Gerald Croft who was engaged to Sheila is also of high status. He is a clever man who thinks everything out carefully. He was very involved in Eva’s life but unlike the others he made Eva happy for once in her life. He met her at the palace Bar and took her to the County Hotel and let her stay in a flat. He gave her money and began to have feelings for her and both of them fell in love. He kept her as his mistress which many men in the Edwardian time did. He was very affected by her death and had to leave the house to take a walk which is when he got time to think. They went to palace bars often which is where some men like Alderman Meggarty took advantage of women. It was very common during the Edwardian times for the rich men to do this.
Mrs Birling is also a well-fed, rich woman of high status who is described as socially superior to Mr Birling. She chairs a woman’s charity where women come to ask for help and benefit. She is responsible for the last step of Eva’s death, as she did not offer her help when she needed it the most. This was all because she had used the name Mrs Birling that had offended her. She is not careful of what she says to the Inspector, an example is everything she says about the man who got Eva pregnant and how he is fully to blame and totally responsible. She is a naïve women who does not even know about her own son’s well being or that people like Alderman Meggarty harass women in palace bars. She thinks that she is always right and calls the Inspector “impertinent” which shows us what she feels of everyone in her surroundings. Priestley intended to get across this character as a selfish, snobby and small-minded woman so that the audience would not feel empathy with her.
Eric Birling is a heavy drinker and is a regular in the palace bar. He cared for Eva and tried to help her. He tried to do what was morally right even if he did not accomplish it. He is like his sister Sheila; they both still felt that they had done something wrong during their life even if it did not result in a girl’s death. Priestley shows through the characters of both Eric and Sheila that the younger generation during the Edwardian period were the ‘better’ generation as they were not so ‘up-tight’ about themselves and had feelings for the unfortunate.
The Inspector is one of the characters that I feel Priestley conveyed to the audience very well. He is someone who feels a lot for the poor and is prepared to do everything that is right for the less privileged. He is a very clever man who manages to get all of the people present to admit what they did by opening the characters’ personalities. He gets straight to the point and emphasises many times that they all helped to kill Eva and gets it ‘marked’ in their heads so that they will not forget it. He makes them all feel shocked and extremely guilty by his statements especially when he made his speech near the end of the play when he was about to leave:
“…If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish…”
Through the inspector, we can see that Priestley wants to get across the socialist philosophy of the time that some people like the inspector himself believed in. He believed that everyone should look after everyone else and that everyone should live like a community and help everyone else socially. He says:
“… and remember there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths, still left with us…”
Here it can be seen that he still telling them that they can still try and improve the conditions and their attitudes towards the poor and less fortunate as there are still many of them. However the majority of them did not learn from this and faced the consequences.
Edna is the maid of house. Priestley shows that the higher class kept maids. He shows us the poorer people of the country. She can be said to be very lucky as she has a place to live unlike many people. It is very unlikely that she would have got much to eat even they were having a celebration.
Eva Smith is a very good example of the poor people during the Edwardian times. The poorer people of the time like Eva herself had their own morals. An example is when Eric offered her money during her pregnancy she would not accept it because she knew it was stolen even though she had no food, clothes or shelter. She had been through quite a lot so she was nearly forced on the streets until she met Gerald who fell in love with her. In the end she commits suicide by drinking disinfectant as she felt that her life was ruined and she had no one to go to.
I feel that Priestley presents the social issues of the Edwardian period in ‘An Inspector Calls’ through the characters. There are many places in the play where the social issues can be seen. Eric can be seen to be drawing a comparison between the Upper class owners, and the lower class workers. Eric can see the comparison between Mr Birling trying to do the best for them, and the workers doing the same for themselves and their families. Mr Birling won’t allow these sentiments, however, and sees them as a bad attitude. One can assume that this attitude is a general reflection of the attitudes held by older generation of the upper classes in 1912 as portrayed in this play, when it is set with Mr and Mrs Birling representing the older generation of the upper class. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is primarily focused on the attitudes surrounding the higher classes in 1912, and how these attitudes can lead to actions with potentially devastating consequences. The attitudes are particularly aimed at women, especially those of working class status.
In the play women are portrayed as second-class citizens, after men, however the difference between upper class men and women is greater than that of working class men and women. Many women living alone and supporting themselves and their families demonstrate this, whereas the upper class women are totally dependent on their husbands for money and accommodation. The play shows that the treatment of working class women is degrading. For example it portrays the assumptions that the working class women who are jobless have to turn to prostitution, “Have you any idea what happened to her after that? Get into trouble? Go on the streets?” Mr Birling assumes that working class women, like Eva Smith, get into trouble regularly, and if they are fired, they turn to prostitution quickly. This shows that the attitudes are totally different between upper class and working class women. Working class women are seen as easy virtue, and whores, whilst the upper class ‘virgin maidens’ are almost untouchable in their purity. The upper class girls are treated with respect, and are untouchable in their purity. The upper class girls are treated with respect, and are on the whole protected. “I think you ought to go to bed now, and forget this absurd business”. Mr and Mrs Birling want to protect Sheila from the horrors of affairs. However in the Edwardian society there were upper class men, who were abusive, and forceful. For example Alderman Meggarty who tried to harrass not only Eva Smith but a girl who Sheila knew, who must have been upper class because Sheila would only socialise with upper class women. The double standards revolving in the play are demonstrated, because though the men look down on prostitutes, and see them as disgusting, they still go to them. Women are not expected to think about business at all, nor have any interests apart from shopping, gossiping and probably needlework.
Mr and Mrs Birling treat Sheila as if she was a child, of about twelve years old, though she is old enough to get married. She is constantly talked about as if she is not there, and is told what she feels. Gerald told the Inspector what Sheila was feeling, and why her behaviour was the way it was. This is perhaps reflective of how men had all the knowledge of everything to do with them, including the feelings of their wives, or fiancées. This portrayed that women not only could not think about business, but also could not express their feelings. Mrs Birling thought that Eric was a good boy, and she also treated him as if he were a child. She obviously did not know her son well at all and this is also reflects what upper class mothers would think of their sons. Mrs Birling is treating her son like a child, and assuming that he still is a child, and instead of drinking alcohol, he is still playing musical chairs. Gerald shocks, again, Mrs Birling, by revealing his secret affair to the Inspector. Mrs Birling is totally shocked, whereas Mr Birling, though taken back, is not as shocked by the upper class young men’s behaviours. This shows that the older generation women of the upper class are more trusting on the men’s behaviour, and assume that they have stronger morals, then they actually do.
I think that JB Priestley presents the social issues of the Edwardian period in this play through the characters and their way of speaking. He shows us what the upper class, rich business man of the time like Mr Birling were like during the time. He tells us about people like Mrs Birling who cannot tolerate rudeness, or that is what she thinks it is. She is someone who thinks that she is always right and she is too protective over her children who are at the age of being able to marry. We get to see what the younger generation of the time were like and how they reacted to situations like in the play itself. They are very different to their parents and are more social and more humane. We also get to see what people like the Inspector were like and their way of thinking. The inspector believed in a socialist philosophy and believed that everyone should look after everyone else, whether they are rich or poor. Priestley also presents the poorer social issues of the time. People like Eva Smith herself who was so easily sacked from her jobs for minute reasons; and also how girls like her turned to prostitution to earn some money for their bare needs. Then finally Priestly shows us people like Edna, who is the maid and how she is treated. He presents this all to us through the language, which the characters use, and how they react to situations and what they feel.
