Mr. Birling refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva 's death. He becomes increasingly annoyed by the Inspector's questioning and Eric's unsympathetic attitude. He tries to threaten the Inspector by talking about his friendship with the Chief Constable and by constantly reminding him of his position in society, however, the inspector is not the slightest bit intimidated by this and he continues with his demanding and slightly rude attitude. He does in fact feel very guilty when the Inspector delivers his final speech. He says, " Look Inspector-I'd give thousands-yes thousands.." indicating that he did in fact begin to accept some of the blame. Although he was accepting the blame a little at this point I feel that, as he is a magistrate and former mayor he was looking forward to receiving a knighthood, therefore, this offer was mainly to protect the reputation of himself and his family. He continues to ignore the shameful things that his family has done. When it appears that the Inspector might be a hoaxer he is happy to believe that everything is as it was a few hours ago. He copies the Inspector and laughs when he remembers the faces of Eric and Sheila and accuses them of being 'the famous younger generation who know it all'. This is an example of pride coming before a fall, a moment later of course he is panicking as the phone rings again.
Mr Birling represents Priestley's hatred of businessmen who are only interested in making money. He will never alter his ways and it is left to the younger generation to learn from their mistakes.
Mrs Birling’s actions were chosen with no thought whatsoever to what the consequences may be or whether what she was doing was morally right. Mrs Birling is described as ' about fifty in age...cold....her husband's social superior....unaffected by the Inspector's interrogation..."
All the way through the act Mrs Birling has no remorse or guilt for what has happened to this girl. To her, the very matter of the death is beneath her and her family. In her mind, the death is a great shame, but nothing to do with her and nothing for her to worry about.
Mrs Birling met Eva/Daisy two weeks before her supposed death. Eva/Daisy came to the Brumley Women's Charity Organization appealing for money and help to support her child. Abortion was out of the question as it was not in legal practice at this time and although certain doctors claimed that they could perform the act, you took a great risk by placing yourself in their hands. As Eva/Daisy's child was conceived with Eric, she chose to take his surname. Mrs Birling took this offensively, thinking that the girl meant to be impertinent and lost her temper (which could be compared to Sheila's loss of temper), which led her to become prejudiced against her case from the start.
It becomes apparent as the story progresses that Mrs Birling knows relatively little about her family's lives and the lives of other folk outside of her home. She knows nothing of places, which she would frown upon to find a female companion for the evening. She knows nothing of the fact that Eric was a heavy drinker either. She obviously did not know of Eric's relationship with Eva/Daisy and when she took her surname she used her power as an important person in the committee to get her case rejected.
Mrs Birling does not feel at all remorseful for the girl's death and her view fails to change at all during the duration of the play. She remains cold and stone-faced even when every other member of the family has been accused and, with the exception of her husband, has accepted the blame.
She sees Sheila as immature and naive throughout the play and does not realise how much Sheila matures towards the end of the play. She constantly puts her down, telling her to stop being a, “hysterical young girl".
Sheila is the daughter of the family and is described as, ‘a pretty girl in her early twenties...pleased about life...excited’ The audience could see her as a sweet lively young girl who appreciates life in her little bubble that is the house and lifestyle which surrounds her. This makes her quite naive and immature.
Sheila first became acquainted with Ms Smith when Eva received a job at Milwards, a well-known department store. Sheila and her mother made purchases at this store frequently. Eva worked as a sales assistant at this store and Sheila got Eva fired when she lost her temper at her for smiling at her in a way, which she found offensive. Sheila could be compared to her father as she too helped to cause Eva's death by getting her sacked from her job but here the similarities end. Upon hearing of Ms Smith's death, Sheila feels immediately responsible and wishes to take on all of the blame. As she feels so guilty when in fact she did relatively little. She also continues to feel guilty after learning that there was not an Eva Smith. She still feels that her acts were immoral and that they should not have done everything which they had done as it may have affected someone else. Her response to the tragedy is one of the few encouraging things to come out of the play. She is genuinely upset when she hears of Eva's death and learns from her own behaviour. Sheila is very distressed by the girl's suicide and thinks that her father's behaviour was unacceptable. She readily agrees that she behaved very badly and insists that she never meant the girl any harm. The Inspector says that she is only partly responsible and later on, when he is about to question Gerald, he encourages her to stay and listen to what he has to say so that she doesn't feel entirely responsible. Not only is she prepared to admit her faults, she also appears keen and anxious to change her behaviour in the future, 'I'll never, never do it again' Sheila is aware of the mystery surrounding the Inspector, yet realises that there is no point in trying to hide the facts from him.
She is unable to accept her parent’s attitude and is both amazed and concerned that they haven't learned anything from the episode. Although the Inspector might be a hoax, the family have still behaved in an entirely unsuitable manner. She learns of her responsibilities to others less fortunate than herself and is sensitive. Her readiness to learn from experience is in great contrast to her parents.
Sheila Berling is one of the more sensitive characters in Priestly’s play as she becomes fully aware of her responsibility and despite her parents she is prepared to change her selfish ways.
Eric Birling was associated with Eva due to his relationship with her. Eric is seen as immature and surrounded by the bubble protecting him from the real world, much like his sister. He is described by Priestly as, " much less at ease than his sister... half shy, half assertive."
Eric met this girl at the Palace Bar, a place renowned for young ladies who wanted to find young men. He began talking to her and he then offered to take her home whereupon he forced his way into her house and made love to her. His excuse for his behaviour was primarily that he was drunk. He continued to see her for some time before she told him that she thought that she was pregnant. She blatantly refused to take any money from Eric as she knew that it was stolen from his father's business and she also refused to do what was at that time considered to be the decent thing and marry Eric because she knew that he did not love her. She decided to get help from the local organization for Brumley's Women. Eric, although immoral and irresponsible in his actions, did offer to support her and was even prepared to go and steal from his own father's business in order to do so. It was considered very wrong to steal from anyone, let alone your own family in this era and any actions resembling this at all, even for a perfectly acceptable reason was extremely frowned upon in society.
