When the enigmatic and puzzling figure of Inspector Goole interrogates the family, he brings about criticism about the way she was treated because of her social status, but also because she was a woman. Because Eva Smith was a woman, in the days before women were valued by society, and had not yet been awarded the right to vote, she was in an even worse position than a man of her class. In those days, even upper class women had few choices. For the best they could hope for was to impress a rich man and marry well, which explains why Sheila spent so much time in Milwards.
For women a job was crucial. There was no social security, so without a job they had no money. There were very few options for a woman in Eva Smith’s situation, and many saw no option but to turn to Prostitution. Mr Birling is dismissive of the several hundred women that work in his factory:
“ Were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates they could go and work somewhere else.”
Gerald saw Eva as “Young and fresh and charming”, in other words he saw someone vulnerable that he could amuse himself with. And Mrs Birling could not believe that “a girl of that sort would ever receive any money”. Her charitable committee was a sham; a small amount of money was given to a small amount of women, hardly touching the surface problem. Priestly deliberately focussed his play on the death of a young working class woman instead of the death of a young working class man, so as to arise criticism of the inequalities relating gender in that present day’s society.
The play not only focuses a lot on the lives of a working class woman, but also of upper class women, like Sheila and Mrs Birling. A sexist attitude towards education is brought up many times in the play. On numerous occasions, Birling asks Sheila and his wife to leave the room so that he can speak in private. At the stat of the play, Sheila and her mother leave the room and leave Birling to talk about issues he does not want them to hear, such as his worries for Gerald’s mother and his desire to talk about Business issues. Both Birling and Gerald initially try to shield Sheila from the inspectors questioning, and when Sheila sees the photograph of Eva Smith she runs out of the room, and Birling angrily asks the Inspector
“Why the devil do you want to go upsetting the child like that?”
Birling also tries to shield his wife from Gritty details of what the characters have done, and when the story of Eric arises, he orders Sheila to “ take your mother out of the room”
This denying of access to the truth means that the woman are a lot more naïve and innocent than the men. For instance, Sheila appears to be very ignorant of business matters when Birling talks about them in act 1. Another example of ignorance is the fact that neither has heard of the Palace bar, a music hall that was a favourite for lower classes and prostitutes, where Gerald and Eric met Eva Smith. Mrs Birling seems particularly unaware of her son’s drinking problem, and the behaviour of certain people she knows, such as Alderman Maggarty.
Another aspect of society that is criticised is the upper class’s view towards industry, and the “ one man for himself” philosophy of Arthur Birling. Birling has no time for the ideas of socialism and worker’s rights, saying that no one should worry about labour trouble in the future. This is shown in his disregard for the strike conducted by Eva Smith. He also dismisses Russia, where the communist movement was gaining strength, stating that it will always be backwards. Another place in the play, where Birling shows resentment towards any movement representing equality is after discovering the Inspector is not all he seems, he dismisses him as a socialist or some sort of crank.
There is also criticism of social ignorance of the middle classes, and their historical attitudes. Most of these stem from Birling’s early speeches in Act 1, where he makes a series of predictions about the future. These grand predictions would have seemed particularly bitter and ironic to the audience at the time, because during this period the world was going through a disastrous war and Birling’s wildly optimistic prophecies would be seen to be completely wrong.
Birling predicts that in twenty or thirty years time there will be peace, greater prosperity and happiness everywhere. In fact, the world was about to be plunged into the carnage of the first world war, the chances of which Birling dismissed as “fiddlesticks”, followed by another war twenty years later. Birling’s comment that the Germans do not want war would seen particularly ironic because Germany was heavily involved against Britain in both these wars. Birling also thinks that Britain is in for a time of increasing prosperity, when in fact in a few years the economy was to be devastated by the great depression with thousands of job losses.
Birling also had a misguided faith in the progress of the future and its creations. He claims that the liner Titanic, designed and built by people like Birling, is absolutely unsinkable and stresses the size of the ship, 46 800 tonnes. However, a few weeks later, the unsinkable ship was at the bottom of the north Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 1600 lives. Again, Birling’s visions had been showed to be very incorrect.
Another aspect that is criticised is the corruption of money. When asked why he dismissed Eva Smith for asking for a relatively modest wage increase, Birling tries to defend himself by citing financial reasons.
Also, as Birling discovers the revelations about Eric’s theft he becomes more and more desperate, and just before the Inspector’s departure, he says he will give thousands to keep the story quiet. However, the Inspector declines the money and says: “ You are offering the money at the wrong time, and Eva Smith will make you pay a price a heavy price in terms of emotion, not money.
J.B Priestly is also criticising the disparity between the younger and the older generation. After the Inspector’s visit, we can see which of the characters have learnt their lesson from the experience, and which are steadily clinging to their old beliefs.
Sheila is probably the character who changes the most during the play. At the start, she is very happy with her engagement and content with life. However even at this point we pick up some of the qualities that are brought out so readily later in the play, such as her clear stating of opinions, about Gerald’s absence during the summer and her opinion of wine drinkers. Sheila appears to be inattentive during her father’s speeches, this suggests that she does not find her father’s opinions interesting, and this may point to her future conduct in the play.
Sheila’s explanation of her conduct when interrogated by the Inspector shows how naïve and thoughtless she was up to this point. She also swears that she will never, never do it again to anybody.
This is a turning point for Sheila in the play; almost at once, she sheds her image of being a naïve and ignorant young lady and takes on the most profound understanding of the Inspector’s message.
Incidents when Sheila clearly contradicts her parents lead Mrs Birling to remark to the Inspector that “You seem to be making a great impression on the child”. The Inspector’s response: “ we often make an impression on the young ones” is proved to be very true. The younger characters, Sheila, Eric and to an extent Gerald, are able to see the Inspector’s message clearly. However, the older characters are too entrenched in their beliefs and still stubbornly cling to what they believe in.
After the inspectors departure Sheila, supported by Eric tries to make her parents understand the moral of the affair, as they show no sign of having learnt their lesson from the night’s events, she despairingly says: “you don’t seem to have learnt anything”. There is definitely a marked difference between the attitudes and values of the older characters in the play and the younger ones. Privately it is apparent, that Gerald feels the same as Eric and Sheila, but he cannot afford to agree with them if he wishes to get back in favour with their parents, as this is the only way that he can hope to re-start the engagement with Sheila.
It is very apparent that this play is not only a play of social criticism but also a play of social morals. The Inspector in particular is a very moral figure when it comes to community and helping others. He has many speeches in which he talks of change and a bright future:
“ One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths, and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.”
In this speech, the Inspector underlines collective responsibility, the exact opposite of Birling’s views.
Eva is one of the most important characters in the play, yet the audience never actually see her. Priestly has intended for Eva to represent all other people who were in similar situation at the time. The name Smith is very cleverly used, as it is a very common name and can therefore represent society very effectively.
Another of the Inspector’s poignant speeches is when he says:
“ And I tell you tat the time will soon come when, if men will no learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”
This is probably the most famous line of the play, J.B Priestly I probably partly thinking about the world war they had just lived through- the result of governments blindly pursuing national interest at all costs. But surely also of the Russian revolution in which poor workers and peasants took over the state and exacted a bloody revenge against the aristocrats who had treated them so badly.
Priestly conveyed his message efficiently, showing us how the situation can be changed, and who to depend on to change it.
J.B Priestly’s play presents a fascinating study of guilt and innocence of prejudice and hypocrisy, through a very controversial social criticism.
