By humiliating Birling like this, Priestley degrades the conservative and capitalist viewpoints. This is intended to make people rethink their current political standpoint and reconsider the labour party for power. In contrast to this, is the Inspector who is clearly a socialist. The Inspector reminds us of our responsibilities for each other:
‘All intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’
By making the Inspector say this, Priestley shows how sensible the socialist ideal is. He makes people realise that we need to look after each other and that this will not happen under conservative power.
This speech is juxtaposed against Birling’s speech (as seen below); Priestley, I doing this, illustrates the differences between the socialist and conservative views. These differences urge the audience to consider that looking after one's-self had created the degenerate society that was prevalent at the time; this again links to politics, as the audience is likely to think that looking after one and other may create a happier society.
Priestley ingeniously uses the setting, as a way of showing the way the Birling view their selves. By setting the entire play in the Birlings’ dining room, Priestley portrays how the Birlings’ are happy sitting at home: comfortable and ignorant of the suffering in the world around them. They are content to live in their own little cocoon of a world, while there is terrible oppression all around them – even within and affected by their own lives and actions. The proverbial ‘ripples’ caused by their decisions and how they live their lives, ignorant and spiteful towards people ‘beneath’ them – of a lower class. Birling’s mill being a prime example of this, as well as how Mrs. Birling treats Eva Smith at her charity. The reader and audience are given the impression that none of this matters to them as long as they are safe and cosy at home.
Mr. Birling tells us:
‘A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself – and his family too’
In saying this, he tells us that he has no consideration for the world beyond himself and family. We come to realise how little humanity and how arrogant and unwise he his. We can see that if the whole world thought like he did, society would crumble.
There is great significance in the historical context of this play. It often makes references to the events of the time, which helps the audience to understand some of the deeper meaning behind the play. Miners to postmen, nurses to factory labourers; all of them felt they were being mistreated. In this sense, perhaps Eva is symbolic of the problems of the times – all the terrible fates that were big issues happen to her. There were many strikes at the time; most every type of worker went on strike at some point. There were great debates and much arguing over wages, working conditions, treatment of workers (mostly over the oppressive standards held by factory owners) and even more.
One of the most consequential up-heaves of the period was the women’s rights movement. Many women were unhappy with their working conditions, treatment and especially their payment. Woman got paid extremely little; sometimes half of what men could get paid. There were many strikes and arguments about this. This topic is heavily featured in the play, as the reason Mr. Birling fired Eva Smith.
Priestley’s major concerns were with inequality, as such, class division would have been (in his opinion) unacceptable, This idea is conveyed as selfish and greedy in the play to portray how awful it is for people to look down on others due to their social status.
Another subject touched upon a lot in the play is the division between classes. There are an incredible number of things said by both. Mr. And Mrs. Birling about this.
‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’
Mrs. Birling said this. She makes a lot more references to the class division than Mr. Birling does. The divides between classes were important to many of the conservative people at the time. They meant that wages and rights changed amongst the population depending on their status. The different rights were important to higher classes, providing a solid foundation for their arrogance and degrading beliefs and actions.
In the play, Eric and Sheila, the Birlings’ son and daughter, were the only ones who remained affected by what had happened. Even after the others decided that because the girl hadn’t actually died, their actions were of no consequence. The fact that the younger generation of Birlings realised their mistakes, demonstrates that Priestley realised that the future of the nation rested and still does on the shoulders of the younger generation. This demonstrates Priestley’s optimism for the future as he chooses an optimistic, positive way of ending the play.
There are many dramatic techniques in this play that are utilised to promote the socialist ideals. Also, they work to keep the reader and audience interested.
The setting reflects on the Birlings’ lives in a small comfortable world, as they live blissfully unheeding of what is happening in the reality around them. This heartlessness and lack of caring for other people, actual human beings, repels the audience from the family; all the while it promotes a gross distaste for them and their beliefs.
In alienating the Birling’s from the audience (and this thus the conservative ideals), Priestley causes to audience to turn to the Inspector (the socialist ideals) for guidance and salvation from the bleak fascist world as he shows it.
Priestley cunningly uses dramatic irony to encourage the audience to realise the foolishness of the Birlings. We really see this in circumstances like when Mr. Birling talks about the Germans and war, or the way people have to look out for themselves and not worry about others. He also says:
‘There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere – except of course in Russia, which will always be behindhand naturally.’
This is a ridiculous notion, especially as we now know that the Russians were first into space and have very sophisticated technologies, especially in the area of space exploration. Saying all these things just makes the audience and reader feel even angrier at the Birlings as he shows them as foolish and ridiculous.
One of the most startling moments in the play is when we discover that the inspector is in fact not a real inspector. Even if he was not a real inspector, he was at least an inspector of conscience. He brought out the Birlings’ shameful secrets and made the family deal with them, the guilt and the repercussions just like a real conscience. We see the Birlings’ true nature as they feel they are relieved of their crimes by a technicality (they believed there was no suicide) and as long as no one died everything will work out ok. They get rid of the blame by thinking no harm, no foul.
We are given no real clue as to what the Inspector might have been, what his job was, or even if he was in fact human.
Looking at the Inspector’s name: ‘Goole’ and reasoning that it could be another way of spelling ‘ghoul’, we can come to the conclusion that the Inspector may have been a supernatural entity, or a premonition of things to come in the future. Perhaps he was sent to help the Birlings to realise their dangerous flaws and give them the chance to change.
Supporting this theory is the fact that the police called after to announce the fact that a real police inspector will be calling to discuss the real suicide of a young girl, who really did drink disinfectant, like the late Eva Smith (if she was indeed real) did. Is it possible, that if the Birlings and Croft had realised their mistakes and had learned from them (as Sheila and Eric did), they would never have received that final phone call. It may all have been a test.
This powerful ending, using its dramatic twist, emphasises the play’s message. It does so by, when the Birlings thought they were free of blame and repercussions, introducing the dreadful consequences that they are always consequences and that they cannot be avoided, while also telling them to make sure that there are only good repercussions.
Overall, the play sends a powerful message out to the audience. It tells us of the awful things that capitalism promotes and how it divides the world. We are given a powerful and worrying incite to the future and we realise that we need to help our younger generation to make the world a better place. The Inspector makes us realise that we desperately need to work together with each other, help each other and looking out for one and other. We are constantly reminded of this throughout the play in various speeches made by a number of people. The most powerful of which, that really commands attention and action, is the Inspectors final speech.
‘And I tell you that the time will come soon when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire, blood and anguish.’