Unlike her mother, Sheila is a much calmer girl who likes to be straight forward and is not a hypocrite. Sheila is a straightforward girl and will instantaneously speak up to matters that are concerning her, “Yes except for all last summer, when you never came near me”, this phrase indicates the unpleasantness that may lurk beneath the surface of the Birlings apparently happy life. She also later accuses her brother of being somewhat drunk and Sheila’s comments suggest that there are things about Eric and her which their parents do not know about, “You’re squiffy”, “Don’t be an ass”. She is a polite girl, who doesn’t get rude to her parents, “I’m sorry daddy I was listening”. She is impressionable, and deeply affected by the Inspector’s revelations. Sheila and her brother Eric are the only characters who give us any cause for optimism in the play. Sheila has an attractive and essentially honest character, and lacks the cold blooded attitude of her parents. She was actually shocked to hear the death of the young lady, “Oh how horrible- was it an accident”. Sheila seems at times almost to be an accomplice of the Inspector, in that she tends to take up his criticism of the other characters, “It’s no use Gerald. You’re wasting time”. She is the first to confess her part in the girl’s fate and she regrets what she’s done, “Yes, and it was I who had the girl turned out of her job”. Her parents see this as disloyalty, but Sheila sees no point in concealing Eric’s drinking problem, “I have gathered that he does drink pretty hard”. Because she is more sensitive and alert than the others and less blinkered, she is the first to recognise that the Inspector seems to know about them all and she is also the first to wonder who the Inspector really is, “You knew it was me”. It is Sheila who first recognizes who the father of the baby is, “ Now mother, don’t you see”, she is trying to tell her mother who the father is. She sees through the other character’s attempts to cover the truth. Sheila’s honesty leads her to be over – critical of herself at times, “I behaved badly, too. I know I did. I’m ashamed if myself”, she keeps on blaming herself all the time. She identifies with the dead girl, because they were pretty, lively and outgoing. The only redeeming feature is that Sheila felt bad about it at the time, regretted it deeply later, and is honest enough to admit her share of the responsibility for Eva’s suicide, “I know. I had her turned out of a job. I started it”, she is ready to take the blame.
Eva Smith is the only character whom we never meet. She dominates the action invisibly. Eva is described as a, “lively good looking girl and a hard worker”, by Mr. Birling. She was very pretty, had large dark eyes and soft, brown hair. She was lively, intelligent, a good worker, warm hearted, mature and at twenty four, about the same age as Sheila, “Yes, twenty four”, as she is described by the Inspector. Eva is depicted as the innocent victim of selfishness. She was a grateful and affectionate girl for Gerald, but she was abandoned because she had become inconvenient for him, “ I’m sorry Sheila. But it was all over and done with last summer”. She was a compliant outlet for Eric’s sexual needs and loneliness, but was also made an accomplice to theft and pregnant by him, “And that’s when it happened. And I didn’t even remember the hellish thing”. She was treated unfairly by the family because she was thrown out of the Birling company because she wanted higher pay, “…….they suddenly decided to ask for more money”. Eva was an outlet for Mrs Birling’s respectable feelings of charity, but was discarded as unworthy of help when she did not pander to Mrs Birling’s self-importance. Eva shows kindness and sensitivity beyond the reach of others. Although the victim of exploitation, she refuses to treat others as they have treated her, even though she was in a position to create scandal for them all. She could have easily gone to the Birling family and asked for assistance, because whatever mess she was in, was created by them, but instead she committed suicide. There is an affinity between Eva and Sheila: Sheila might have suffered the same fate as Eva, had not luck given her a more privileged position in the society. The mystery of Eva Smith is a part of the larger mystery of the play. By assembling all these events and characteristics into one life story, Priestly creates sympathy in the audience and in some of the play’s characters. We can see a hopeful young life destroyed by their complacency, selfishness and thoughtlessness.
