Arthur Birling is a prosperous businessman who is arrogant and selfish, often referring to his business and speaking in business language, when the inspector enters Arthur’s overconfidence is destroyed as the inspector takes over and he is the complete opposite of Arthur. At the beginning Arthur is talking about Sheila and Gerald’s marriage ‘We are working together - for lower costs and higher prices.’ This shows that his priorities are not his daughter, but his job.
The curtain rises showing the four members of the Birling family and Gerald Croft who are seated at the dining table, celebrating Sheila Birling’s engagement to Gerald. It is a special occasion: everyone is happy and enjoying themselves. The lighting in the dining room is warm and cosy. The first exit is Edna; the maid, she represents all the people who serve the rich. In one production she was expected to stay up all night to make tea. She may also be on stage throughout the play to show her status and how poor she is as a symbol of the “millions of John Smiths and Eva Smiths”
Into this cosy scene intrudes a harsh figure of a police inspector investigating the suicide of a young working-class woman. This first appearance of the inspector is very significant, the lighting and the atmosphere change immediately from pleasant and inviting to harsh and cold. The inspector creates an impression of ‘massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.’ He is called Inspector Goole, which gives the sense of ghosts and spookiness, which adds to the immensity of his character. Just before the inspector entered, Arthur Birling was complaining about the socialists describing them as ‘cranks.’ He was also saying that everyone should look after themselves, ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.’ He also explains that if everyone looked out for everyone else the world would be ‘ mixed up like bees in a hive’ even though the community of bees is perfect. So the inspector’s entrance suggests that Arthur Birling’s pomposity is about to be shattered.
Shelia’s response to the tragedy is one of the few encouraging things to come out of the play. She is genuinely upset when she hears of Eva's death and learns from her own behaviour. She is very distressed by the girl's suicide and thinks that her father's behaviour was unacceptable. She readily agrees that she behaved very badly and insists that she never meant the girl any harm. The next exit is Sheila’s; she leaves hysterically, after the inspector shows her a picture of Eva Smith, Sheila recognises the picture and she feels guilty and she accepts that she is partly responsible for her death but Arthur Birling cannot.
The inspector exits so he can leave Gerald and Sheila alone and since Sheila has taken on the role of the inspector, she gets some truth out of Gerald ‘I’m sorry Sheila. But it was all over and done with, last summer’. At the same time Eric leaves to show the inspector to the drawing room as the inspector is looking for Arthur. When the inspector returns he finds out the how Gerald is connected to Eva’s death but he doesn’t have to force the information out of him because Sheila has already done that. So as he enters he just has to say ‘Well?’ to signify he knows what Sheila has done.
By the end of Act one the inspector has influenced Sheila the most, she is on the same wavelength as him, she embodies him and in a way takes on his role. ‘We often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable,’ the inspector explains to Mrs Birling when she notices he has made a big impression on her daughter. He also influences Eric slightly but it is Sheila that changes immediately. The inspector is a dramatic device and he creates drama and tension and has a way of finding out the truth from people ‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, then the inspector will just break it down.’
Gerald exits to think, and work out that the inspector may not be a real and that Eva doesn’t necessarily have to be the same person as Daisy. Also it is an escape to the outside world, everything becomes “clear” when he is alone and has time to think. He also has to exit to gain information that is important later in the play (there is no inspector Goole.) Subsequently Arthur hears the front door slam and Mrs Birling thinks that Gerald has returned ‘Gerald must have come back’ but the inspector says ‘Unless your son has just gone out.’ The inspector is correct; this shows that he knows the Birlings children better than their own parents, part of his omniscience. Also Eric can’t have come back as the inspector was investigating Mrs Birlings story and Eric has to back for the climax of his mother putting all of the blame on him but she does not know Eric is responsible. She would have blamed him.
Sheila realises before her mother does that she is blaming Eric and ‘digging a very large hole’ for him, accusing him of being totally responsible. The audience realises Mrs Birling is blaming Eric before she realises herself and this is dramatic irony. She keeps on building up the blame on Eric because of the manner of the inspector’s questioning, ‘So he’s the chief culprit anyhow.’ The scene ends at the moment Mrs Birling realises she has been blaming her son and Sheila says ‘Mother- I begged you and begged you to stop.’ As Eric enters, at that very moment he is miserable and bitter and his mother is distraught and distressed. At the end of the scene Eric enters and says nothing. It is a very dramatic tense moment.
The inspector leaves with a passionate and powerful speech explaining that we are all part of one body ‘all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We do not live alone.’ He frightens them with a medieval threat, like the threat of hell ‘if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be caught in fire and blood and anguish.’ He walks straight out, leaving the family subdued and wondering.
Gerald enters after the inspector left and he says ‘I had a special reason for coming.’ He then explains that there was no inspector and it was all a hoax. Gerald decides to call the infirmary, which is like an exit to the outside world, to see if they have had a suicide, but they hadn’t had a suicide there for months, so they realise that no girl had died! Sheila believes that it doesn’t matter if the inspector was real or not, or if a girl died, they still did those terrible things to someone, ‘if all that’s come out tonight is true, then it doesn’t much matter who it was who made us confess. Its important that we did those terrible things and not whether a man is a police inspector or not.’ Arthur disagrees and is glad that there isn’t going to be a ‘public scandal.’ But not long after Gerald put the phone down it rang again, the final entrance, it was the police: ‘a girl has just died- on her way to the infirmary- after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is o his way here- to ask some questions.’ This phone call was like another entrance from the outside world; the family thought they were safe but they were wrong. The final climax, the phone call announcing that a police inspector is on his way to ask some questions about a girl who has just died in the infirmary is as shocking as it is surprising and ensures that the audience will leave the auditorium in a state of real shock. It changed the nature of the play, making it far more like a morality play, it will keep on happening until Mr and Mrs Birling change.
Overall, the entrances and exits are very important in this play, they enhance the inspector’s omniscience and increase drama and as they are positioned well they can give the characters time to think and they can lead to important moments, which make the play what it is.
