From the minute that the Inspector came in the atmosphere changed in the whole house. The tense atmosphere began to rise while the romantic atmosphere disappeared.
From the start of Mr.Birling’s conversation with the Inspector, the Inspector was rude and acted not like an Inspector should act like.
I noticed this as the Inspector started to ask Mr.Birling questions about his company and how he should never refuse to pay the workers more money.
In my opinion I think that the person who has their own company should be able to take care of it, as they like because it’s their company and other people should not interfere with their business.
After Mr.Birling’s and the Inspectors conversation Mr.Birling becomes suspicious of the inspectors actions and behaviour. He starts to ask the Inspector about his personal details and who employed him to be an Inspector.
He quotes:
“What did you say your name is Inspector?”
From the whole conversation with the Inspector I have realised that Mr.Birling doesn’t take any
responsibility of his actions and haven’t learned anything from the death of Eva Smith.
“You could have kept her on instead of throwing her out”
This also shows me that Eric had some feelings towards Eva Smith. He also tries to blame the death on Mr.Birling and prove that what he did was wrong and he should take responsibility of his action towards Eva Smith.
When Eric says:
“That might have started it”
he is trying to prove his point that actions have consequences and that Mr.Birling has to take responsibility for what he did. Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive.
At the end of “Act One” Eric loses his temper and explained that he can’t cope with this and that he had quite a lot of alcohol because of the engagement with Sheila and Gerald and goes up to his room.
“Look I’ve had enough of this”
At the beginning of “Act Three” the Inspector puts a lot of pressure on Eric as he notices that Eric had something to do with Eva Smith.
As the Inspector starts to question Eric it turns out that Eric knew Eva Smith. He met her night last November in the Palace Bar. As the questioning continues Eric admits that she was not like other girls.
“She wasn’t the usual sort”
Later on the questioning it turns out that Eric went to Eva Smith’s house and they had some sort of sexual relationship.
Eric tells us that he wasn’t in love with her but he liked her and she was pretty.
After some dated with Eva Smith Eric found out that she was pregnant.
From this moment Eva Smith was depressed, as she had no money to look after herself, no job and now found out that she was pregnant.
Eric quotes:
“She hadn’t a job, she’d no money left”
To make Eva Smith a bit calmer he insisted of giving her enough money to keep her going. He gave her fifty pounds.
At my point of view, Eric felt that he had to play a part in all of this too. He was the one who got her pregnant and felt responsible, as it was his child.
Hearing all this the Inspector asked Eric were he got the fifty pounds from. Eric answered that he got the money from Mr.Birling’s office.
“I got it from the office”
From this part I think that Eric took responsibility of his actions not like his father Mr.Birling.
I know this as the Inspector asks Eric if he was worried when Eva Smith told him that she was pregnant with his baby.
“Yes, and so was I, I was in a hell of a state about it”
The other point were I think that Eric takes all the responsibility is when he finds out that his mother Mrs.Birling turned Eva Smith away when she asked for help. I noticed that in that point he acts as if he was part of Eva Smith and his baby.
From his behaviour I can see that he has feelings towards Eva Smith but does regret of his actions.
I think Eric has learned a lesson from his actions and behaviour and I think that he will not repeat his footsteps again.
As soon as Eric found out the heartless truth from his mother (Mrs.Birling) he starts to blame his actions on his mother as she had a role to play in Eva Smiths death.
Mrs.Birling is about fifty, and is a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.
Exactly at the End of “Act Two” Eric is standing just inside the room and the others are staring at him.
There’s a long silence between the whole family, but not for long as Eric questionably asks the family if they know the story.
“You know, don’t you?”
Mrs.Birling tries to make matters better but only makes them worse when Sheila (his sister) tells Eric what his mother being saying about him not even realising.
“Your mother’s been busy blaming everything on the young man”
Mrs.Birling doesn’t know how to react towards Eric and just replies that she didn’t have any idea that the young man was Eric.
From the start of Mrs.Birling act the reader can clearly see that she is not kind and not thoughtful of what she says.
“You haven’t made it any easier for me have you mother”
Matters get worse and worse each seconds as Mrs.Birling told that she refused to help Eva Smith when she came into Bromley’s Women’s Charity Organisation.
“I didn’t like her manner”
From this point onwards we can see that she is kind of a person that makes a fuss who she helps even though she hasn’t seen them.
We can also see that Mrs.Birling doesn’t take any responsibility of what she done and thinks that the movement that she made towards Eva Smith was right.
“I’ve done nothing wrong”
From this situation we can see that Mrs.Birling doesn’t take any responsibility of her behaviour and hasn’t learned a lesson.
However, looking at her daughter’s behaviour we can clearly see that she takes responsibility of all the family (including herself) and feels that this is the case were each of the family members should learn a lesson from all of this and not be selfish. Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited whats going to happen next in her life.
As soon as Sheila comes into the play we can see that she does not know anything about the death of Eva Smith.
“You talk as if we were responsible”
Although, when she finds out that she had a role to play in Eva Smith’s death she becomes in charge of her behaviour.
“I went to the manager at Milwards and told him to get rid of that girl”
After some time Sheila blames herself as she realises that she’s the one who started all this mess. Sheila's attitude to Eva Smith's death continues throughout the whole play.
“I know I’m to blame and I’m desperately sorry”
From this quote we can clearly see that Sheila takes charge of her actions and in my opinion if she had a clock to turn back she will not follow her steps again. We can see that she and her brother Eric take responsibility from their actions and it look like that they take the whole blame on themselves when the whole family takes it not seriously at all. Theres somethings that changed in her life after she found out about the death of Eva Smith and that Gerald had a part to play in her death.Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town.When Gerald asked Sheila where did she get the idea that he did know her? She easily replied that there was no use of hiding the truth.
"Its no use Gerald, you're wasting time"
To make things worse Inspector proved that as soon as he said the name Daisy Renton, it was obvious that Gerald knew her.
"As soon as I mentioned the name Daisy Renton, it was obvious you'd known her"
As the Inspector got out the story about him and Eva Smith, Gerald himself knew what was coming into the relashionship between him and Sheila. After the questioning and the reall truth about Eva Smith and Gerald, Gerald decided to go.
"I'll just goout-walk about-for a while, if you don't mind. I'll come back"
However, before he left the house Sheila hands him their engagement ring. From the whole beginning, as soon as the Inspector started the questioning it was obvious that Geralds and Sheilas relashionship is going to fall apart.
"Gerald I think you'd beter take this with you"
Gerald knew what will happen.
"I see, Well I was expecting this."
From this point I felt sorry for what he had to go through (the death of Eva Smith, and the brake up with Sheila) however, on the other hand I think that he deserved it because looking at the things that he did with Eva Smith, the lies to Sheila he could of not lied and told Sheila every truth but he kept it until the last moment thats what made it so tense.
From the whole play I think that he learns his lesson and takes responsibility of his actions.
Overall, I have enjoyed reading this play and really got into it as if I was one of the characters. Throuhout the whole play I have liked how Sheila plays in it, what responsibilities she had to take and her actions.
By Yuliya Boychuk 10P
