In the play, Mr Birling is described as being “rather portentous”; he is a businessman, a “self-made man”. His first main concern is to make money. When Inspector Goole asks him about the reasons why he discharged Eva Smith or Daisy Renton, Birling tells him that she organised a strike and then he starts giving explanation and excuses on her. At the end he says, “I refused, of course”, this was his reaction to her asking for a pay-rise. Goole asks why and Birling is very surprised which shows that Inspector is rather unusual. He refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva’s suicide and he gets unusually irritated by the Inspectors constant questioning of his family.
Sheila is a young, attractive young lady who has recently become engaged. She is “very pleased with life”. Sheila is the only person at the dinner table who seems genuinely upset by the news of Eva Smith. She is deeply agitated when the Inspector explains the details of her suicide. She thinks that her father’s attitude and behaviour towards the matter is totally wrong. She shows this by saying, “these people aren’t just cheap labour, they are people”. When Sheila is told about her part in the suicide, she accepts all responsibility, she truly feels really bad. She is the only character other than Eric to do this. She is not ashamed to admit her faults and she is also anxious to change her behaviour, “it will never, never happen again”, she stresses this, which tells audience that she will be changed and this is due to the Inspector’s visit.
The family have all different reactions to Inspector Goole’s entrance and the suicide of Eva Smith. When Goole arrives Birling says, have a glass of port – or a little whisky?” he is very welcoming towards him. When the Inspector starts to tell the characters about the reason he is there Birling becomes angry and uptight. When Sheila comes in to ask when he is going to join his wife in the streets, she becomes very curious and interrupts with, “What’s this about streets?” When she notices Inspector Goole she immediately becomes very lady-like. The Inspector explains why he is there and she becomes very upset, she behaves as if she knew Eva Smith very well. Mr Birling still has the attitude of “I still can’t accept any responsibility”. Not only this, Mr Birling is partly responsible for Eva Smith’s suicide he discharged her from his factory for “suddenly wanting more money”, he was responsible for her being out of work for two months, being forced into lodgings and being “half-starved”. Overall he is not totally responsible for the suicide itself. Birling’s son, Eric, causes this. As he forces himself on her at first, but then they have an affair and she fell pregnant with his lovechild. Birling gets disappointed when he finds this out, “you damned fool - why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?” Eric’s reply to this was that his father was not the kind of person you come to. This shows that Birling was never close to his son. He accepts absolutely no responsibility still, unlike Sheila who accepts all responsibility.
J. B. Priestley uses dramatic devices and dramatic irony in the play. His main device was the photograph and his main ironic character is Mr Birling. When Inspector Goole reveals he has a photograph, this creates tension and shows the characters reactions to the photograph, an example of this is Sheila, when she sees the photograph she starts to cry and she flees from the room and when she returns she is anxious to admit her wrong-doings. Also she decides she cannot marry Gerald after he was involved with Daisy Renton.
Mr Birling represents a very unattractive and selfish kind of man who is obsessed by money and cannot see any other thing besides it. Even at the end of the play he feels sorry for what has happened but he still thinks in terms of money. He says to the Inspector “look, Inspector - I'd give thousands”. Although everything has been revealed about his family, he still tries to disguise this, which tells us how stubborn Mr. Birling is in his attitude.
When the possibility of the Inspector being a deceiver, he happily believes that it never happened and that if the Inspector was fake, so must the things that emerged. He impersonates the Inspector. This is example of pride before the phone rings. His pride makes us think that it was all a hoax but when the telephone rings it makes us wonder that it wasn’t hoax. Mr Birling represents Priestley’s hate of businessmen class or we can say capitalist views, whose only care is making a profit and they will never learn from his mistakes and now also when he has reached this stage, he is just worried about a public scandal and is worried about his image in the society which shows that all he cares is ‘money’.
But Sheila, who his much different from her father and mother, is aware of the mystery surrounding the Inspector, yet realises that there is no point in trying to hide the facts from him. She is stable about the breaking up of her engagement and remains cool, calm and collected. She will not be hurried into accepting the wedding ring back once the Inspector had left, she is unable to accept her parent’s attitude and behaviour towards the Inspector and she is both amazed and concerned that they haven't learned anything from the occurrence. Although the Inspector might be a hoax, the family have still behaved in an entirely unsuitable manner, she feels. She also learns of her responsibilities to others less fortunate than herself and the importance of the community. She is sensitive towards everything. Her readiness to learn from experience is in great contrast to her parents and priestly pushes her as an example to the audience that we should accept responsibilities for our actions. Priestly feels guilty about the lower classes so he tries to demolish stereotypes, i.e. Eva being a “normal” unemployed girl of her time.
Inspector Goole is Priestley’s perspective and his play has a strong message for the audience about the need to care for others in society. This play presents a short amount of time in which those who are amenable face up to their guilt and faults and are able to learn a moral message. In this way Priestley’s message has been conveyed effectively. Priestley’s aim is to influence the audience to the community and responsibility. Priestley places twists to take the play away from a particular character, to make the play more significant to the audience. An Inspector Calls has considerable dramatic impact because the audience feels, responds and takes sides with characters as they are being questioned and are involved throughout the play. However post war audiences would appreciate Priestley’s divination of a lesson, ‘they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish’.
Overall, the message that priestly is trying to convey is that we all should take responsibility for our actions and consider the consequences that might have for other members of society. Priestley is also trying to say that we shouldn’t keep things secret because our conscience could unravel them. Though he is successful in changing the younger generation, but cannot change the older generation. The play ends with suspense, as the family have to face the consequences of not learning their mistakes, which priestly wants to ‘tell’ us.
