However, when Inspector Goole arrives there are definite cracks in their personalities when he questions them, which soon leads to their downfall. The Inspector is therefore a catalyst, because he speeds up the time taken for the characters to make their confessions by immediately identifying their fatal flaw and targeting it to provoke a reaction.
The arrival if the Inspector was ironic, as Arthur Birling had just been saying how everyone should look after themselves and not get involved in helping other people. Mr Birling’s opinion is therefore the complete opposite of what J. B. Priestly was trying to promote through the character the Inspector.
The Inspector reveals the ridiculous opinions of the Birling family in several ways. He very rarely asked questions, he just made suggestions and then played off the reactions his suggestions had provoked from the Birling’s.
It could also be seen that the Inspector is actually ‘fishing’ for information. This could be seen as a metaphor, because there is actually a seaport town called Goole, which is situated at the mouth of the River Humber.
Apart from this, the Inspector’s name is also a homophone for ghoul, an un-dead soul. A fascinating prospect would obviously be to find out who’s spirit it is, and as in his final piece, he refers to the name John Smith, which could be who he was; a victim of capitalism from the past. However, it could just be a name used to represent the males affected by the cruel inhibitions of capitalism.
My personal opinion is that the spirit represents the birth of socialism, after he had criticised the Birling’s foolish and discriminating actions; the morals that the Inspector spoke of were a milestone for society, bound to change the ways that both the rich and poor lived.
It is also obvious that the Inspector is not at all like normal police Inspectors, who are deeply committed to arresting those who have done wrong. Inspector Goole was not bothered by the arrest of any of the Birling’s; he just wanted to teach them a lesson in the morals of society. ‘I tell you that the time will come when, if men don’t learn their lessons they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.’
The stage directions of the play are very important factors in the way that the Inspector is portrayed. The stage directions make him sound like a very solid organisation (abrupt) but is difficult to see how this can be so when he can disappear so easily.
Priestly uses the Inspector to promote his personal opinions and feeling on the issue of class/wealth discrimination; the Inspector therefore being little more than a messenger in disguise for the controversial socialist views. ‘One Eva Smith has gone, but there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us…we don’t live alone. We are members of one body; we are responsible for one another!’
Mr Birling is the father of the Birling family, and he is really the first person to come into contact with Eva Smith. Being the owner of a large firm, it was the place of work for a great many people, including Eva Smith. The first incident that involved both Mr Birling and Eva Smith was when she asked for higher wages, from twenty two and six to twenty five shillings a week. Mr Birling was opposed to this as it would have meant adding twelve percent to his labour costs, which although he could have easily afforded, he chose not to do. Instead he had Eva Smith fired, along with a few other girls who had joined in on the campaign for decent wages.
Mr Birling represents capitalism, and in a speech shortly before the arrival of the Inspector, he actually described socialist writers as ‘cranks’ that think ‘everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we are all mixed up together like bees in a hive.’ However, Mr Birling’s personal opinion is that ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.’
Mr Birling also thinks he knows best for his family…for instance, when he talks of the Titanic he doesn’t seem to understand that there is no such thing as an unsinkable ship. ‘The Titanic – she sails next week – forty-six thousand, eight hundred tons…New York in five days – and every luxury – and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.’ And later Mr Birling mentions ‘a few German Officers talking nonsense and a few scaremongers here making a fuss about nothing.’ Undoubtedly he is talking about the war, that he seems so sure will never happen. This is therefore dramatic irony, as the Titanic did sink and the war did happen. This is particularly important because Mr Birling is a metaphor for capitalism and the speech is wrong, just like capitalism is.
When the Inspector arrives Birling tries to intimidate him by bragging about his achievements. ‘I was an alderman for years - and Lord Mayor two years ago - and I’m still on the bench.’ Mr Birling tries to influence the Inspector by telling about his success and his strong links with the police Force. ‘How do you get on with our Chief Constable…perhaps I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly regularly.’ Still, in spite of this the Inspector is still not at all fazed by Mr Birling.
When the Inspector tells Mr Birling of the suicide of Eva Smith he feels sorry for the girl but refuses to admit any responsibility. ‘Yes. Horrible Business, but I don’t understand why you should come here, Inspector.’ The whole way through the questioning, Mr Birling stands by his actions, until eventually his own children lose respect for him. For example, while Gerald is supporting Mr Birling’s actions (perhaps trying to gain respect seeing as he has just got engaged to his daughter) Eric is annoyed with what his father has done. ‘You could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck.’
