Just before the Inspector arrives yet another note of tension is introduced as Eric reacts badly to a joke, which could, from the audience’s point of view, be due to a guilty conscience,
ERIC (who is uneasy, sharply) “Here, what do you mean?” and (still uneasy) “Well I don’t think it’s very funny.”
The reaction of Arthur to the Inspector shows his impatience and annoyance in dealing with anything that could even remotely connect him to a scandal, as he is very abrupt with the Inspector, and has no qualms about reminding him of his station. “I thought you must be, I was alderman for years- and lord mayor two years ago- and I’m still on the bench- so I know the Brumley police force quite well- and I thought I’d never seen you before” he says. Birling also shows a very callous and uncaring attitude towards Eva Smith’s death “Yes, yes, horrid business. But I don’t understand why you had to come here Inspector…” When questioned about his involvement with Eva Smith it comes to light that he sacked her from his factory two years previously for heading a strike for better wages. Even at this point Arthur accepts no responsibility: (somewhat impatiently) “look- there’s nothing mysterious- or scandalous- about this business- it is a perfectly straightforward case, and as it happened more than eighteen months ago- nearly two years- it obviously had nothing to do with the wretched girls suicide, eh, Inspector?” This pretty much sums up his reaction to the affair throughout the course of the play. At the start of the play Birling is very much the head of the household, in charge and in control of his family, but by the end the Inspector has undermined and destroyed his control. He cares nothing for the fact that this girl is dead, he is only afraid that it might stop him getting a knighthood and at the very end, when the Inspector is discovered to be a fraud, he is ready to revert back to the way he was before: “Yes, he didn’t keep you on the run as he did the rest of us. I’ll admit now that he gave me a bit of a scare at the time, but then I had a special reason for not wanting a public scandal right now. Well here’s to us. Oh come on Sheila don’t look like that, it’s all over now!” This just goes to show that he learns nothing from the ordeal.
At the start of the play, the character of Sheila Birling is shown to be a somewhat excitable and giddy person. Her reaction is open, and reveals that she is quite sensitive. For example she says: (rather distressed) “Sorry, I just can’t help thinking about this girl- destroying herself so horridly.” She also illustrates a certain amount of empathy towards Eva Smith and dislikes her father’s cynical view of his employees. She says “but they are not just cheap labour, they are real people.” This shows direct conflict between her views and those of her father. She is often treated harshly by her parents during the course of the play, which is one of Priestley’s underlying themes during the play, the conflict between the older and younger generations.
As the Inspector’s inquiry continues it is brought to light that Sheila had demanded that Eva be tossed out of her new job at Milwards after Eva laughed at her trying out a hat that didn’t suit her. This was what the Inspector described as, “the last steady job” Eva Smith had, and I believe this was the start of her descent, as from then on, Eva worked on the streets. When Sheila finds this out responsibility and guilt descend upon her. She leaves the room crying. From this point on Sheila sides with the Inspector and she fully accepts her responsibility. The play was set in the Pre-War era; women of that time didn’t have many rights; it was considered correct for a woman to have no opinion whatsoever. The fact that Sheila frequently shows her disgust at her and her family’s actions leads to her being treated scornfully and as if she is being hysterical. Sheila, and, to a lesser extent, Eric are the only to characters upon which the Inspector’s goals are realized, as these are the two who learn from their mistakes and accept their responsibility towards their fellow man: “No, because I remember what he said, how he looked, and what he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish. And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to anymore of it.” Once the Inspector leaves, Sheila is left distressed, due to her Mother, Father and Gerald who revert to what they were prior to the Inspector’s arrival. “I tell you- whoever the Inspector was, it was anything but a joke. You knew it then. You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on the same old way.”
The use of a character like Sheila is Priestley’s way of conveying a message to the audience. She is one of Priestley’s dramatic devices, which he uses to tell the audience that it is the younger generation’s responsibility to induce social revolution, as the older is too set in its ways to change. Sheila accepts her responsibility and is a better person for it. She changes over the course of the play from a giddy excitable character to a very serious and thoughtful one.
From the beginning of the play Gerald Croft is described as an “easy, well-bred man about town.” This, I believe, shows that he is very much a young, irresponsible party-goer who has no real sense of responsibility. From the start of the questioning, it seems that the Inspector wants to break the family apart, so he can achieve his goal. This is most obvious in the instance of his widening a gap between Sheila and Gerald. It unfolds that Gerald has not been entirely honest with Sheila, as he had an affair with a working class girl known as Daisy Renton, who the Inspector reveals is one of Eva Smith’s pseudonyms. After this revelation, Gerald, having had his engagement ring returned by Sheila, appears quite upset and then has to leave. At this point it seems like the Inspector has reached Gerald as well and made him learn and grow as a person. However when Gerald returns after the Inspector has left, it becomes apparent that all he has been thinking about was a way to evade responsibility and, like Arthur Birling, learns nothing. “Yes, I met a police officer I know down the road and asked about Inspector Goole and described the chap carefully to him. He swore there wasn’t any Inspector Goole or anybody like him on the force here.” The way Gerald acted shows that he exploited Eva Smith. He had no business taking advantage of a vulnerable lower class woman. His reaction to her death shows that he did have some slight affection for Eva and was genuinely upset at her death, “Well I’d like to be alone a while.” In contrast to Sheila, Gerald seems to be more sympathetic towards Arthur and empathizes with him over Eva’s sacking. In my opinion, Gerald is the least responsible for the death of Eva Smith, as he actually made her happy and looked after her for a time.
