Sheila spent so long in Milwards. For working class women, a job was crucial. There was no social security at that time, so without a job they had no money. There were very few options open to women in that situation: many saw no alternative but to turn to prostitution.
As this meant inequality existed in 1912, employment was the only direction away from the more repugnant forms of income. Unemployed people were at risk as they had no forms of income and many resided in poverty, this would probably drive them into deeper poverty. Eva smith was on the brink of destruction, and was forced into unlawful means of income such as prostitution, as this was common in this period of history. Middle class businessman also took advantage of the working class as they used them for cheaper labour. They were no laws to protect workers or support them in any way. The relationship between the upper class and middle class with the lower class was virtually non-existent. The upper class and the middle class communicated with each other as they both possessed wealth. Though the lower class made majority of the population; they were regarded as second class, menial and of lesser importance. Therefore there was simply no communication between the two rich classes (upper and middle class) with the lower class.
The relationships between the classes before, during and after the Second World War were immensely revolutionised. Classes were desegregated and mixed on a social scale.
Priestley was a socialist. He believed that whether we acknowledge it or not, we are a community and have a responsibility to look after one another. He wrote “An Inspector Calls” to highlight these beliefs and share them.
The irony in Birlings speech can be clearly noticed. The play was first produced in the U.K, in London in 1946. The play itself was set in 1912. The 1946 audience knows that the characters in the play do not know the future events, such as the First World War (1914-18), the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic in 1912, labour unrest and unemployment of the 1920’s and the second world war (1938-45). Birlings comments particularly need to be examined.
“You can’t ignore all this silly pessimistic talk”
“There’s a lot of wild talk about the possible labour trouble in the future”
“The Germans don’t want war”
“And I say there isn’t a chance of war”
“The Titanic-she sails next week-and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
“In twenty or thirty years time-lets say, in 1940- you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these capital versus labour agitations and all these silly little war scares”
Where Birling’s predictions are wrong, the Inspector predicts that if people don’t learn their responsibilities they will be taught in “fire and blood and anguish”. The prediction referring to World War One is most obvious, but also can refer to World War Two. The lessons of World War One were not learnt and so the same mistakes were made and another world war started; and though Priestly was unaware of it when the play was written, years on the same mistakes have caused war after war. This makes the message just as relevant to the audience of today as to the intended audience.
The Miners strike occurred in 1912, which links into the strike led by Eva Smith who had been involved in a dispute over the wages. Mr Birling is dismissive of the several hundred women in his factory: "We were paying the usual rates and if they didn't like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else." The mention of the Titanic, which sank in 1912, shows that these events depict the year of 1912.
Overall, Priestley’s opinion of society is revealed throughout the play. Priestley criticises the privileges of the Middle class. In “An Inspector Calls” Priestley criticises the Birling family. They represent the well of middle class group of people. Priestley criticises the conservative attitudes of the Birling’s. He thinks that everyone should be responsible for each other and treat others as they would treat themselves. He blames the middle class for the corruption of society and in the play he convicts the Birling to various degrees of the seven deadly sins.
I am going to select and examine Mr Birling and his daughter, Sheila Birling as they generations of the same family. The impact of the Inspectors visit on the two characters is very different.
Arthur Birling is the kind of character the play warns against. Mr Birling is a prosperous factory owner, though not the social equal of his wife. He is a “self made man” and has worked up in the world and is proud of his achievements. This can be clearly seen that he is a “self made man” by his unpolished accent. He is described at the start as “heavy looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties but rather provincial in his speech”. Arthur Birling previously was the former mayor of Brumley and is currently a magistrate. He transparently has social status in society.
Arthur Birling at the beginning of the play has a range of negative natures in his personality. Mr Birling is clearly domineering during the play. He is clearly greedy as his first priority is to make money, “It’s my duty to keep labour costs down”, “for lower costs and higher prices”. Arthur Birling is very talkative and deceitful, because as he is aware of his social superiors, he shows off to Gerald about the port, “It’s exactly the same port your father gets”. As he welcomes Croft into his family, it represents a business link between his firm and a that of Gerald Crofts father (a rival), “Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time- though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and company- and now you have brought us together”. This links in with his greediness, and for Birling this is a new method for him not only to find new sources of wealth but also to climb up the social ladder. He claims the party “is one of the happiest nights of my life”. This is not only because Sheila will be happy, but also because the merger with Crofts limited will be good for business. Mr Birling is exceedingly egotistic and self obsessed and is only interested in his own personal achievements. He is proud that he is predicted to be knighted, as that would move him even higher in social circles, “I might find my way into the honours list. Just a knighthood, of course”. Birling has no respect for others and does not know how his actions affect others. He has an honest approach to life, he tells the Inspector that he wouldn’t listen to Eva Smiths demands for a wage rise, “I refused, of course” and is surprised why anyone should ask why.
Birling is extremely selfish. He wants to protect himself and his family. He believes socialist ideas that stress the importance of the community are “nonsense” and he intensely believes that “a man has to make his own way”. Birling has recognisably conservative views and opinions. He cannot see that he did anything wrong when he fired Eva Smith- he was just looking after his business interests. He does not consider the harm he may cause to other people because of his attitude. He is a “hard headed businessman” after all.
