However Mr and Mrs Birling, Mrs Birling in particular is very snobbish, cold, and evil. She Judges others by their standing in the community, profession and title rather than who they actually are. The younger Characters try to empathise for the dead girl whereas the older generation don’t seem to care. Gerald and Mr and Mrs Birling try to figure out how they can escape their responsibilities, they try to hide things under the carpet and act as they are respectable people. Mrs Birling Thinks that the matter isn’t important, she doesn’t see the lower class the same as her. Mrs Birling’s behaviour changes as she tries to figure out inspector Goole, Thinking she is better than him she tries to put him down. And she attempts to give herself more status. As she attempts to shift the blame for the girl’s suicide the outcome blames the farther of the unborn child. At this point the tension is heightened by the dramatic arrival of Eric.
Compared to Eric; the youngest of the family. Who is portrayed as a drunkard and womaniser. Eric being a alcoholic reflects his weakness as a character. He is nothing more than a younger version of Alderman Meggarty. He shows that the younger ages have the longest journey because he, as one of the main culprits has done a lot of damage. It affects Eric and Sheila badly because they can see that their part in all of this has caused such a horrific end for a girl they looked down upon. They side with the inspector to help open up the older generation. They are offering hope to the future so that time can change itself. Eric’s mood in the opening minutes is jovial and lenient; however this alters when he thinks that his father and Mr Croft know something about him. He becomes uneasy and shows signs of having a guilty conscience. He shows sympathy to Eva when he hears that she lost her job in the Birling factory. He responds to Gerald’s “couldn’t have done anything else” with” he could. He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck.” Eric differs from his farther, Mr Birling had to make his way up the social ladder, whereas Eric was born into wealth and privilege, and so he lacks the instinctive ‘self made man’ outlook of his farther.
Sheila contrasts sharply to her parents by the honest and realistic way she regards things. They are on high moral ground and show no compassion what so ever for the situation. Whereas; Sheila is possibly the most sympathetic out of the Birling family. She is a highly perceptive character and is the first to become conscious of the ‘inspectors’ abnormality, she is aware of the mystery surrounding him and soon realises his supernatural knowledge and understandings, yet realises there is no point in hiding any of the facts from him. “Why-you fool-he knows. Of course he knows and I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t yet”
Sheila regards the ‘inspector’ differently from the rest of her family, she warns her mother not to demean him-“you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, then the inspector will just break it down.” (pg 30)
Mr and Mrs Birling are taken aback by some of Shelia’s honest, truthful remarks. They prefer to live in a world where atrocious realities are suppressed or ignored; nevertheless Shelia does not try to deceive herself. She proves she is an honest, good-hearted person. Who has been mislead by her own immaturity and momentary selfishness because the way she is tormented by the impact of what she has done indicates this. In distinction to her parents who are insensitive and selfish all of the time. Resembling Mr Birling who is determined that the ‘inspection’ will not become a public scandal. “Yes, and you don’t realise yet all what you’ve done. Most of it’s bound to come out. There’ll be a public scandal.”
“And don’t let’s start dodging and pretending now. Between us we drove that girl to commit suicide” Sheila says because she passionately believes that the family should learn from the ‘inspectors’ visit.
The inspector is extremely commanding and very authoritive. He immediately dominates the other characters including the older generation. His language is often blunt and sometimes deliberately ruthless. “two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed some disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course.” (pg 11) He has a keen moral sense and is utterly disgusted by what has come to Eva smith. His identity is obviously a mystery, his character, as a policeman, he is convincing yet not convincing, aggressive yet gentle. His name ‘inspector Goole’ is not a mistake; ‘Goole’ is a play on words. Its comparable sound ‘ghoul’ means an evil spirit or phantom and a person morbidly interested in death.
The Inspector also knows an uncanny amount of detail from Eva Smith’s ‘diary’, which no one actually sees. Further on the inspector becomes more informal, more forceful and intent on ensuring the family changes for the better. The best example being his penultimate speech, ‘No, I don’t think any of you will forget. Nor that young man, Croft, though he at least had some affection for her and made her happy for a time. Well, Eva Smith’s gone. You can’t do her anymore harm. And you can’t do her any good now, either. You can’t even say ‘I’m sorry Eva Smith.’
Priestly uses many linguistic techniques to help the audience capture the life of the family. At the start of the play Mr Birling announces a very long speech that refers to a number of external events such as the titanic, the materialization of Russia as a world power and the outbreak of world war one. As the audience we distrust Mr Birling at this point, mainly because he speaks for himself and attempts to influence individuality. He believes that every man is for himself and doesn’t portray collaborative work.
“...a man has to make his own way-has to look after himself-and his family too, of course, when he has one-and so long as he does that he wont come to much harm. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now,, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if were all mixed up together like bee’s in a hive-community and all that nonsense. But take my word for it, you youngsters-and I’ve learnt in the good had school of experience-that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own-and—“
The wars (particularly World War II) brought the higher and lower classes together. Clothes rationing meant everyone wore utility clothing and looked the same and women now had better rights. People were more supportive of each other and there was less indifference to social inequality. Priestley saw that the war had changed society and everyone was much closer and more equal. I think he believed this was a better way of living and he wanted to show us we should live more equally. He tried to do this through his plays and his radio broadcasts. “An Inspector Calls” was written to put Priestley’s message across (which still applies today) but also, by providing thought-provoking theatre, to help cheer up the nation after World War II. He achieved it by writing a play that’s interesting, mysterious and that forces you to think about it.
