Mrs. Birling exclaims that the Inspector has had a great impression on Sheila he replies, “We often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable.” This statement is underlined more and more as the play progresses; Mr. and Mrs. Birling in particular refuse to acknowledge that their actions were wrong and believe they do not have any responsibility for Eva Smith’s demise, passing the blame onto others. When Mrs. Birling learns about the womanizing habits of Alderman Meggarty (an associate of Mr. Birling’s) she remarks, “Well we are learning something tonight aren’t we?” which is ironic as she has learnt nothing. However Eric and Sheila (the latter especially) are almost instantly remorseful and disgusted at their own actions, and both feel responsible in part for Eva’s death, although Eric is quick to blame his mother when he finds out that she turned down Eva’s appeal.
Of all the characters, Mrs Birling has definitely learnt the least. She is described as being “…her husband’s social superior.” and displays behaviour and an attitude stereotypical of an upper middle class member; she is haughty, snobbish, knows little about her own children and the world around her, and is proud of meaningless things such as her family name. She believes that the Inspector’s disregard for her and her family’s social standing is rude and takes an instant dislike to him because he treats her and the others as his equal or maybe even as inferior to him; she thinks that her status entitles her to some sort of special treatment, highlighted by her saying, .“…you seem to be conducting [your enquiry] in a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he’s still a magistrate…” Yet she lies when asked if she recognised the picture of Eva Smith shown to her, and is unwilling to co-operate with the Inspector for almost the entire period he is there.
Mr. Birling has learnt just as little as his wife. His love of money, recognition and fame are too great and he convinces himself, as Mrs. Birling has convinced herself, that he has done nothing wrong. The only remorse he shows is when he declares, “I’d give thousands, yes, thousands [to bring Eva back]…”, and that statement is probably mostly down to the affect the Inspector has had on him in making him feel extremely guilty and uncomfortable, rather than down to genuine regret. The main thing that influences Birling’s actions is what is in them for him; because of this he refused to grant his worker’s request of slightly higher wages because it would make him lose money, and fired Eva Smith and the other ringleaders to stop himself looking bad and so there would be no further trouble. He is also overly keen for the marriage between Sheila and Gerald to go ahead, because he hopes for a union between the two rival businesses, meaning more money for him: “You’re just the kind of son-in-law I’ve always wanted.” Even when he finds out that Gerald has cheated on Sheila, he continues to side with Gerald, saying “Now, Sheila, I’m not defending him. But you must understand that a lot of young men [keep mistresses]…” as if to say that Gerald has done an acceptable and normal thing and Sheila should forgive him and “…ask Gerald for that ring you gave back to him…Then you’ll feel better.” This shows he has learnt little about his family, let alone anything else; it is obvious that Sheila is no longer the naïve and materialistic girl she was at the beginning of the scenario. He is more concerned about protecting himself (“I have to cover this up as soon as I can.”) rather than learning from his mistakes, changing himself and his habits so he won’t have to protect himself.
Gerald has learnt little from the whole experience; he shows regret for having kept a mistress and lying to Sheila during the summer, but these things could have been said by him to cover his own back, and he initially denies knowing Daisy Renton although it is obvious from his reaction that he did know her. He is the first to deduce that the Inspector didn’t ‘exist’, he leads everyone to believe that there has been no suicide and there were probably four or five different girls; this is probably to get Mr. and Mrs. Birling to allow him to get engaged to Sheila again – he has realised that she has matured, and it was perhaps her childishness and naivety that helped cause him to have an affair. However he still shows the Mr. Birling-like trait of desperately trying to take care of his own interests rather than trying to change himself.
Eric has learnt quite a lot; when everyone finds out about him getting Eva Smith pregnant he tells them, “I understand a lot of things now I didn’t before.” and exclaims in regret, “Oh, how stupid it all is!” when telling them how he forced himself on her. Of all of them he shows the most signs of acknowledging his initial responsibility towards Eva; he insists on giving her money after he finds out about her pregnancy and sees it as more of a priority than not stealing the money from his own father. When he finds out about Mr. Birling’s treatment of the workers in the strike, he goes on their side, saying, “Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”, and then near the end of the play he tells his parents “I’m ashamed of you.” He cannot believe that they will not accept the responsibility for the death of Eva and their own grandchild.
At the beginning of the play Sheila appears naïve, shallow and materialistic, almost childlike. She is described as “…very pleased with life and rather excited.” When Gerald gives her an engagement ring, she says “Now I really feel engaged.” which perhaps proves she cares more for the ring than for Gerald. I believe that Sheila has learnt the most of all the characters by the end of the play; she has certainly come the furthest. In fact as soon as she hears of the part her father had to play in driving Eva to suicide she has already begun to change, saying, “But these girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people.” As she finds out of her own part to play in the tragedy, she is filled with deep remorse almost straight away, “…I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.” She believes that whether or not what the Inspector told them was the truth, everyone should still have learnt a lesson and took responsibility for their actions: “I tell you - whoever that Inspector was, it was anything but a joke…You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way.”