The differences in the characters are revealed through their language, actions and stage directions. Mrs. Birling is a ruthless and merciless human being compared to Sheila and Eva Smith. Once she finds out that the Inspector’s trying to frame the family for murdering Eva, she completely looses the plot and changes her tone because at first, when the Inspector arrived, she kindly greeted him with a pleasant tone, “Good evening Inspector”, but as soon as she found out what the Inspector was driving at, she raised her voice, “I beg you pardon” and soon she really starts to get annoyed, “I don’t think we want any further details of this disgusting affair”, she said haughtily. She also boasts of the work she has done in the charity, when the Inspector points out that she was a member in the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation”, Yes. We’ve done a great deal of useful work in distress appeal for help……”, says Mrs. Birling with dignity. Mrs. Birling always points and walks towards the person she’s talking to, (rising and crossing to Sheila; bitterly) “And this is the time you choose to tell me”. Sheila’s approach towards the Inspector and other members of the family is quite straightforward and tries to create the odd joke, “No, he’s giving us rope – so that we’ll hang ourselves” and “Well, we didn’t think you meant Buckingham Palace”, Sheila said with a laugh. Sheila does not get upset rather quickly but can get quite emotional sometimes, as we can see from her dialogues, “Now, mother – don’t you see?”, crying and distressed as she was speaking and “No! Oh- horrible –horrible”, said Sheila horrifically. She is rather calm and she talks whilst she’s sitting down. The main difference between Mrs. Birling and Sheila is that Sheila is ready to take the blame whilst Mrs. Birling is not. She also wants the family to admit that they played their role in Eva’s suicide, “Go on, mother. You might as well admit it”, she says it reassuringly. Sheila is more open and ready to take the blame. She is more open because she is the younger generation and more liberal.
Sheila and Mrs Birling both have different responses towards the Inspector. Both of them welcome the Inspector affectionately. Sheila is concerned about what has happened, “What business? What’s happening?, she kindly asks the Inspector this question and Mrs Birling also compassionately greets the Inspector, “Good evening Inspector”, she says joyfully. Mrs. Birling was happy at first to answer the questions that the inspector was asking, “I shall be glad to answer any questions you wish to ask”. But when the Inspector started asking her questions, she gets aggressive and raises her voice, “I beg you pardon!”. She simply cannot keep calm whilst having a conversation with the Inspector, “And if I was, what business is it of yours?”. On the other hand Sheila is a more sensitive girl, who feels sorry for Eva Smith, and is ready to comply with the Inspector, “What was she like? Quite young?”, she was rather distressed and was quite inquisitive on knowing more about Eva, “But what happened to her then?”. She does not get rude or be impolite to the Inspector unlike her mother. She also helps the Inspector’s investigation by making her mother feel guilty, “Mother I think it was cruel and vile”, but still Mrs. Birling felt that Eva was to blame for her death.
Each woman represents or symbolises the position of women at that time. Mrs. Birling is an arrogant and well off lady. She doesn’t care about anybody else but herself. She hasn’t got any sympathy for Eva as we just witnessed it. She Mr. Birling is supposed to be the commander of the house but he’s not very vocal, and it seems that Mrs. Birling wears the trousers in their relationship i.e. she is the commander in the house and not Mr. Birling. From this we can see that women from wealthy backgrounds are much selfish and pitiless. Sheila is the daughter of Mrs. Birling and from my analysis on Sheila I can see that young girls are more sympathetic towards others than older women. They can understand the feelings of other people. Eva Smith is a young lady who didn’t quite have a comfortable life. She was unfortunate, ill-fated and was treated unsympathetically by the Birling family. She had no dignity and was shown no respect. Her life was made into a misery by the Birling family and was left to sort out the mess all by herself. This shows that women from poorer backgrounds had a tough life, especially if they had no relatives, like Eva Smith.
