themselves. This is shown when Sheila says:
‘ He’s given us the rope so that we’ll hang ourselves.’
This shows that the inspector doesn’t have to say much to get the characters
to admit their involvement with Eva Smith.
The Inspector often makes comments over and above his line of
questioning, these create pathos for Eva Smith’s death. A good quote to
show this is when he says:
‘ A girl died tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl who never did anybody any
harm. But she died in misery and agony…’
This quote shows that he totally blames the Birling family for Eva Smith’s
death and that he has a lot of sympathy for her.
He also makes comments that show he’s making a moral judgement
of the Birlings, Priestly shows this in the play when he writes:
‘…Miss Birling. If there weren’t, the factories wouldn’t know where to look
for cheep labour. Ask your father.’
This shows that the Inspector is implying that Mr Birling only used Eva
Smith as cheep labour, and although that may be true if it ever got out his
business would be ruined.
In the play the Inspector has a different effect on Sheila. She is the
first person to take the Inspectors side and attacks the complacency of the
other characters. Priestly shows this when he writes:
‘…Otherwise you wouldn’t look so guilty about it. When did you first get to
know her?’
This shows that Sheila has sort of taken the place of the inspector and
wants to know more about what her family has been up to.
At the end of the play the rest of the family recognize his unusual
qualities, and try to convince themselves that it was all simply a hoax:
‘ There’s no inspector Goole in the police. That man definitely wasn’t a police
inspector…we’ve been had’
They also find out that no girl-committed suicide in the infirmary that
evening:
‘ No girl has died their today. Nobody’s been brought in after drinking
disinfectant. They haven’t had a suicide for months.’
However the twist at the end of the play where a dead girl did indeed
been brought to the infirmary gives the inspector a supernatural air as he
apparently has foreknowledge of Eva Smiths death.
In some ways the Inspector resembles a detective of crime fiction like
Sherlock Holmes for example. He is unusually intelligent, and to possess
knowledge which keeps him one step ahead of the other characters.
However, he is not a member of the police force, it implies this when
Mr. Birling says:
‘…I know the Brumley police officers pretty well and I thought I’d never
seen you before.’
Another ting that made him seam unusual is the fact that he just came from
nowhere without warning.
The pun on his name inspector Goole could mean ghoul as in ghost
also gives him a supernatural air. He has godlike attributes, Sheila describes
him as strangely powerful. For example when she says in the play:
‘ You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you
do, then the inspector will just brake it down. And it’ll be all the worse when
he does.’
This shows that Sheila knows what the inspector is trying to do to the
family, and she knows that he has the power to make it worse.
The inspector also has the spiritual authority of a priest. This is
because he wants the characters to admit and face their guilt and
responsibility, just as a priest wants his followers to confess to their sins. The
characters eventually confess, and in the case of Sheila and Eric, achieve a
state of higher spiritual awareness. For example, at the end of the platy Sheila
says:
‘ He inspected us all right.’
This shows that she understands that even though he wasn’t a real
Inspector, all the things that they had admitted to doing realy did happen so
they are all still in the wrong. The other characters however, remain spiritually
blind. They don’t want to see that they
have done something wrong. The are still concerned with up appearances.
In the play some people may look at the inspector as a dramatic
embodiment of Priestley’s own the community, and to them the Birlings
may symbolise the capitalist members of society as shown in this part from
the play:
‘…When he has one-and so long as he does that he wont come to any
harm. But the way some of these cranks write and talk now, you’d think
everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were mixed up like bees
in a hive…’
Priestly himself had very socialist views on life, like when he wrote in
his own words:
‘ A man is a member of a community and the fact that he is a member of a
community immensely enlarges his stature and increases his opportunities…’
(Thoughts in the Wilderness, 1957.)
At the end of the play just before he leaves the Inspector gives a
speech to remind them of what they have done. Here is part of the preach
to show you what I mean:
‘ I don’t need to know any more. Neither do you. This girl killed herself-and
died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that and
never forget it…’
This part of the speech shows that the Inspector is trying to make them feel
more guilty about what has happened to Eva Smith, and is trying to make
them take note of there actions.
Also in his speech the inspector reminds each member of the family
what they have done. He starts with Mrs.B:
‘ Remember what you did Mrs. Birling. You turned her away when she most
needed help. You refused her the pitiable little bit of organized charity you
had in your power to grant her.’
The next person he reminds is Eric:
‘ Remember what you did-just used for the end of a stupid drunken evening,
as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person. No you won’t forget.’
The next person he reminds is Sheila:
‘ You helped-but didn’t start it. ’
The next person he reminds is Mr. Birling:
‘ You started it. She wanted twenty-five shillings a week instead of twenty-
two and sixpence. You made her pay a heavy price for that. And now she’ll
make you pay a heavier price still.’
The inspector is extremely hard on the all of the family apart from
Sheila. He says very little as you can see from the quote above. This shows
that he is excepting that she knows what she has done to Eva Smith and
she it truly sorry for it.
Right at the end of the play the inspector says:
‘ But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone-but there are still millions
and millions of Eva Smiths and John smiths still left with us, with their lives,
their hopes and fears, their suffering and change of happiness, all intertwined
with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are
members of a body. We are responsible for each other…’
When the Inspector says this we learn that he in a socialite. And what he is
inplying is that even if the Birling don’t admit to what they have done and
don’t lean from it, the rest of the world will learn to hate them because we
are all together and everyone knows everything about everyone.
The playhouse production shows this side of the inspector very well.
He is dressed in a suit of the time and every time he questions someone he
takes of an item of clothing to symbolize that he is revealing layers of guilt
from the family. There is a huge amount of symbolizing in the production,
for example the way that the inspector teat’s Sheila is almost as if they are in
love. He is kind to her compared to the rest of the family symbolizes that he
respects her and knows that she is truly sorry for what she has done.
The way that the inspector uses various comments and his final
speech suggests that Eva Smith is a symbolic figure, respecting all the poor
people in society. His socialist views are not only put forward to Birling, but
to the rest of the family and to the audience as well. Priestly is showing the
audience that the inspectors socialist attitude led up to ‘the fire, and blood
and anguish of the two World Wars.
