. Also it is revealed that the inspectors name is Goole; this is also the name of a seaport town, implying that the inspectors role is to fish for information and trawl through the conscience, as if he were a fisherman of that town.
When the inspector talks to the family, he constantly sees it fit to highlight the reality that Eva Smith is dead. For example, he says, ‘but she died in mystery and agony’,
‘That’s what I asked myself tonight, when I was looking at that dead girl’
I believe the inspector does this to gradually erode the family’s deceiving front; it’s as if he were a boxer, hitting them with less consequential punches until, finally, the powerful knockout punch is dealt, and the inspector is victorious; his prize being the family disclosing to him exactly what he desires to hear-the truth!
The inspector interrogates each family member differently to ascertain his information; this shows that he has good interpersonal skills to persuade the Birling family to reveal what they know to the audience. For example, he uses a considerably more respectful tone with Mr Birling, frequently adding, ‘Sir’ at the end of the sentences directed at him:
‘Thank you sir’
And
‘Yes sir’
This could be to lure him into to a false sense of security, so he will inevitably be caught off guard at some point. This method is effective because Mr. Birling is generally arrogant and demands a respectful approach.
When the inspector questions Sheila, his tone changes substantially. Additionally, do his methods of interrogation; he tells her of the desperate situation Eva Smith was in:
‘…No work, no money coming in, and living in lodgings, with no relatives to help her, few friends, lonely, half starved, she was feeling desperate’
He does this to make Sheila empathise emotionally with Eva. He then tells her how Eva is taken on at Millwards,
‘She was taken on in a shop-a good shop too-Milwards’
Now that Sheila has emotionally empathised with Eva and her situation, she will inevitably, apprehend some sort of impassioned parallelism to it, this meaning, in the event of hearing a positive twist to Eva’s tale, it is feasible that Sheila will indeed undergo an emotional alteration to a positive state of mind, which, evidently, takes place-
‘Yes, she was lucky to get taken on at Milwards’
-She declares. Now the inspector can take full advantage of this mood transition, by revealing that she was responsible for Eva’s firing from Milwards.
As the dark and emotionally reinforced realisation sweeps over Sheila, she becomes upset, and, as a result, easy to extract information from. This indicates that the inspector’s role, when he interrogates Sheila, is to use her own emotions against her, so that she has no choice but to reveal the entire sequence of events, leading to Eva’s eventual firing.
Shelia’s attitude toward the whole situation reveals that in the middle class the younger generation are more impressionable and open-minded in cases where, the general ideals of middle class society are tested.
The inspector uses Mrs. Birling to reveal the information about Eva’s plea to her organisation. After this he sets up a well-placed trap that Mrs. Birling unwitting and unavoidably falls into, he asks her who was to blame for Eva’s suicide:
‘Who is to blame then?’
At first she replies:
‘First, the girl herself’
Then she goes on to say:
‘Secondly I blame to young man’
When the inspector hears this, he quickly delves deeper into this comment by following it up with a further question enquiring into this ‘boy’ and whether it would be acceptable for him to steal this money:
‘And if her story was true- that he was stealing money’
Every time the inspector does this, he is, in essence, digging the pit fall deeper and deeper for Mrs. Birling, as she herself unknowingly passes negative judgement on her own son to the point of declaring that he should:
‘Confess in public his responsibility’
When the inspector uses this method he provides a link to the audience and the events in the play. This is because the viewers are already aware of Eric’s involvement with Eva, and so too is the Inspector, but, without a doubt, Mrs. Birling is totally unaware of this fact. This means that the audience can relate their knowledge of Eric to that of the inspectors, and in doing so, a tenuous bond between the two is created; which may increase the emotional and moral effectiveness of the inspector’s final speech.
Mrs. Birling’s reaction to Eva’s dire case may suggest that society at that time was, (although willing to start organisations for help) unwilling to assist people who they didn’t take to their liking, which renders the whole organisation a mere front that boasts facilitation for people who genuinely need it, but when it comes down to it, they are, indeed, quite self-important (to the extent that they had no time for the lower classes) and pathetic, which generally means society was selectively helpful and ignorantly self-obsessed.
When the inspector turns his attention to Eric, a range of his emotions are revealed, one of these is his anger in reflection to the entire series of events that connects him to Eva.
‘…how stupid this all is’
Another is his disrespect for Eva, this is revealed when he says-
‘She was pretty and a good sport’
This indicates that forcing himself upon Eva was ‘all a game’ to him, thus indicating he has no real respect for Eva, and, I assume, women in general.
This attitude shows that society considered lower class women as bodies rather than real people, revealing the severity of the social hierarchy, and the supremacy of it, in middle and lower class relations.
A good point to mention is that the inspector already knows a great deal of the facts before they are disclosed to him. He exploits this situational dominance to the full, by only revealing a small part of his knowledge. He allows the given member of the family to reveal the rest for him. For example, when he questions Gerald, he gives him the vague outline of his involvement-
‘ And then you decided to keep her as your mistress?’
Then lets Gerald reveal the rest of the details-
‘…Then we met again- not accidentally this time of course’.
After the Inspector uses this method several times, the audience will most likely notice the effectiveness of its implementation and, as a result, it will have an effect on the audience’s overall reaction and opinion of the Inspector. To the audience, the Inspectors role appears to be intentionally deceitful in a well-disciplined manner.
To summarise what the inspector reveals about each of the characters involvement with Eva’s suicide; Mr Birling sacked Eva from the factory for being one of the ringleaders in a strike for better wages. Sheila got Eva sacked from her job in a clothes shop because she was jealous of her. Gerald made her his mistress, and then paid her off; Mrs Birling persuaded her charity not to help Eva when she was alone and pregnant. And, finally, Eric is the father of Eva’s child, having forced himself on her and stolen money to help her.
When the Inspector leaves and Gerald returns, the group, and indeed the audience, find out that the Inspector was an impostor, and that there has been no suicide. Only Eric and Sheila carry on feeling guilty for their actions, whereas the rest of the family begin to return to a positive sate of mind.
The telephone call at the concluding part of the play tells the group that an authentic Inspector is coming to call on them, following the suicide of a girl. They instantaneously realise that they are going to experience, in reality, what they have just been experiencing in a suspended reality, and, with this, the play comes to a close.
I believe that J.B Priestly does indeed use the inspector as ‘a mouthpiece for his own philosophy’; this is because it is especially apparent in the Inspector’s final speech. He first says-
‘But just remember this. One Eva smith has gone-but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us’
This means that Priestly uses Eva to embody a wider significance of society; she represents the lower class that he believes is treated unjustly, and are disregarded by the upper class, or top end of the social ladder, witch is characterized by Mr. and Mrs. Birling. However he believes this should revolutionize, and all hope of this happening is though the more youthful (and as a result more impressionable) generation, which is represented by Eric and Sheila.
The Inspector also proclaims-
‘We are all members of one body. We are all responsible for each other’
He says this to the Birlings (who represent the upper class) because he believes they have no sense of social moralities, and quite frankly, so do I.
