When Shelia enters the Inspector questions her. When Inspector Goole first tells Shelia Eva Smith’s name she doesn’t recognise it but when he shows her a photograph she bolts out of the room crying hysterically. This shows the contrast between Mr Birling’s “hard headed” attitude and Shelia’s uncontrollable guilt, which are juxtaposed for affect and contrast. Soon after Shelia re-enters the dining room and confesses to the Inspector. This is to push the story along. Mr Birling flatly refuses to show any remorse or to take any responsibility in Eva Smith’s death. Inspector Goole then tells everyone in the room that Eva Smith had changed her name to Daisy Renton. Gerald is startled at this remark but pulling himself together turns away from the audience to pour himself a drink.
Next Mr Birling and Inspector Goole leave the room, leaving only Gerald alone with his fiancée, Sheila. Shelia, having seen the look on Gerald’s face, suspects that Gerald may have also played a part in Eva Smith’s death and questions Gerald, taking on the role as the Inspector until Gerald too confesses his part in Daisy’s death. This pushes the play on once again and shows that the Inspector is right and leaves Shelia alone with Gerald. It also shows that Sheila is now at one with the Inspector as when Gerald asks Sheila not to tell the Inspector, Sheila laughs hysterically and replies “Why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows and I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see, you’ll see.”
Inspector Goole then re-enters the scene, followed shortly afterwards by Mrs Birling. The Inspector merely asks “Well?”, as he does know full well what Shelia has discovered. This shows his eerie omniscience. Mrs Birling now confesses that Daisy Renton came to her pregnant, with no money, as a last resort and she had done nothing to save her. Next Mrs Birling would pass her blame on and condemn her own son in the process. She also enters the room in time to hear Gerald’s confession.
Then Mr Birling re-enters to push the inspection along. The next exit is then made by the embarrassed Gerald, who leaves the house to push the narrative forward as he will later find out the Inspector is a fake and needs to tell the family later.
Then Eric leaves the house. This sets up the climax in the play so that Mrs Birling can condemn Eric as having the sole responsibility for Daisy’s death. Mr Birling automatically assumes it is Gerald who has left the house, however his is wrong. The Inspector who knows Eric better than his own father, corrects Mr Birling. This highlights the Inspector’s massiveness and superiority over Mr Birling.
In Eric’s absence the Inspector tells the remaining family that Eva was in fact pregnant when she died and the father of her unborn child was a drunk who was stealing money for Eva to live on. However Eva was a decent person of high morals and decided she could no longer take this money, so she went to Mrs Birling for charity and to protect the father. However Mrs Birling felt insulted by Eva as Eva had used Mrs Birling’s surname when she wanted charity. Mrs Birling chucked her out onto the streets. Eva had used this surname innocently as it was the true surname of the father of her child. When Mrs Birling initially recognised Eva’s name she had pretended she had nothing to do with it and blamed Eva’s death on the father of her child, not knowing that the child’s father was Eric. This is dramatic irony as the audience knew that the father was Eric, but Mrs Birling did not. This builds up dramatic tension as the Inspector keeps urgings Mrs Birling on.
Shelia hearing this, tries to stop her mother condemning Eric, and tells her to stop building up walls as the Inspector would only knock them down. However Mrs Birling keeps on, saying that the baby’s father should have to confess publicly to his responsibly. It is only after she has implicated and blamed her own son, Mrs Birling realises that Eric is the baby’s father. As Mrs Birling has passed all the blame onto Eric, he re-enters the room to meet everyone’s inquiring stares. This synchronising of Eric entrance with Mrs Birling’s realisation is perfect stagecraft. This is the climax in the play. Eric has to then explain his part in Eva Smith’s death and how he, drunkenly, had forced Eva Smith to engage in sexual intercourse with him.
Inspector Goole then makes a fiery religious speech about how all of our actions affect others, which contradicts Mr Billing’s selfish comments at the beginning of the play about capitalism and helping others. Inspector Goole goes on to say that therefore we are all responsible for one anther and that the Birling family is responsible for Eva Smith’s death and that they would burn for an eternity in hell. He ends his speech with “Good night” and sharply leaves. This is very effective as it really makes the reader think how even the smallest and most insignificant action can impact on others in such a big way. It also creates an aura around the Inspector and highlights that he is almost an embodiment of consciousness. It leaves the audience quietly stunned.
Next Edna re-enters introducing Gerald back into the scene which unlocks the final twist in the story line. Gerald explains to the Birlings that while he was out walking he spotted a policeman and he asked him if Inspector Goole had just been transferred to his police station. However the policeman simply replies that he knows of no Inspector Goole and he has never seen or heard of any inspector of his description at the police station.
Mr Birling is relieved and thinks that his family is off the hook, it all being a “hoax”. He rings up the infirmary to check if anyone had taken their own life. This is almost an exit to the outside world. He was delighted to hear that no suicide cases were admitted to the infirmary in the past weeks. Sheila and Eric are still shocked and stunned. Mr Birling, now unaffected by the Inspector’s visit, patronises Sheila and Eric by saying that they are over tired and should go to bed. He says to Mrs Birling that they would be as amused as we are in the morning. I feel that this is because Mr Birling does not take his children’s views into consideration as they are different from his.
At this point Mr Birling gets a phone call from the Police saying that a girl named Eva Smith has died and that an Inspector would be on his way shortly to question the Birlings. This phone call was an entrance which heralded the second entrance of the Inspector.
Priestly wrote the play for entertainment but mainly to try and promote socialism and the labour party and to obviously make people think more about their actions towards others.
