The inspector then goes on and tells that Eva smith had changed her name to Daisy Renton, Gerald knows that the inspectors questions will reveal his involvement with daisy Renton so he asks Sheila to leave the room but she insists on staying this suggests that Gerald is not really trustworthy. He confesses that he did have an affair with Daisy Renton the previous summer. The inspector then questions Mrs. Birling she admits that she did not like Eva Smith’s manner because she used the Birling name and lied about why she had done this.
Eric is the next to be questioned he admits to meeting this girl and having a bit to much to drink in the palace bar he then later went back to her lodgings. After a few more dated Eva told Eric she was going to have a baby they didn’t want to get married so Eric gave her enough money to keep her going but she refuses the money because she thinks that it has been stolen. She was right though it had been stolen off his father’s desk. This shows that like Gerald Eric is not trustworthy neither.
The inspector then leaves, and the family are arguing Gerald tells the family that he doesn’t think that the inspector was real so they phone the local infirmary and they say that there has been no woman brought in who had committed suicide by drinking a bottle of disinfectant. Everyone is relieved but then the phone rings it’s the police saying a girl has committed suicide on drinking a bottle of disinfectant and a police officer will be coming round to ask some questions.
We think now why might the inspector investigate a suicide is this because there seems to be many reasons, which have driven the victim to suicide. He might think there is a crime behind and because he wants to make the birling family realize that they are responsible for others and not just for themselves. A further aspect of the author’s intention to show, that the whole story is not real. I think that the inspector could be there conscience, a means of making people face up to the consequences of their selfish behavior.
At the beginning of the play the mood in the dining room is very happy because they are celebrating the engagement. They are obviously a bit tipsy because Sheila says to Eric “your sqwiffy” meaning that he had drunk a bit too much. But this is soon to change when the inspector calls because it leaves the family feeling guilty the growing feeling effect of the evenings events on the Birling family on a whole: they start to feel involved and start arguing among themselves they feel bitter.
My first impressions of the Birlings are that they are a rich family and quite stuck up they sometimes act as if none of them could do anything wrong and they are sometimes jealous of other people who have better looks than them we witness this sort of jalousie during the play. Because they have many privileges such as money, big house, servants then they should act in a responsible way towards those less fortunate than themselves.
Arthur Birling comes across as a kind of arrogant, pompus and dismissive person. He is a prosperous factory owner, his first priority is to make money and get power! He strongly believes that “a man has to make his own way” and he is looking forward to receiving a knighthood. He does not accept responsibility to less privileged classes.
Sybil Birling likes she likes to stick by the rules, concerned about manners she tells the others what to do and what not to do. She is only interested in the family reputation. She is very conservative, old- fashioned, selfish, cold hearted, snobbish and egoistic.
Sheila birling - is a bit snobbish at the beginning of the play, egoistic and self –confident, but in the end she thinks more clearly, she accepts criticism, she feels sorry for what she had done. Her readiness to learn from experience is in great contrast to her parents.
Eric Birling is immature at the beginning of the story; he lives an easy-going life, and does not care much about anything. He has a drinking problem. He behaves half shy and half assertive. At the end of the story he starts to think and accepts his guilt, he decides that he might stop drinking.
Gerald Croft is a good looking, rich and clever: man about town! He is engaged to Sheila and a son of an industrial.
He does not change a lot during the story; he stays a capitalist (just interested about money and profit). He seems to agree completely with Mr. Birling, quite the same attitude towards life.
The Inspector enters. This is shown in the stage directions as he “creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness”. The Inspector gets strait to the business he tells the family a woman has died. Firstly he starts with Arthur the inspector is trying to get him to remember the name Eva Smith he shows Arthur the postcard size photograph he soon remembers who she is and then he moves through the family questioning them one by one. The Inspector makes the whole family feel responsible because he gets each one to reveal each of the separate parts of what each of them did individually to Eva Smith. The inspector shows the photograph one at a time but for all they know the inspector could be showing them a complete different picture. They all think that they have a part to play in Eva Smiths suicide all there parts add up to collective responsibility.
At the end of act two, the inspector has compliantly destroyed the family’s reputations. Each member of the Birlings has found out something that they did not know about the other. During the play the Inspector keeps looking at his watch, he says “one Eva Smith has gone but there are millions of Eva Smiths still left with us”. He is saying that one has gone but there are still many left so we should treat each one with the equal amount of respect no matter what class. He was very effective in making the family all feel guilty by not starting anything too obviously, but by using the reactions of the family to the inspector to show how much damage we can cause to others when we are selfish and greedy.
Priestlys aim was to make the upper classes accept privilege and it also brought responsibility. He is successful by making each of the characters change their views after the inspector leaves. They relaxed when they thought that the inspector was fake they think that they are off the hook and carry on drinking but Eric is still feeling guilty about Eva Smith. Because they thought that the inspector wasn’t real they say that they thought something funny was going on and it’s “anything but a joke”. Then the police ring and say that a girl has been brought into the infirmary after drinking a bottle of disinfectant an officer will be over shortly to ask some questions.
At this point, we are left to think what the inspector really was this is what I think. Inspector Goole – Goole = Giest- spirit in death. Is not a real inspector, more something like god because he makes them all feel guilty. His manners are quite extraordinary, rude assertive. One of the main reasons to visit the Birling family is to make them realize, what responsibilities they have and their behavior has an influence on others.
The moral of the play is that we are all members of one body, we are responsible for each other.
