The play opens with a conversation between Mr Birling, his family and Gerald Croft. The family are sitting in their dining room celebrating the success of their daughter’s engagement to the son of a businessman of higher status than the Birling family. Mr Birling appears to be a hardheaded businessman who is more concerned with high profits then the welfare of his employees. He obviously thinks very highly of himself hoping he might find his way into the next honours list but regards with contempt the cranks that say that everybody should look after everybody else. I think that Priestley intended Mr Birling to represent the upper middle class man of the time and the rest of the family to represent the average middle class family. Mr Birling believes that through his experience he knows that there will be no war and as he claims the Titanic is unsinkable the audience can easily understand his foolishness. Just as Mr Birling begins to finish his speech saying “a man has to look after himself…But the way some of these cranks talk nowadays you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else… take my word for it- that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own” he is disturbed by the arrival of Inspector Goole come to investigate the suicide of a young girl, Eva Smith.
The Inspector calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family: his startling revelations not only shatter the very foundations of their lives, but also challenges us all to examine our own consciences. The timing of the entrance of the Inspector is quite a prominent part of the play. His formal entrance contrasts with the previous happy and relaxed scene of Sheila’s engagement party. Priestly uses this contrast to show us early on the massive impact the Inspector will have on the Birlings and how they are about to change. Inspector Goole is portrayed as quite a sinister character who is persistent about finding out the truth. He believes in quite the opposite to what Mr Birling believes in. He is left wing and feels every person should help each other as “we are members of one body-We are responsible for each other”. J.B Priestly uses the Inspector as his mouth piece in the play to convey his own socialist ideas across to the audience The Inspector interrogates each character in turn: with each of them he makes a point that they have acted selfishly and used the girl involved for their own purposes and they have not thought about the effect they have had on her life. Priestly also uses the inspector to show us how hypocritical and arrogant the upper middle class men and women were.
The Inspector is a mysterious character whose name is presumably meant to recall, by its sound, the term for an evil spirit “ghoul.” He reveals the truth about the Birlings and the more we learn about the Birlings the less we know for sure about the Inspector. The Inspector is the one character in the play who speaks with constant moral force and assurance. “He creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidarity and purposefulness.” “He speaks carefully and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he address before actually speaking.” a strong and stern character; he is able to take complete control of the household in both an orderly and formal way “ Both Gerald and Eric rise to have a look at the photograph, but the Inspector interposes himself between them and he photograph.” “ It’s the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of inquiry at a time. Otherwise, there’s a muddle.”
He is the narrator and provides the framework for the play, leading through the chronological account of Eva Smiths life, filling in the background detail for the periods when the Birlings were not involved with her decline, “ she was out of work for the next to months. Both her parents were dead, so she’d no place to go back to.” The inspector is on a moral quest, to find out the truth behind the girl, Eva Smith’s suicide, challenging both the morals and conscience of the Birling family.
Inspector Goole behaves like a traditional police officer, interrogating suspects and listening to confessions. When interrogating Sheila he asks her,
“And why did you do that?”
“Because I was in a furious temper”
“ And what had this girl done to make you loose your temper?”
When I was looking at myself in the mirror I caught sight of this girl smiling to the assistant, and I was furious with her”
“And was it the girls fault?”
“You admit being prejudiced against her case?”
“Yes”
“Was it or was it not your influence?”
“ Yes it was” Like the detective at the end of a ‘Who-dun-it’ Inspector Goole goes through inspecting all of the likely suspects.
He is relentless, in charge and not but off by threats. Mr Birling attempts to gain control by saying, “Perhaps I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly frequently. We play golf together.”
“I don’t play golf!”
Mrs Birling refuses to accept the Inspectors authority and says, “I realize that you may have to conduct some sort of inquiry, but I must say that so far you seem to be conducting it in a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was lord major only two years ago and that he is still a magistrate–”
“(Imperturbable) Yes. Now what about Mr Birling?” These quotes show how like a traditional police officer he always stays calm and continues with his investigation even when threatened. He doesn’t drink on duty “Have a glass of port – or a little whisky?”
“ No, thank you. I’m on duty “ He Is respectful, professional and works by the rules. He is not conscious of any social inferiority. His sense of morality covers all classes and he feels strongly that the Birlings should not escape moral judgement just because of their social status. “Public men, Mr Birling have responsibilities as well as privileges.” Inspector Goole is a version of a traditional policeman in a thriller: intrusive commanding, polite but impatient when necessary. The twist in this play however is that nothing has occurred that would bring the Birlings to a court of law. The only real crime that has taken place, Eric’s offence of stealing his father’s money, seems to us one of the less serious lapses in the play. Priestly manipulates our sense of what we expect of a real police officer in such a drama and upsets our preconceptions when the Inspector deliberately steps over the normal boundaries that would appear in a criminal inquiry.