Priestly is trying to convey a message through these women. He uses themes to convey these messages to us. The themes connect the story, the characters and the different acts and sections in the play. Lies abound in “An inspector Calls”. Characters lie to each other, to the Inspector and to themselves. These lies are not confined to simple misrepresentations of the truth, as when Mrs. Birling denies ever having met Eva Smith. The lies have formed the basis for their relationship with others and with themselves. Other lies in the play concern the way people define things like respectability or truth. This kind of lie is what we normally refer to as hypocrisy. Several kinds of love are depicted in the play: the husband and wife romance of the Birlings, the romantic love of Gerald and Sheila, the family love of brother and sister, the Inspector’s love of truth. Other attributes of love are shown, such as affection, gratitude and loyalty. The play also shows how pride comes before a fall- especially the false pride shown by some of the characters. Only by abandoning false pride can characters arrive at an honest relationship with themselves and each other. The pride has become a self – perpetuating fantasy. Some characters in the play attach great importance to social status. For them it’s so precious that nothing must threaten it. Social class defines the value of human beings, especially for Miss. Birling. A high social class insulates these characters from the unpleasantness of reality. Birling panics at the prospect of having his son’s or wife’s actions made public. He is terrified by a scandal which would irretrievably damage the Birlings’ status. Eva Smith is considered to have very little value as a human being. The play points out the need for a sense of personal responsibility, not only for individual actions, but also for the way actions affect each other. The Inspector voices these views most strongly, but is only joined by Sheila. Different characters react to their guilt in different ways, when it is revealed to them. Not all of them show remorse or shame. Some are so hardened that they refuse even to accept the blame when their involvement is revealed, for example Mr. and Mrs. Birling. Priestly suggests that wrongdoing is rather like a disease, eating away from inside.
The women respond and relate to Inspector Goole differently. Mrs. Birling approaches the Inspector with rude comments, “Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”. She doesn’t even know that her son is the father of Eva’s child, until later. When she finds out, she stops torturing Eva and the Inspector, because the father of the child is her own son. Sheila discusses the matter in a more mature way, by complying with the Inspector, “That’s a nice thing to say”. She hardly gets rude to the Inspector. The Inspector clearly had strong feelings for Eva because he kept on pressuring the family for more information consistently, and he made them feel guilty for Eva’s death. In the end he got all the information he needed, and was quite happy to depart.
Priestly chooses for us not meet Eva Smith. The absence of Eva Smith has a dramatic effect on the audience. The audience is left to imagine Eva Smith’s character with descriptions from the Inspector and the family. The audience cannot know the actual environment that Eva must be staying in or how she felt about how she was treated by the Birlings. She might have written her diary, but we don’t know. We are not left to hear Eva Smith’s side of the story and there might be information that we don’t know that only Eva knows. The audience cannot make out if the family was hiding valuable information on Eva, that they don’t want it to be revealed and we are left to figure out whether, if there is any other information we don’t know about because we never meet Eva to find this out. In the end, it’s a mystery because we don’t know whether the girl who was dead was actually Eva or not. So overall there is a dramatic effect on Priestly not letting us meet Eva because it makes us speculate whether the information that the Birling family gave is true or not. From not knowing whether the information is accurate or not, we cannot make out who is to blame for Eva’s death.
The women’s characters develop wonderfully from the beginning to the end. We see how Mrs. Birling can instantly change moods. At one time she is greeting the Inspector with a warm reception, but soon she starts arguing with him, and is very irritated. The irritation with the Inspector helps us to know how Mrs. Birling really felt about Eva because she making unjust comments towards Eva. Sheila on the other hand is more of a peacemaker. She hardly gets annoyed at neither the Inspector or with her mum. She doesn’t try to create any arguments with the Inspector or her mum. She regularly gets told off by her mum for sticking her nose into her conversations. By arguing with each other, the characters actually reveal information that was meant to be secret, for example, Sheila was the only one to recognize that Eric had a drinking problem, but when the family started arguing, the truth came out and soon the family members found out about Eric’s drinking problem.
I think Priestly is quite effective in conveying a social message through his characterisations of the three women. The play "An Inspector Calls" is set in 1912 but was written in 1945. Edwardian society at that time (1912) was strictly divided into social classes. Below the very rich were the middle classes (doctors and merchants, shop workers and clerks), after that came the craftsmen and skilled workers. At the very bottom of the social ladder was the largest class of all - the ordinary workers and the poor, many of whom lived below the poverty level. Priestley was writing the play for a middle class audience and was trying to speak up for the working class by showing how the Birlings and Gerald Croft were all involved in making a young working class girl's life a misery. Priestley wants to show us that we have a responsibility to others to act fairly and without prejudice and that we do not live in isolation. Our actions affect others. This is the concept of collective responsibility. Priestley says, 'things could really improve if only people were to become more socially responsible for the welfare of others. We have to confront our mistakes and learn from them. He uses Mrs. Birling as the higher class and Eva as the lower class. He shows us how the rich mistreated the poor and what respect the lower class people got from the higher class people.
