An Inspector Calls deals with many class issues - These are reflected in the social and historical settings and through characters.
Claire Sizer An Inspector Calls deals with many class issues. These are reflected in the social and historical settings and through characters. J.B Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in the Birling household, an upper middle class family. The plot of the play is set around the Birling family’s involvement in a young girl’s suicide. The Birling family consists of the two parents, Arthur and Sybil Birling and their two children Eric and Sheila. Gerald Croft is soon to become a member of the family as he has recently announced his engagement to Sheila. As the story unfolds we find that each of the family members is partly to blame however Priestley has made it deliberately difficult to place the blame sorely on one person. Mr Birling is described by Priestley as 'heavy looking, rather portentous...in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners....rather provincial in his speech." Birling is fairly successful in his line of work and is always striving to become better. He is self-important and slightly pompous. He could even be described as old fashioned. However the audience could perceive him as a warm character. He is a prosperous factory owner and is not the social equal of his wife. He is ‘a self made man.’ His first priority is to make money ‘It's my duty to keep labour cost down' It is obvious at the end of the play he grudgingly wishes things were better but even here he still thinks in terms of money 'Look, Inspector - I'd give thousands' Even though the other characters do not see this as an important issue. Arthur welcomes Croft into his family as he represents a business link between his firm and that of Gerald Croft's father. (A rival) Mr Birling has an honest approach to life, he tells the Inspector that he wouldn't listen to Eva Smith's demand for a wage rise 'I refused, of course' and is surprised why anyone should question why. He strongly believes that 'a man has to make his own way'. He does not consider the harm he may cause to other people because of his attitude. He is a 'hard headed business man’ He was once a magistrate and a mayor and is looking forward to receiving a knighthood in the future. The most disturbing part of the play for Birling is the scene in which he learns that his own son is shown to be a thief, a drunkard and is responsible for fathering a child. When he learns of all this he exclaims 'You damned
fool - why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?' Eric's reply indicates that Mr Birling was never close to his son 'because you're not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he's in trouble.’ Such a response indicates that things aren't going to improve much after the play ends. We can guess that Sybil Birling has changed from when they were just a normal family household to now where they are very well off. She uses her power when she turns Eva Smith away when she is pregnant. If she had ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
fool - why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?' Eric's reply indicates that Mr Birling was never close to his son 'because you're not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he's in trouble.’ Such a response indicates that things aren't going to improve much after the play ends. We can guess that Sybil Birling has changed from when they were just a normal family household to now where they are very well off. She uses her power when she turns Eva Smith away when she is pregnant. If she had been not so rich she probably would had sympathised more and helped her. This is her response when the Inspector asks Sybil what she said to Eva Smith. ‘I’ll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility,’ At the start of the play Sheila is 'very pleased with life.' She is young, attractive and has just become engaged to Gerald Croft. 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. She 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' Gerald is the next character to be interrogated by the Inspector. Gerald is a calm and sensible person, favoured very much by Mr and Mrs Birling and although a few years his senior, liked by Eric also. The audience should see him as a self-assured, well mannered man who is constantly at ease with the world and generally a 'nice' person. His involvement with Eva Smith or as she is now known, Daisy Renton, started out very honourably. His tale starts in a bar where he spots Eva/Daisy being cornered by a drunken Aldermann Meggarty. He then learns of her homelessness and offers a flat for her to live in for the moment. He gave Eva/Daisy everything which she craved for at that point in her life, a home, food, money and the thing which she craved most of all; companionship. She soon became his mistress but Gerald broke it off and did not see her again. Although Gerald could be seen as a user, stringing her along as long as he needed her, he did provide her with some happiness for a long time, something which she had not had for a long time. He felt genuinely upset at the news of Daisy's death, he was so affected that he had to leave the room. As he cared for her and felt guilty when he knew who she was I feel that Gerald is only partly to blame. He is however more to blame than Sheila as he does not care about the girl to greatly until he learns that he knew of her. He then fails to care after he learns that Daisy did not really die, instead of feeling guilty for what he did do to her. Sheila Birling is questioned next by the Inspector. 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, I believe that Sheila is not solely to blame. 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. Gerald is the next character to be interrogated by the Inspector. Gerald is a calm and sensible person, favoured very much by Mr and Mrs Birling and although a few years his senior, liked by Eric also. The audience should see him as a self-assured, well mannered man who is constantly at ease with the world and generally a 'nice ' person. His involvement with Eva Smith or as she is now known, Daisy Renton, started out very honourably. His tale starts in a bar where he spots Eva/Daisy being cornered by a drunken Aldermann Meggarty. He then learns of her homelessness and offers a flat for her to live in for the moment. He gave Eva/Daisy everything which she craved for at that point in her life, a home, food, money and the thing which she craved most of all-companionship. She soon became his mistress but Gerald broke it off and did not see her again. Although Gerald could be seen as a user, stringing her along as long as he needed her, he did provide her with some happiness for a long time, something which she had not had for a long time. He felt genuinely upset at the news of Daisy's death, he was so affected that he had to leave the room. As he cared for her and felt guilty when he knew who she was I feel that Gerald is only partly to blame. He is however more to blame than Sheila as he does not care about the girl to greatly until he learns that he knew of her. He then fails to care after he learns that Daisy did not really die, instead of feeling guilty for what he did do to her. 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 Priestley 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. Arthur has worked hard to get his family in the position they are in now and in this play it starts to show that it hasn’t gone to waste as when Gerald and Sheila marry there is a huge business prospect open for Arthur Birling. Gerald’s mother does not approve of him marrying Sheila as she feels he is marrying below himself. This shows some arrogance that a stereotypical rich person would have as some would expect them to prefer to marry someone if it meant that they would live-more than-comfortably. Even though some may consider the Birlings equals to the Crofts there is an obvious difference in the way they are rich, Arthur Birling has worked for this position whereas the Crofts will most probably have inherited their money and land. This would make a lot of difference to someone-Crofts- trying to accept a family such as the Birlings. Mr Birling shows some naivety towards current events of that time such as ‘The unsinkable Titanic,’ ‘very little chance of a World War’ and of ‘Russia being technically and socially behind’ He doesn’t seem to consider other options other than what he is told. I don’t think that he thinks the Titanic sinking or a World War would affect him because of his status but events such as a War would probably affect a family of this status the most as they would have to get used to living without luxuries whereas if they were a working class family they would not have many of the things that an upper middle class family would call necessities. The class difference between Daisy/Eva and the others is important because it shows the way upper class people view and treat working class people. The affairs which went on between Eva/Daisy, Gerald and Eric show that she didn’t mean anything to them even though she might have had a place to stay for a while she will have known in the back of her mind this was only temporary. If anything we would expect her to get another job and work harder as she has experienced a better life but this fails to enter her mind. This play shows us that class does matter even thought some countries are working towards a time where classes won’t be an issue because everyone will be treated the same way. I don’t think there will be a time because there are too many things, not just money but traditions and the way of life is different to a point where some are looked at and labelled as strange for doing something differently. A family like the Birlings may have to change the way they live forever and might not like it but it is a price they have to pay for being rich and having more than the average family.
