We do see that Mr Birling could be portrayed as being slightly naive. At one point he comments on the Titanic being unsinkable but being realistic, anyone who said that they thought the Titanic was going to sink would have been laughed at. He also mentions that he doesn’t think there will be a war and that the Germans don’t want war anyway. Mr Birlings’ main aim in life is to make money. We see throughout the play that he only thinks about how much money he will make or lose as a result of something. Mrs Birling is also portrayed as not caring about the poor and needy. She refers to poor working women as “girls of that class”. As if to say that they’re not worth bothering about. This is a little ironic as she works for a charity designed to help people with money difficulties. Eric, Mr Birling’s son, has slightly different views to his father. We can see this when he says to his father “why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”. This is in response to Mr Birling saying he refused to give one of his factory girls a pay rise.
Priestly creates a very naturalistic setting in the text but in the National Theatre Production settings are used to complement the atmosphere and themes. For example, it is a large, grand looking house situated on the top of a hill. This gives the audience the impression that the Birlings’ are above everyone else and looking down on the people in the street.
The play centres on a Girl called Eva Smith. She had been involved in some way with each member of the Birling family, which eventually lead to her committing suicide. Her name “Eva Smith” is meant to be a representation of all the working women in Britain. Her name “Eva” is used because Eve was of course the first woman in the Bible. As well as this, “Smith” is the most common surname in Britain. In fact, there was not actually one particular girl that died as a result of the Birlings’ uncaring nature but possibly several of them. Priestly is trying to show the audience that, although The First World War was meant to be the war to teach people lessons, it did not succeed, because there was a second. He is trying to mimic this in the play where there is an endless cycle of lessons not being learnt.
The play takes a new direction when an inspector arrives to question all of the Birling family with regards to the death of the young woman, Eva Smith. The inspector arrives as the Birlings are having a dinner party in celebration of the fact that Mr Birlings’ daughter Sheila is getting engaged to a rich business owner, Gerald Croft. There is a knock at the door and the inspector enters the Birling household. In the National Theatre Production we see him prise the house open as if to show the world what the Birlings are really like. It also turns the audience into a jury, judging the Birlings on what they have all done. The Inspector is called Mr Goole, which introduces a slightly mysterious, even ghostly side to his character. He is in fact like a time traveller. He moves through an audience in the 1990s to the stage of the 1940s where in the National Theatre Production we hear the air raid sirens. He is also wearing clothes from the 1940s. He then moves through to when the play is set, into the world of the Birlings in 1912.
The inspector tells the Birlings that in some way, each of them are responsible for the death of Eva Smith; Mr Birling for not giving her a pay rise, Mrs Birling for not lending her money from the charity where she works. Eric and Gerald Croft were also responsible in a way, because they were both seeing her without the other knowing and then finished the affair and left her in the lurch. Sheila can also be handed some of the blame because she was responsible for Eva being sacked from a new job she had working in a clothes shop. There was an incident where Shelia was trying on a dress that looked much better on Eva and so, because Sheila felt very jealous, she reported Eva to the shop manager for laughing at her. As I have said, there was not “one girl” that died as a result of one of the Birlings’ actions but several women may have been affected by their lack of support to others. Sheila does confess to what she did and says to the audience “you do understand don’t you?”. This shows that she is trying to plead with the jury to forgive her for what she did. The confession is delivered to the audience and not the family and as she is saying this, the spotlight is directly above her, making her look like a prisoner on trial.
From the inspectors questioning, we learn that in some way each of the Birlings are responsible for the death of Eva. Even though it was not the same girl they were involved with, Priestly is trying to show that the actions of every one of them has in some way affected someone else’s life.
To start with, Mr and Mrs Birling deny that they had anything to do with Eva’s death and that they were merely doing what would have been expected. They were totally ignorant, of the fact that something that seemed so trivial to them, would affect the girls’ life. It is only after the inspector has fully disclosed the full story to them that they begin to recognise some of their responsibility. Even after Mr Birling acknowledges his role in Eva’s death, he still resorts to saying that he would give thousands of pounds to amend the situation. This is another example of him only thinking in terms of money and not how he could make things better in the long run by changing his attitudes to the idea of his role as a member of a community.
As the inspector is about to depart, he delivers a powerful speech about the importance of looking after one another. He says “we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”. This is making the characters morally accountable for what happened and makes them consider their blame. In the National Theatre Production this speech is delivered calmly by the inspector to show that he is not angry but disappointed that such a lack of responsibility could lead to the death of a young woman. As with Sheila’s confession, the inspector talks directly to the audience who are treated as fellow witnesses. As the inspector is delivering this penultimate speech, there is a young boy standing to the side of him who represents the future generation. The inspector, who is really Priestley’s mouth piece, is trying to drum the ideas of community and responsibility into the boy, who will go on to teach his message to others. He is like a father to the boy. This really plays on the audiences’ conscience and makes them think about whether they should be teaching this message to their children.
After the inspector leaves, in the National Theatre Production, the Birling house crumbles to the ground. This represents the Birlings’ world falling down around them. All their material things that mean so much to them are destroyed. This is a catharsis after the dramatic build up in the inspector’s final speech. With a public scandal looming, the Birlings world has been torn apart.
In The National Theatre Production, when the inspector has left, the house physically rights itself. This is the rebuilding of Mr and Mrs Birlings’ snobbish, pretentious values. The cycle is now about to start all aver again. For them, there have been no lessons learnt. However, Sheila and Eric refuse to go back inside the house, which suggests that the inspector has convinced them of the need to change their ways and start caring for fellow human beings. They are willing to accept some responsibility. Sheila comments on the fact that Mr and Mrs Birling are “ready to go on in the same old way”. Here, we can see that it is the younger generation that are willing to change as opposed to the older.
When Mr and Mrs Birling re-enter the house, the telephone rings. The news that a girl had just died marks the beginning of the cycle. An inspector is on the way round to ask some questions. This shows that no lessons have been learnt and that Mr and Mrs Birling will make the same mistakes all over again. Here, Priestly is trying to show the audience what happened regarding The First World War, which was meant to be the war to end all wars. There was, as we know, another World War which indicates people didn’t learn anything from the first. I think this is one of the main reasons for the play being set in 1912.
Towards the end of the play, The National Theatre Production reflects on the idea that no lessons have been learnt, by having an old lady on the stage, knitting. She is there as if to say “I’ve seen all this before”. It’s as if she is knitting the seeds of time, waiting for it to all happen again.
The main messages in An Inspector Calls are that of community and social responsibility. Some people would say that these messages are still relevant in today’s society. Priestley is suggesting that the richer people in society should share their wealth with the less fortunate. The National Theatre Production helps portray Priestley’s socialist ideals in a positive way. The setting and representations are used to great effect. The idea that we are all members of one big global community and should look out for one another, is a message that most of the audience will probably take away with them.
