Birling, on the other hand, is shown to be quite arrogant and stuck up, even stupid, at the start of the play. This is shown in act one when he makes a speech to his family and Gerald, and talks about how everyone would ignore all the “silly pessimistic talk” of labour troubles and ironically, how the Germans do not want war. This is met by Eric objecting, and then being told “Let me finish Eric. You’ve a lot to learn yet.” Priestley put the speech in the play to make Birling look stupid, as the First World War started in 1914, only two years after the play was set. The audience at the time the play was written knew this, and some may have even lived through it. Priestley’s intention with the play was to convince people not to go back to the old ways, as he was a socialist. He continues to portray Birling as stupid when Birling talks of how the titanic will never sink. Birling mentions the term “hard-headed practical businessman multiple times in the speech, as if to make himself seem much more important than anyone else at the gathering.
Next, I will discuss how these characters do or do not change when after the inspector enters and the truth comes out. For example, when Sheila is told that a young girl has died after drinking disinfectant she is very shocked, exclaiming “Oh! How horrible!”. This shows that she is also quite a caring woman as well as a playful one, as she is appalled by the death even though she doesn’t know who the girl is and is distressed about the death and asks questions about the girl. This attitude is sharply contrasting to Birling’s, who upon being told of the horrific death simply brushes it off, saying “Yes, yes, horrid business-but I don’t understand why you should come here inspector”. He does not really care about the death; just if there will be any consequences.
When Sheila has heard of her part in Eva’s death, she regrets what she has done, when she says “ I’ll never, never do it again to anybody” The use of the word “never” two times emphasises that she means it , and shows that she is deeply horrified by her actions. She even says that if she could help Eva she would, even though she knows that she is of lower social status than her. This shows a change in her character from a playful and carefree one into a serious, responsible one.
Birling has very little change in the middle of the play, unlike Sheila. When the inspector is questioning his wife about Eva, the inspector simply says that she is lying to him about what she knows, and Birling orders him to apologise, for “being so offensive about it”. He also says “I’m a public man” after doing so, showing he thinks that just because he is a higher class than the Inspector, he thinks that he has the right to argue with him. This portrays him as thinking that this is the most important thing, and that it will intimidate or impress the inspector. He does not understand what he has done wrong, and how the inspector does not care at all if he is a “public man”. In fact, birling really does not change at all from knowing that he has done wrong, showing is cold side, as he shows an obvious lack of care for Eva, as he knows that she is not upper class like him.
In the middle of the play we can see that Sheila is a very different person to the one from the beginning of the play, while Birling has hardly changed, still being arrogant and now being shown as cold and uncaring.
Finally I am going to discuss how the two characters have or have not changed at the end of the play.
Sheila is a completely different person by the end of the book. She is serious and rebellious, a world away from her playful, but obeying self at the start of the book. This “new Sheila” is shown when at very near to the end of the book she says “If you want to know, it’s you two who are being childish-trying not to face the facts.” Here she says “you two” instead of Mummy and Daddy, what she called her parents at the start of the book, implying that she does not want to associate herself with them after how they have acted and what they have done. She keeps the serious attitude when she says “But it doesn’t make any real difference, y’know.” responding to Mr and Mrs Birling getting excited over the fact that the Inspector may have not been a genuine police inspector. She realises that this does not change the fact that they have all done wrong, while Mr Birling doesn’t care as long as nobody knows and he can keep his authority. At the end of the play she is actually frightened at how her father just jokes about Eva when they find out the inspector wasn’t a real one.
Mr Birling isn’t changed in the slightest, except for the fact that we can see he has no regard for human life if it is below himself in social status. Right after the inspector makes his final speech and leaves, he is still more concerned with a “public scandal” than the fact he helped to kill Eva. He is angry that he will not get his knighthood, not that he killed someone and even says that “there’s every excuse for what both your mother and I did-it turned out unfortunately, that’s all”. This shows that he has learnt nothing from the inspector’s visit, unlike the younger generation who recognise their wrongdoings, and thinks that the situation turned out merely “unfortunately”, and Sheila sees that it was much worse than just unfortunate, as she scornfully repeats “unfortunately” after he says this. “Excuse” implies that he thinks that what he did wasn’t bad, and he thinks it was justified. He also doesn’t care that Eric has raped Eva, just as long as he pays back the money he took from him, implying he is greedy and is very materialistic, a trait shown with him getting angry about the knighthood, as I mentioned earlier.
In conclusion, I think that the younger generation in An Inspector Calls is developed drastically, while the older one does not change at all. Sheila becomes a strong and serious woman, and would probably join the suffragette movement after the events of the play, as at the time of the play it was coming to fruition. Birling, I think, would most likely carry on as normal, until the welfare state was put into place. As a final point, I also think that Priestley has done a very effective job of making the old ways of the rich being selfish and cold look barbaric and convincing readers to never go back to that time.