Arthur Birling is optimistic for the future and considers that there will not be war. As the audience knows that there will not be war, we begin to doubt Mr Birling’s judgement. When put with other things Birling’s has said in the play, we see that Priestly has made Mr Birling’s predictions as false and wrong- such as the Titanic is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”, “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war” and that “were in a time of increasing prosperity”. This also gives the impression that his views of community and shared responsibility are misguided also. Every one of the predictions made by Birling are wrong. The Titanic sank on her maiden voyage; world war broke out two years later after the play was set and the American stock market crashed in 1929, plunging the world into economic chaos. This leads us to regard him as a man of many words but little sense.
Birling wants to protect his reputation. As the Inspector’s investigations continue, his selfishness gets the better of him. He is worried about how the press will view his story. The most disturbing part for Birling is the scene in which he learns his own son is a thief, a drunkard and is responsible for fathering a child. When he learns about all this, he exclaims “you damned fool- why you didn’t come to me when you got yourself into this mess?” As he is worried about his reputation and so he says, “I’ve got to cover this up as soon I can”. Eric’s reply indicates that Mr Birling was never close with his son, “because you’re not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he’s in trouble”. Such a response indicates that things aren’t going to improve much after the play ends.
Mr Birling is a capitalist; he has strong conservative views and opinions. Mr Birling is a well-built man, and he should speak with a deep unpolished accent not only to represent his origins but also his domineering natures during the play. As he is in his middle fifties, he should speak slowly and he should always speak loudly to imply that he is always right. Mr Birling speaks in a relaxed but rather pompous manner- he is very pleased with himself, and clearly shows his attitudes to his family.
Mr Birling was the first member of the group to have had dealings with Eva Smith. At first, the name means nothing to Arthur Birling. The Inspector tells him that she had been employed at Birlings factory. He shows Birling a photograph and then he remembers the girl.
Arthur Birling explains that Eva Smith had been involved in a dispute over wages. She had been the ringleader in a strike and when the strike was over, Birling dismissed her.
The Inspector tells them after she left Birling’s employment, she changed her name. She was out of work for two months. She had no money and was desperate until she found a job at a high-class clothes shop called Milwards. She was good at work but was dismissed after a couple of months.
Arthur Birling believes Eva Smith was nothing but “cheap labour”. He finds nothing wrong with his attitude toward her.
At the end of the play, he know he has lost the chance of a Knighthood, his reputation in Brumley and the chance of Birling and co merging with their rivals. Yet he hasn’t learnt the lesson of the play. He is unable to admit his responsibility for his part in Eva’s death. His attitudes don’t change at all during play on his responsibility of Eva’s death, “Look-there’s nothing mysterious- or scandalous- about this business”. He continues to ignore the shameful things that his family have done. When it appears that the Inspector might be a hoaxer, he is happy to believe that everything is as it was a few hours before. He copies the Inspector and laughs when he remembers the faces of Eric and Sheila and accuses them of being “the famous younger generation who know it all”. This is an example of pride coming before a fall. A moment later of course, he is panicking as the phone rings.
He represents a very unattractive sort of person. At the end of the play, he grudgingly wishes things were better but even he still thinks in terms of money, “Look, Inspector- I’d give thousands”.
Mr Birling represents Priestly hatred of Businessmen who are only interested in making money. He will never alter his ways and it is left to the younger generation to learn from their mistakes.
Sheila at the start of the play is described as “a pretty young girl in her early twenties, very pleased life and rather excited”. She is at the start of the play, immature and spoilt. She has probably been chaperoned all her life. She has not travelled much and has lived a sheltered life. She has no proper knowledge what happens in society. Her recent engagement with Gerald has occurred. Even though she seems very playful at the opening, we know that she had suspicions about Gerald when she mentions “last summer when you never came to me”. It can be suggested she might be naive.
Sheila shows her other emotions and feelings during the play. Although never in her life she considered the conditions of the workers. She shows her compassion and her sympathy immediately after she hears her fathers treatment of Eva Smith, “But these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people”. Already she is starting to change.
Her 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 feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and blames herself as “really responsible”. She is full of shame, guilt, remorse and she is disgraced. She is very distressed by the girl’s suicide and thinks that her father was unacceptable. She readily agrees that she behaved very badly and insists she never meant the girl any harm.
The Inspector says she is partially responsible and later on, when he is about to question Gerald, he encourages her to stay and listen to what he has to say so that she doesn’t feel entirely responsible.
She is very perceptive; she realises that Gerald knew Daisy Renton from his reaction, the moment the inspector refereed to her name. At the end of act 3, she is the first to realise Eric’s part in the play. She is aware of the mystery surrounding the Inspector, yet realises that there is no point trying to hide the facts from him. She is the first to wonder who is the Inspector really is, saying to him, “Wonderingly, I don’t understand about you”. She warns the others “he’s giving us the rope- so that we can hang ourselves” and at the end, she is the first to consider whether the Inspector may not be real.
