From the play, we can see hat Sheila is an emotional and sensitive person and she felt sympathetic towards Eva Smith’s death. But her behaviour was totally different from what happen in Milwards, a clothes shop that Eva Smith worked in after Mr Birling dismissed her. She was in a bad mood and she went to Milwards to try a new dress. But she was absolutely furious after the shop assistant said the dress does not suit her and Sheila caught Eva Smith smiling. At once Sheila was jealous and forces the manager to sack her immediately. At that time she was petty, childish and uses her power over Eva Smith. But her character now in the play shows that she understood what the Inspector tried to convey and the purpose of his visit. After the Inspector left they all started to argue that maybe the Inspector is a hoax and the Inspector might have used different photographs and we can still see that Sheila was grown-up and mature because she said ‘he is our police inspector all right’ and she thinks what each of the character actually did matters but not whether they did all the things to just one person or not. In the play Sheila’s attitude towards the Inspector change a lot. At the beginning she was quite angry at the Inspector- ‘what do you mean by saying that? You talk as if we were responsible.’ But as the play goes on she began to understand more of what the Inspector come here for- changing their view of social responsibility. I think Sheila’s responsibility is to behave sensibly towards other people outside and treat everyone nicely.
Gerald is about thirty years old, a wealthy and upper class man who was engaged to Sheila. Gerald first knew Eva Smith as Daisy Renton (she changed her name to Daisy Renton after she was sacked in Milwards) in the Palace Bar. Gerald saw Alderman Meggarty bullied Daisy Renton and Gerald decided to help the poor girl and soon they fell in love. Then one day one of Gerald’s friends went on holiday and let Gerald keep the keys of his house of him. So he let Daisy Renton stayed in his friend’s house for about six months when his friend came back Gerald could not keep her any longer and so he broke the affair off definitely with Daisy Renton. Gerald hurt her emotionally and did not care about when he could not keep her. He could have married her and broke off with Sheila but the consequence is that it would ruin his reputation because he married a woman from a very low class. The best solution I think is to let Daisy Renton to have a job from his company so she did not always have to rely on Gerald. Gerald made her dependent on him so he could keep her as long as possible and dispose her when he wanted to. At the beginning Gerald was on the Mr Birling’s side and he talked to the inspector because I think they are both businessmen but the most important reason is that he wants to marry Sheila so he has to impress Mr Birling by sticking up for him. I think Gerald would be angry with the Inspector because if the Inspector did not come here then Sheila would not know this and would marry him. He thinks that the Inspector ruins everything and that is what all the other character thinks as well, except Sheila and Eric who had learnt their lesson. I think Gerald’s social responsibility is take advantage on vulnerable people like Eva Smith.
Mrs Birling is a rather cold, prejudice of woman who rejected to help Eva Smith from her Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation because firstly Eva Smith told her that she would not take any stolen money and Mrs Birling thinks as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money. Mrs Birling was prejudiced against her- ‘she was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position’ meaning lower class people would never refuse money.’ And she was, like Mr Birling thinks that she was justified. She thinks that she has totally no responsibility for Eva Smith’s death and instead she blames Eva Smith and the man who made her pregnant. Then she said that man should make a public confession and she was being hypocritical because she was condemning her son- ‘I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have.’ She was angry at the Inspector when he started to question her and when she realised that her son, Eric have been the one who made Eva Smith she was absolutely shocked and she regretted to have condemned her son. I think her social responsibility is to help women in need such as Eva Smith to give them advise and assistance instead of being prejudiced against other people and not helping them.
Eric, a heavy drinking, immature and irresponsible man made Eva Smith pregnant when he met first her in the Palace Bar. That night he got drunk and he went to Eva Smith’s lodgings to make love with her. Eric is an immature and irresponsible because he knew he would be in a lot of trouble if someone found that out. He even made things worse for himself by stealing from the office. But in the beginning of the play he seemed that he agrees most of the thing what the Inspector say and thinks that his father has done something wrong- ‘it isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else.’ And at the end of the play he learnt his lesson and understood what the Inspector was trying to say he said ‘the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her’ and ‘it’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters.’ I think Eric’s social responsibility is like Sheila’s, which is to behave sensibly towards other people.
The real test of whether they are affected by the Inspector was when Gerald comes and told them that the Inspector was not real and no one has committed a suicide. This could be separated into two groups: Sheila and Eric and the other group: Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald. Sheila and Eric have been affected by the Inspector while the others did not. Sheila and Eric think that they have done what they have done and it would not matter if they did it just to one person or to different people but they still have done it- ‘he was our police inspector all right’ and ‘I doesn’t matter who it was who made us confess.’ While the others think if they did what they have done to different people it would make a lot of difference- ‘this makes a difference, y’know. In fact, it makes all the difference.’
The people who changed theirs views of social responsibility are Sheila and Eric and the people who did not are Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald. And I think the people who changed their views are the most responsible for the death of Eva Smith because they do not have a reasonable excuse for their actions towards Eva Smith while the others who did not change their views do have good or reasonable excuses for their behaviour. But I think the most important thing is in this play are not how wrong people done but how much do they learn from it. They have abuse their power on vulnerable people like Eva Smith. Priestley does not want that to happen because he said we should ‘build a nobler world in which ordinary, decent folk can not only find justice and security but also beauty and delight.’ I think the Inspector is the mouth of Priestley because he kept using the Socialist’s idea- ‘we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’ I think that is what the book is about.