The Inspector has the ingenious ability to act as a catalyst in the play extracting information from people by only saying a few words. “Not as Eva Smith?” “As what then?” “ She talked about herself?” “Did she drink much?” “ What happened?” The Inspector judges them but he offers neither punishment nor forgiveness to them. The implication is they must judge themselves. “He’s giving us the rope – so that we’ll hang ourselves.” Sheila says. The Inspector shows the Birlings for whom they really are, he reveals them to each other. “
“Eric? Oh I’m afraid he may have had rather too much to drink tonight. We have a little celebration here —”
“Isn’t he used too drinking?” “No off course not. He’s only a boy.”
“We really must stop these silly pretences. This isn’t the time to pretend that Eric isn’t used to the drink.” The Birlings are deeply affected by the Inspector’s investigation yet the younger generation are more affected than the older. “ You seemed to have made a great impression on the child Inspector.” Sheila and Eric realize where they have gone wrong and will be better people because of him. “ I know I’m to blame —and I’m desperately sorry” Yet Mr and Mrs Birling seem to think that the girl,s death had nothing to do with them. “ There’s every excuse for what both your mother and I did—it turned out unfortunately, that’s all” As Sheila and Eric become more mature and face their responsibilities they begin to turn against their parents “That’s just what I feel, Eric and it’s what they (Mr and Mrs Birling) don’t seem to understand.” In the beginning of the play Sheila referred to Mrs Birling as “mummy” and towards the end, her language becomes more formal and she calls her “Mother” Mirroring the fact that she has matured as she accepts her responsibilities in the death of Eva Smith.
The Inspector is an eerie and supernatural character. He seems to be omniscient (all knowing.) He knows all about Eva Smith’s past life and about what the Birlings have done and never seems surprised by what he hears. “He knows of course he knows and I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet.” Are you sure you don’t know” Priestly purposely does not use a question mark in this quote to show that the Inspector already knows the answer. The Inspector tries to account for his knowledge through items found in Eva Smiths room a diary and some letters. “ I had an idea it might be – from something the girl herself wrote” “ She kept a rough sort of diary. And she said there that she had to go away…She felt there’d never be anything as good again for her.” But this merely gives some plausibility to what he knows rather than explaining the sympathy with which he can enter into the circumstances of the life of Eva Smith.
Priestley does not allow the Inspector to know everything about the girl otherwise he would hardly have pretext for his inquiry – but we sense he knows all the essentials of the case and maybe more! The Inspectors questions go beyond that of a normal inquiry, He gets personally involved and starts to give his own opinions on the situation “ I think you did something terribly wrong—and that you’re going to spend the rest of your life regretting it. I wish you’d been with me tonight in the infirmary. You’d have seen—” Whereas as a normal police officer would have stayed uninvolved. The Inspector is also able to know what questions to ask to get the information he wants to hear, Sheila says “ I answered more or less as he wanted me to answer”. His sense of knowledge about the background to both Eva Smith and Daisy Renton leaves the Birlings with no place to hide and offers them a chance to repent. We actually find out at the end of the play that the Inspector arrived before the death of the girl, causing the audience to begin to question the actual existence of the Inspector. If he is not a real Inspector, what is he? A clever impostor (but nonetheless human)? The personification of the social conscience the characters all lack or suppress? A supernatural, God-like being (for he certainly seems to know what each character has done, without being told)? Or the reproachful spirit of the girl's dead child?
Who is the Inspector? Was he real or wasn’t he? Priestley intentionally leaves the provenance of the Inspector unexplained, his real identity a mystery.. However I think that an acceptable explanation for the appearance of the Inspector is that he symbolizes the consciences of the Birling family. He makes them look at themselves and their actions and realize the consequences and take responsibility, He is doing the work their consciences should have done. “ The girls dead and we all helped to kill her— and that all that matters—” “ so I’m really responsible?” Sheila and Eric are good people and they realize their mistakes and accept responsibility. However Mr and Mrs Birling are hardhearted and selfish and do not listen to the Inspector properly and they ignore their conscience. Instead they are more concerned with their social position, escaping responsibility and avoiding public scandal. “ I did nothing I’m ashamed of” “ I’ve done nothing wrong” “He gave me a bit of a scare at the time but I’d a special reason for not wanting a public scandal now” Gerald on the other hand admits responsibility but only to escape punishment and as soon as the Inspector leaves he changes again. “ I’m sorry Sheila” “ she didn’t blame me at all. I wish to God she had now. Perhaps ‘d feel better about it” “I’m rather more upset by this business than I appear to be” and then he changes to say “ there isn’t any such inspector we’ve all been had” “ everything’s all right now, Sheila.”
