An Inspector calls - blame for the death of Eva Smith.

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An Inspector calls

An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly, is the story of a visit by an Inspector to an apparently normal family, the Birlings. They are celebrating Sheila Birling's engagement to Gerald Croft, when the Inspector arrives to tell them of the suicide of a young girl called Eva Smith. At first they deny any knowledge of the girl, but as the play proceeds the Inspector manages to show that they all contributed towards her death. Mr. Birling had her dismissed from his factory for demanding a small increase in wages; Sheila ordered her to be dismissed from her job in a shop simply because of her pride because Eva had laughed at her when she saw Sheila with the hat on; Sheila took offence to this and told the manager to sack her. Gerald Croft kept her as his mistress before leaving her suddenly; Eric Birling also had an affair with Eva and stole money to keep her living; and Mrs. Birling used her influence to deny help to Eva Smith when she needed it most, driving her to suicide. After the Inspector's visit we can see which of the characters have learned their lesson from what the Inspector has said and which are steadfastly clinging to their old beliefs. The differing attitudes between the older and younger characters are shown by their conversations following the Inspector's departure.

It is Birling's speech in Act 1 that sets the scene for the action in the play. Birling is confidently talking to Eric and Gerald about what he thinks about the future. He thinks of everything in business terms, he says to Gerald that he hopes that his firm and Gerald's father's firm will become partners and also thinks that a man should make his own way in life and he does not believe in   being responsible in a community.

“Community and all that nonsense.”

He disregards the people who preach the philosophy of, everyone living together and looking after each other as “cranks”.

“But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everyone has to look after everybody else.”

It is at this point that the Inspector enters the play, interrupting Birling in his speech. In this way he can be seen as Priestly's response to Birling's opinions and he begins to tear down the ideas that Birling thrives on. On hearing the news of Eva Smith's death, Birling is at first dismissive of what has happened, saying that he does not see what the events have to do with him.
When asked why he dismissed Eva Smith for asking for a relatively modest wage increase, Birling tries to defend himself by citing financial reasons. He is surprised that the inspector should even ask such a question; as to him it is obvious. Birling again shows his disregard for other people when he says that if Eva Smith did not like working at his company she could "go and work somewhere else - it's a free country”. This view is undermined when Eric points out "it isn't if you can't work somewhere else”.

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As the Inspector's interviews with the other characters Birling becomes more and more agitated and stage directions to describe his mood such as "bothered, angrily and sharply” show that he is not in a good frame of mind. He appears to be slowly learning his lesson but is getting very angry as he sees that all he believes in is wrong. As he discovers about Eric's theft of the money he becomes more and more desperate, and just before the Inspector's departure he says he will give "thousands” to keep the story quiet. Birling is told by the Inspector that ...

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