Eric also continued to feel guilty after learning that there was no Eva/Daisy, just as his sister did. All of this shows that Eric, despite all of his irresponsible actions, did try to do what was morally right afterwards and therefore should not have the most blame put on his conscience.
The Inspector in J. B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' is one of the most thought-provoking and mysterious characters that modern day literature has yet produced. It is this mysterious element that contributes greatly to making him a very interesting character and one that may be perceived in many ways. The audience does not find a great deal out about the Inspector and nothing is explicitly told to us; we are given hints and clues from the way he acts and what he says and are forced to piece these together to form our own ideas about his identity and his intentions. In this way, Priestley has asked his audience to act as a judge and to reach personal conclusions about him.
The role of the Inspector is one of many levels. In terms of how he is used in the basic structure of the play, he is there to move the play along in that he encourages the characters to tell their stories. If there was not the revelation that he was not a real Police Inspector, he would only be considered as a narrator and not play a big part in the play. Because it transpired that he was an impostor of sorts, further questions are asked by the audience and different insights have become likely and it is clear that the Inspector is in the play for many reasons.
Inspector Goole's role is central to the play's message of social responsibility. It is through the Inspector's meetings with the Berling family and Gerald Croft that each character is made aware of his or her selfish and uncaring attitude towards the less fortunate in society.
The Inspector's main purpose is to teach. In the context of the play, he told the characters what had happened to a particular girl because they had each been guilty of selfishness. In regards to the whole of society, he voiced Priestley's opinions that we cannot make any progress if we do not work together.
In spite of Mr Berling's expressed annoyance, Inspector Goole insists that his visit is both important and justified. It is not long before we are being informed of Mr Berling and Sheila's involvement with Eva Smith.
It is through the Inspector's methodical investigative approach, ‘It's the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of inquiry at a time. Otherwise there's a muddle’ that we see each character being set up for a dreadful fall from grace. Goole does not give in to Mr Berling's bossiness and threats. He remains calm and progresses at a steady pace, always controlled, in charge and focused. The tensions increase as Gerald's affair is revealed and Sheila begins to understand that all of them are in some way implicated. ‘No he's giving us rope - so that we'll hang ourselves.’
His skilful manipulation of each character through his barrage of penetrating questions, his crisp responses and hard stares leaves them awkwardly unsettled in a room filled with tension. The inspector confirms Priestley's achievement in creating a character shrouded in mystery, whose actions and manner creates and maintains tension at a pace that keeps the audience in suspense from beginning to end.
Priestly uses the inspector to portray his own morals, the moral dimension of allowing the others to see they can find forgiveness through future good behaviour makes him different from the normal policeman. He is more concerned with morality than legality.
Mr. and Mrs. Birlings total lack of development and regret throughout the play is disappointing, demoralizing and depressing. Although arguably Mrs. Birling was the most to blame for the cause of Eva/Daisy’s death she shows no sign of guilt or remorse. As for Mr. Birling he triggered these events, therefore these two questionably could be the most to blame, yet, they show very little repentance or no repentance whatsoever.
The younger generation, in this case Eric and Sheila, show great regret, sorrow and remorse, most of it coming from Sheila. They clearly learn their lesson even when they find out it may have been a hoax, priestly does this to show hope for the future.
The characters slowly reveal to the audience the great moral divide between the two generations. Eric and Sheila, from the outset, are visibly shaken by the news of Eva Smith, whilst their parents grow increasingly defensive about their involvement with the girl's death. The children show compassion and deep regret for what has happened to Eva. Eric's sensitivity is evident in, I understand a lot of things now I didn't understand before. In contrast to Eric's understanding we realise Mrs Birling's arrogance and apathy in, ‘Well, really, I don't know. I think we've just about come to an end of this wretched business’ Mr Birling displays similar arrogance when the Inspector reminds him that, ‘Public men ... have responsibilities as well as privileges’. To this Mr Birling replies, ‘Possibly. But you weren't asked to come here to talk about my responsibility.’
It becomes clear that Eric and Sheila are empathetic while their parents remain rooted in their denial of the truth.
The positive response of the younger generation is indeed symbolic. Whilst Mr and Mrs Birling respond negatively to the Inspector's message of common responsibility, our faith is restored by the children's positive attitudes. Eric and Sheila symbolise hope for the future. The fact that they remorsefully admit to sinning against Eva Smith suggests that they (and the future generation of adults) will make a conscious effort at improving human relations. Unlike their parents, who are bent on only creating and sustaining material wealth, they will endeavour to create and sustain spiritual, meaningful social relationships by fulfilling their moral obligations towards their fellow men - especially those oppressed and desperate people such as Eva Smith.
Inspector Goole's remark, ‘But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.’ is important and we should all learn from it because Eva Smith does represent millions of similarly desperate people "with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other." Goole reminds us that if man will not learn the lesson of "common responsibility", then "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."
In the final analysis, it becomes evident that success for the future lies with the younger generation. Whilst Mr Birling, to the very end, insists on regarding the Inspector's visit as a 'joke', it is Eric who restores our hope when he says
"And I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her - and that's what matters -."
Eric's admission confirms that Inspector Goole's visit was justified and that valuable lessons were learned. He proves to be a powerful force, a catalyst whose skilful and disciplined investigative approach is both instrumental and victorious in initiating positive change in the hearts, the minds and the attitudes of Eric and Sheila and thereby increases our optimism and faith that disadvantaged people will in the future be treated with dignity and respect.
