At first Mr. Birling did not know whom the name referred to, but then he remembered a vague recollection of the name when he saw the photo. Then he remembered.
“She was one of my employees and then I discharged her.”
The inspector had known perfectly well how Mr. Birling new this girl, he was just stringing them all along, and he was indeed building up the suspense.
The inspector’s next target was Sheila. He knew that she was connected to Eva Smith through a shop that she often went to, Milwards. He then showed Sheila the photo as he had done with her father. Sheila recognised the girl as a girl she had made a complaint about laughing at her in the shop. She had made this girl get fired. The stress that must have been mounted on Eva would have been enormous, always loosing jobs.
Both Mrs. Birling, Gerald, and now Eric as he had come back down, thought that they were in no way connected to this girl, but soon they were to find out that they were. The inspector carried on with his smooth tone, to give the impression that he was relaxed to make the other people feel uncomfortable. His next target was to be Gerald, or as he addressed him, Mr. Croft. He knew that Gerald had met Eva, but as a different name. He knew that Eva had changed her name, because he had her diary and had read everything in it. She had changed her name to Daisy Renton.
As soon as Gerald heard this name his heart sank, he thought he was safe from the enquiries because he knew no Eva Smith. The inspector quickly turned to him and asked straight out:
“Mr. Croft, when did you first get to know her?”
He had said this without Gerald saying a word. Everyone was getting suspicious that the inspector already knew everything about them, and that there was no point in lying. Gerald quickly confessed to him knowing her.
“All right, if you must have it. I met her first, some time in March last year.”
Everyone in the room was shocked that Gerald had known her, what was the chance that all of them so far had encountered her. Sheila was especially shocked, as she no knew that her fiancé had possibly been seeing another woman at the same time as her, and she knew that this girl was very pretty. He then went on to explain how he had protected her as she was poor and had nowhere to live. Gerald then wanted to leave, as he had been embarrassed enough, and could see that Sheila was very angry. He asked to leave, and the inspector allowed him. On his way out Sheila said this and handed him her ring:
“But just in case you forget – or decide not to come back, Gerald, I think you’d better take this with you.”
Gerald then went out and slammed the door. Soon after he left, Eric also left, having heard the conversation and the name; he decided to leave, for a reason we find out later.
After quite a bit of arguing, the inspector managed to get the truth out of Mrs. Birling, and got her to admit she knew her too:
“Yes, quite true”
The rest of the people found out that Mrs. Birling had met her just 2 weeks ago, at a charity organisation, where Eva, now calling herself Mrs. Birling, as she was faking that her man had left her when she got pregnant, leaving the only possibility of this being Eric having met her and had impregnated her. Mrs. Birling had refused to give her funds, as she thought she must have been lying, as it was impossible her last name was Birling. She had turned her away.
Eric then returned. He knew that they all knew what he had done. He explained to them that he had met her three times and that he had, had sex with her, and that she had got pregnant with his child.
“Yes and that’s when it happened. And I didn’t even remember – that’s the hellish thing. Oh – my God! – how stupid it all is!”
He then admitted to his father, that the last time he had seen her, he gave her 50 pounds that eh had taken from his father’s office. His father was furious.
“I don’t understand how you could take as much as that out of the office without somebody knowing.”
When their conversation is over about him taking the money, the inspector explains to them that they should remember that they were all responsible for her death, and then walks straight out. Everything about the inspector’s manner was strange the way he talked and entered and left their house. And how he knew everything, and how they all knew her, just from one rough diary. The whole way through the story he was holding them in suspense, because he knew exactly what they would say. Once he had left the strangest thing happened. The house received phone call. When Mr. Birling put the phone down, he went back into the room where everyone else was, and told them what had been said.
“ That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the Infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions…………”
This was truly a strange ending, meaning the inspector had told them that the girl was already dead, how did he know all this, or was it just pure coincidence, again, that another girl had died. It was strange enough all of them having had contact with the girl. Then for this to happen, the audience would then leave the theatre not knowing what had really just happened, and leaving them in suspense, even after the play.