She is very curious and genuinely learns to know about Gerald’s part in the story. It’s quite interesting she is not angry with him when she hears about the affairs. She says that she respects his honesty. She is mature about the breaking up of her engagement and remains calm. She won’t be rushed into accepting the ring back once the Inspector has left.
She is angry with the parents in act 3 for trying to “pretend that nothing much has happened”. She is unable to accept her parent’s attitude and is both amazed and concerned that they haven’t learnt anything from the episode. Sheila says, “it frightens me the way you talk”. She can’t understand how they can’t have learnt from the episode in the same way she did. Although the Inspector might be a hoax, the family have still behaved in an entirely unsuitable manner.
At the end of the play, Sheila is much wiser. She can now judge Gerald and her parents from a new viewpoint, but the greatest transformation has been in her: her social conscience has been awakened and she is aware of her responsibilities. The Sheila who had a girl discharged from her job for frivolous reasons has disappeared forever. She learns her responsibilities to others less fortunate than herself. Her readiness to learn from experience is in great contrast to her parents.
Sheila Birling was the second member of the group to have had dealings with Eva Smith. We soon learn that Sheila Birling had been a valued customer at Milwards. As soon as Sheila saw the photograph of the dead girl she remembered her. She also remembered that she had complained to the shop because she thought the girl was laughing at her when she tried on a dress. As a result of the complaint, the girl was dismissed. She wants everyone to face up to their fears, and their guts and not to forget what they have done.
“But don’t you see, if all that came out tonight is true, then it doesn’t matter who made us confess. And it was true, wasn’t it? You turned the girl out of one job, and I had her turn out of another. Gerald kept her at a time when he was supposed to be too busy to see me. Eric- well, we know what Eric did. And Mother hardened her heart and gave her the final push that finished her. That’s what’s important and not whether that man is a police inspector or not”
Eric and Sheila overall are still remorseful. Sheila has been emerging during the play as the character with the greatest sensitivity, sympathy, remorse and shame.
The results of the inspectors visit as regards to the younger generation are the total opposite of their characters. The older generation however don’t see that they have done anything wrong. Mr and Mrs Birling are all happy to set aside the evenings events as untrue, once the opportunity appears that the inspector may have not have been a police inspector. Their characters stay practically the same from beginning to end.
This is very different to the younger generation “You seem to have made a great impression on this child inspector” comments Mr Birling. The inspector replies with the statement, “We often do on the young ones, they’re more impressionable”. This implies that Priestley is trying to say that there is potential for change in the “young ones” which is not as evident in the older generations.
“An Inspector calls” is what is known as a well-made play. Its progression is that from ignorance to knowledge (not only the audience but also for the characters themselves). As the involvement of each member of the family becomes clear and as the Inspector’s apparent omniscience drives each of them to the confession, the play reveals the purpose of the play is social morality. It is possible to see each of the Birlings’ as guilty to various degrees of the seven deadly sins (pride, sloth, gluttony, envy, covetousness, lust and anger).
While Arthur Birling is moved to anger by the Inspector, he is not affected by being confronted with the effects by his actions, until the Inspector is about to leave. In this respect, the character would remain consistent through out the play. Sheila however is moved to tears and guilt: the Inspector is successful in making her see the consequences of her actions and this transformation takes place. This progress from naive innocence to mature understanding needs to be conveyed to an audience so that the contrast Sheila represents to the attitude of her parents would be fully realised.
The effect of the Inspector, whoever he may have been, has split the family irrevocably. While Gerald, Arthur and Sybil laugh at what they perceive to be a hoax, Sheila and Eric are serious and aware of the consequences of their actions.
The words responsible and responsibility are used by the characters in the play at some point. Each member of the family has a different attitude to responsibility.
The Inspector wanted each member of the family to share responsibility of Eva’s death. He tells them, “Each of you tried to kill her”. However, the final speech is aimed not only at the characters on the stage, but also the audience too:
“One Eva smith has gone-but there are millions of Eva smiths and John smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do”.
The Inspector talks about collective responsibility; everyone in society is linked in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Every one is part of “one body”. The Inspector sees the society as more important than individual interests. The views he is propounding are like those of Priestleys’, who was a socialist.
The criticism of society is organised, the rich preying on the poor is very strong. Priestley makes sure his message about the corruptness of society is understood.
Priestley shows that each character in the middle class is corrupt. Each one of them is guilty for using their social superiority and privileges for their own gains. Another of Priestley’s messages seems to be that there is hope for the future. On seeing how they have affected Eva smith, both Sheila and Eric act with remorse.
The ending symbolises that if you don’t learn your lesson the first time you will face the same problems again and again. It symbolises that you can’t run away from your conscience.
I think the aim of the Priestley when he wrote the play was to make us think, to make us question our own characters and beliefs. He wanted to ask whether he wanted us to be a Sheila or Sybil, an Eric or an Arthur. He wanted to make us think of the people who have nothing. A sign of social responsibility and brotherhood is included in this play. We are after all “members of one body” and “responsible for each other”.