Sybil Birling is described as “a cold woman, and her husband’s social superior” and this phrase pretty much defines her character’s part in this play. As she enters prior to her questioning, she is completely out of tune with the scene. The scene is wrought with tension, but she wanders in as though it were nothing more than afternoon tea (smiling, socially) “Good evening Inspector” and (same easy tone) “ I’m Mrs Birling y’no. My husband explained why you were here, and while we’ll be glad to tell you anything you want to know, I don’t think we can help you much.” Of course Sheila notices this immediately and tries to warn her mother, who blatantly ignores her. Once again the Inspector begins his questioning and reveals that it was Mrs Birling who stopped Eva Smith from getting the smallest piece of charity, when she was alone and pregnant. This was because when Eva Smith approached the charity, she did so under the name of Mrs Birling, which offended Sybil, who used her influence to have her refused. I feel that this is in no way justification for her actions as it would have been obvious that the girl was desperate and it was totally unacceptable to be a single mother in those times. In total contrast to Sheila, Mrs Birling accepts no responsibility whatsoever saying “I can’t accept responsibility for any of this.” The Inspector uses this against her and traps her into throwing her own son to the lions. This is Priestley’s second use of dramatic irony as even as Mrs Birling begins to say “It is the young man who got her pregnant’s fault,” the audience realises that the young man is, in-fact Eric Birling. The Inspector leads her along into condemning her own son. “So he is the chief culprit anyhow?” to which Mrs Birling replies “Certainly and he ought to be dealt with severely.” This is also an example of dramatic climax as Priestley builds up to Eric Birling’s entrance. All the way through the play Sybil Birling accepts no responsibility for the death of Eva Smith as she is extremely opinionated against the working class and other such people with less social status than herself “I don’t suppose that we’ll ever understand why that girl committed suicide. Girls of that class.” She does not have a very healthy relationship with her children which is evidenced by the way she snaps at Sheila and the argument she has with Eric “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING-YOU NEVER DID-YOU NEVER EVER TRIED-YOU.” Sybil Birling is essentially a self-centred bitter old woman and stays the same through the course of the play.
Eric Birling seems to be the most insecure character of the play, even before the Inspector’s entrance. He has an adverse reaction to the innocent joke voiced by Gerald “Well I don’t think it’s very funny!” Also he is a suspect from the start, following his mysterious disappearance when the Inspector starts asking questions. When he finally returns, he has already been betrayed unwittingly by his own mother and has to face the music of his own involvement with Eva Smith. It turns out that Eric, after a night of heavy drinking, pressured Eva into having sex with him. After meeting her a couple more times, he discovers that she is pregnant with his child. He also discovers that she has no money, so he decides to steal some for her off his father’s firm. Unfortunately, she discovers the money is stolen and doesn’t accept it anymore, which leads to her, in her last act of desperation, going to Sybil Birling’s women’s charity to beg for help. Finally after being rejected from there, she ends her sorry life. Eric’s reaction to this is very emotional and he seems to almost accept as much responsibility as Sheila does, showing large amounts of anguish and regret: “My god- I’m not likely to forget.” Over the course of the play, Eric seems to mature a great deal and gain a lot of confidence, even enough to face down his own father. For example he says: (laughing) “For god sakes father! What does it matter now if you get a knighthood or not?” Moreover by the end of the play, Eric has learned much and grown a great deal as an individual. Eric is also part of Priestley’s message about the younger generation’s responsibility to instigate change.
In conclusion, after carefully composing and formulating my thoughts, I have come to the realisation that there is not only one, but two main culprits in the death of Eva Smith. I believe that the two people who bear the most responsibility are Sybil and Eric Birling. My reasoning is this; Arthur Birling merely sacked her, as any business man of that time would have done. You couldn’t really start a strike in those days and keep your job. Sheila was just petty and cruel, but losing your job does not push you over the edge into suicidal tendencies. Gerald took her as a mistress, and at least that kept her fed and warm. It also made her happy for a short time, so this didn’t really have a bearing on her suicide. However it was Eric pressuring her into sex and getting her pregnant which placed her in an extremely difficult position and when she was refused charity by Sybil, she had nowhere else to go, no job prospects and a poor quality of life. The question of who the Inspector was is an extremely interesting and involved one. Many people believe that he was a ghost, or some other supernatural being. I, on the other hand, believe he was the collective embodiment of decency and conscience. I believe that he was the worm of doubt in their minds over the way they were treating the common man. On a final note I would like to say that many of the issues raised in “An Inspector Calls” are still applicable to modern day society and that we are still far from the utopian society that Priestly wanted.