Other characters in the play:
- Edna->A servant, doesn’t say much, but gets bossed about.
- Gerald Croft-> Son of Sir Croft, who runs Croft’s inc. The rival firm to Birling’s own. Engaged to marry Sheila…this is a marriage of convenience as Croft’s and Birling’s will be united in the trade industry.
- Inspector Goole->A phoney police inspector, a socialist, who bring news to the Birlings that a young girl has just committed suicide from drinking disinfectant, and also that it is this family’s fault.
At the beginning of the play, Priestly has had the Birling’s having a normal family celebration, but then the first blow comes in the form of the inspector wanting to talk to Mr. Birling. Mr. Birling thinks it’s about some warrant or something as this quote shows: ”I’m still on the bench. It may be something about a warrant.” Then the inspector enters and tells them about Eva Smith’s suicide and then shows Mr. Birling a photo of her. It then comes out about Eva being sacked for wanting a extra two and six pence a week, “they were averaging about twenty-two and six, which is no more or no less then is paid generally in our industry. They wanted the rates raised so that they could average about twenty-five shillings per week.” Birling is a very rich man and could have afforded to pay them a lot more if he had not been the “hard-headed business man” that he so fondly called himself to be.
Sheila was the next confession, about six months after Eva had been sacked she found a job at Milwards where Mrs and Sheila Birling shop, Eva got told she would have to leave shortly after as a customer complained. Sheila was that customer. Sheila went to the manager to persuade them to sack Eva and threatened that if they didn’t she would get her mother to close their store account, and take their business elsewhere. Sheila had done this because she had wanted to try on a dress but it didn’t suit her “this girl, to show us what she meant, had held the dress up, as if she was wearing it. And it just suited her; she was the right type for it as I was the wrong type. She was a very pretty girl too-with big dark eyes-and that didn’t make it any better. Well, when I tried the thing on and looked at myself and knew it was all wrong, I caught this girl smiling at miss Francis-as if to say: ‘doesn’t she look awful’ and I was absolutely furious.” Sheila was jealous of Eva looking good in the dress she had wanted so had got her the sack. That was the last stable job Eva ever had.
Gerald was caught out when the inspector said that Eva had changed her name to Daisy Renton, so he let his confidences slip about knowing her. Sheila picks up on this and tells Eric to take the inspector to the drawing room well she talks to Gerald. He the admits that while he told Sheila he was working over the summer, really he was seeing Eva, or daisy as she had called her self, but “it was all over and done with last summer. I haven’t set eyes on her for the last six months.” And then also so says “ So-for Gods sake, don’t say anything to the inspector” to which Sheila reply’s “why-you fool-he knows. Of course he knows.” Gerald had been having an affair with Eva, or daisy, as he knew her as. He doesn’t want to confess to it in front of the Inspector and rest of the family, but Sheila has had a lot better measure of the Inspector and she knows that he knows all about it.
Mrs Birling then came in and was building up a wall so she was nothing to with the girl and the Sheila butts in with “you mustn’t build up the wall between us and the girl. If you do, then the Inspector will just break it down and it will be all the worse when he does.” This annoys Mrs Birling immensely and she continues on the same track as before. The Inspector asks if Eric is used to drinking and Mrs Birling replies “No of course not, he’s only a boy” and the Inspector points out the Eric is a young man and some young men drink far to much, then Sheila bursts out “and Eric’s one of them.” This shocks Mrs Birling and shows that she doesn’t really know her son. It then comes out that Mrs Birling was the last to see Eva before she died, as she came before the Brumly woman’s committee. Eva introduced herself as Mrs Birling after saying she wasn’t married. Mrs Birling then used her position as chair lady to make sure that Eva didn’t get any money. She then expresses her views about what should happen to the father of Eva’s child: “and if you’d take some steps to find this young man and then make sure he’s compelled to confess in public his responsibility-instead of staying hear asking quite unnecessary questions-then you really would be doing your duty.” Sheila has realised that the father is Eric and that her mother has condemned him. When it dawns on Mr and Mrs Birling they get quite afraid and I think that Mrs Birling begins to wish she had taken notice of her daughter’s pleas to her so she wouldn’t say anything.
Eric then comes back and walks in the room to find every one staring at him. Sheila is telling Eric what their mothers been saying and Eric turns and says to his mum that she hasn’t made it any easier on him. Mrs Birling tries to explain and ends by saying “your not the type-you don’t get drunk-“
Sheila’s says that he is and that she has told them, at which point Eric turns on her and calls her a little sneak. It all comes out about how he had met her in the palace (a usual haunt for the ladies of the town) walked her home and forced his way into the house where he had sex with her. He met her again two weeks later and they talked and went back to her lodgings to make love again. Eric then admits when she told him she was pregnant he wanted o get married but she wouldn’t because he wasn’t in love with her. He then gave her about £50 from Mr Birling’s office.
The inspectors leaving speech is very firm and intense, it is where he really starts to lose his temper with the Birlings. He tells them to remember that “One Eva smith has gone-but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva smiths and john smiths still left with us, with their lives, there hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we say and do.” This is showing that though Eva is dead there are many more people left on earth that need help and that a difference can be made to their lives by our actions for good, or for bad, by the way we conduct our selves. The Inspector then shows sight into the future when he says “if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in Fire and Blood and Anguish” The Inspector is threatening that if people don’t learn then there will be war, but he also likens this to hell. This is the point where he really gets worked up. He then leaves with a “good-night.” But there is finality in the tone of his voice. This speech is aimed directly at the Birlings and Gerald, but is also, indirectly aimed, at society, the whole world and how people will choose to run it. Though this was written years ago, we can all still learn that we all need to help to look after each other, take for instance, Africa, the people there are really poor and we can help them, as the speech says we are linked to them.
Sheila seems the most affected but Eric was also changed. Mr and Mrs Birling don’t accept responsibility or face the consequences. Sheila and Eric do accept their responsibility and also face the consequence to a point. Sheila stands on her own to feet by having a go at her parents saying “if you really must know, its you who are being childish-trying not to face the facts.”
Eric also has something to say they have realised that he wasn’t a police Inspector but Eric points out that “he was our police Inspector all right.” Meaning that he inspected the family and TRIED to make them see the error of there ways.