This is where Priestly’s views come in. Birling doesn’t learn from his mistakes and he talks confidently of the future, unaware of the disasters that were so soon to strike the world. These assurances emphasize emphasise the blind complacency of Birling, and Britain as a whole, and like Priestly said ‘If Britain will not learn by its mistakes it will not be respected.’
Married to Mr Birling is Mrs Sybil Birling, who is probably the proudest member of the Birling family, and although the financial success of the Birling family probably has very little to do with her, her excessive amount of pride undeniably tells her otherwise.
Throughout the whole of the Inspectors questioning, Mrs Burling is extremely rude and never once showed any guilt or remorse for what she did. ‘In the circumstances I think I was justified.’ Even after Sheila’s warnings about Eric, Mrs Birling still acted completely ignorant and continued to verbally bash her own son without even realising it. ‘I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have…he should be made an example of.’
When the Inspector asks Mrs Birling why she did not help Eva Smith when she appealed to the Brumley Woman’s Charity Organisation, she admitted being biased towards Eva Smith, mainly due to the use of Mrs Birling’s name. She believed this to be ‘an obvious piece of gross impertinence,’ and it is one of the reasons why Mrs Brumley used her influence to have the claim refused. This is where it links to Priestly’s views, because he believed that wealthy woman that were members of charity groups did not do it to help people or with any intention of giving any money, but to clear their own consciences.
Mrs Birling’s advice was to ‘go and find the father’ for she believed he should take responsibility for his actions and should be publicly humiliated; Mrs Birling is therefore crucifying her own son.
However, when she does eventually realise, she deliberately contradicts herself by first blaming Eric and then supporting him. Nevertheless, when she didn’t know who the father was she was unbiased, so it is her opinion at that time that matters.
Sheila is Mrs Birling’s daughter, and at the beginning of the play the Birling family is modestly celebrating her engagement to Gerald Croft, but the Inspector interrupts that.
However, Sheila’s deadly sin is envy, and it is this that makes her get Eva Smith fired. Sheila visits the Milwards Store in Brumley to try on a dress, which unfortunately doesn’t suit her at all. However, when Eva Smith holds the dress up against herself, it looks beautiful, which Sheila is not very happy about. She then uses her power and authority in the Milwards Store to have Eva Smith fired.
When the Inspector questions Sheila about the incident she sees what she did was wrong and says ‘I know I’m to blame – and I’m desperately sorry.’
It is here that Priestly’s views become clear, because Priestly believed that young people are more impressionable than older people, and it is obvious that both Sheila and Eric are effected by what the Inspector has to say in a much more positive way that either Mr or Mrs Birling.
Eventually, however, Sheila emulates Priestly’s views as well as the Inspector, and for a short time she seems to take on his role in the play. ‘We’ve no excuse now for putting on airs and that if we’ve any sense we won’t try. Father threw this girl out because she asked for decent wages. I went and pushed her farther out…just because I was angry and she was pretty, and Gerald set her up as his mistress.’ And then when it came to Mrs Birling’s turn Sheila fore-saw the future and tried to warn her mother – although it didn’t work very well. Sheila (and Eric) is the only members of the Birling family who apparently learn from their mistakes.
After the Inspector leaves, and it becomes known that the Inspector isn’t wasn’t who he said he was, the other Birling family members seem to think that it doesn’t matter and they can just forget about it, and it is only Sheila, and Eric to a certain extent, that tell the others that they should not forget what they have learnt and although Eric began to understand socialism, I don’t think it was to the same degree as Sheila.
Therefore, to conclude, I think that the characters in the play emulate Priestly’s views in a great many ways. With Sheila and Eric disagreeing and arguing with their parents they show that young people are more impressionable than older people, as Priestly said ‘ the old are too rigid in their attitudes to learn any lessons: hope for the future lies with the young.’ The way Mr Birling spoke so confidently that the Titanic would not sink and there would not be a war shows that ignorance is most certainly not a virtue.
Priestly wrote the play with the hope that it would give the audiences more morality and responsibility. He wanted his play to say something about people. He wanted his audiences to have to look at human beings through the author’s eyes, free of conventional attitudes or comfortable illusions, in the hope that this fresh view may stimulate questions that shake our complacency about ourselves.
The people who learn the most from their experience are Sheila and Eric, which again shows that young people are indeed more impressionable than older people.