When the Inspector leaves the Birling household, they gradually come to the conclusion that he was an impostor. Mr and Mrs Birling immediately criticise their children for being taken in by the Inspector “Now listen you two if your still feeling on edge the least you can do is to keep quiet” “To behave sensibly, Sheila which is more than your doing”. JB Priestley wanted to show that this would continue to happen if society does not learn from these mistakes made. Priestley has shown us how the middle class people act in society and the way in which they regard lower citizens. The Inspector controls the development of events: who will speak and when; who may or may not leave; who will or will not see the photograph and he remains in command throughout the play.
As I mentioned in the beginning J.B Priestley use the Inspector as his mouthpiece in the play to convey his own ides across to the audience. Priestly was an active socialist and very left-wing as is the Inspector. He believes in equality of classes and that everybody is responsible for everybody else. Inspector Goole expresses the same opinions throughout the play. “ We don’t live alone we are members of one body we are responsible for each other.” exactly the opposite of what we are told to believe by Mr Birling, that everybody should look after himself or herself. The Inspector also spreads the message of equality of classes by using very emotive and harsh language in order for us to sympathise with Eva Smith. He also uses short sentences “ Its to late. She’s dead.” “The next time you imagine it just imagine that this girl was going to have a child!” “She’d been turned out and turned down to many times. This was the end.” “A girl died tonight. A pretty lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony – hating life –” Priestley has intended for Eva Smith to represent all other people who were in similar situations: this is why he never shows anyone in the Birling family the photograph at the same time, showing that the photograph could have been a different girl each time and that the Birlings have not only affected the life of one girl but many more “ we’ve no proof it was the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl.” “ There were probably four or five different girls.” The use of the name Smith is also clever, as it is a common name, representing all the working class people. Priestley realized he could not change the older generation as they were to stuck in their own ways and so he focuses on the younger generation (Sheila and Eric) the Inspector follows the same idea in the following quotes: “ You seem to have made a great impression on this child, Inspector.” “We often do on the young ones their more impressionable.” Priestley hopes we will realise how the younger generation are the ones who can change the society in which we live and hopes that the younger middle class members of the audience will go home and see whether there is any room for change in the way they treat those less fortunate than themselves.
In theatrical terms the Inspector is different to the other characters, he is an official, he is not of the same class, and he may not even be flesh and blood. He is also the only character not in formal dress (apart from Edna the maid). He uses different language from the rest of the family; he is judgemental and speaks with constant moral force. Priestley purposely makes the Inspector stand out and contrast with the Birlings to show the separation in morality and the difference between good and bad. The Inspector represents what is good in society and the Birlings represent what is wrong with society.
In conclusion, I think that Priestley has very cleverly created a character in the Inspector, which we all think is introduced in to the play to investigate a crime. In fact Priestley’s ulterior motive is to use the Inspector as a vessel to show the lack of moral fibre in society, an issue that is of paramount importance to Priestley. This is shown in his preoccupation with uncovering the truth rather than investigating the law. The fact that the Birlings have not committed any actual crimes apart from Eric stealing the money, is irrelevant to the Inspector: he is on a moral quest and has to show the Birlings to be wrong doers, hypocrites and weak. As he cannot actually punish those who are immoral and lack courage by highlighting these faults he hopes that society will take notice and try and change itself. The Inspector’s role in the play brings to light the social and sexual hypocrisy of the upper class. They think because they are of a higher social status it gives them the right to behave as they please. The way the men treat Eva Smith “ you just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person.” shows outward respectability is no guide to inner worth.
I think that Priestley has left the end of the play without a firm conclusion deliberately, in the hope that the audience will take on board all the moral points raised in the play and discuss them further. As the audience look deep inside themselves and relate with the Birlings and try to change themselves, they can come to their own conclusions as to how the play should have ended. It also gives them a chance to go home and think very carefully about how the Birlings will behave the second time around, thus allowing Priestley message to stay in their minds even longer.