“…you’ll hear some people say war is inevitable. And to that I say-fiddlesticks!”
Mr Birling insists that there is no chance of war and rudely doesn’t listen to Eric’s point of view. He says:
“…I’m talking as a hard headed, practical man of business.”
Which he has already repeated earlier on in the play. The fact that he believes he must be right and the fact that he refuses to listen to anybody else, suggests to me that he is a very smug, self-righteous man.
To Gerald, Birling mentions that he is going to be a Knighthood and constantly mentions that he used to be Lord Mayor. For some reason, I find it hard to believe that he will achieve a Knighthood due to the fact that other predictions about war and the Titanic were false and also, I get the feeling that he may just be trying to impress Gerald.
The most important theme of the play is how consequences are brought about due to certain people’s actions. Arthur Birling is extremely self-centred and his main concerns are how situations will affect himself and himself only:
“…a man has to look after himself and his own…”
Further on in the play though we learn that Mr Birlings quote is not entirely fair or correct. Priestly’s message in the play is saying that we cannot cut ourselves off from each other and that we are all responsible for every other person. We cannot be self-centred.
However, during the Inspectors visit, Birling is proved to be wrong and is shown that other people’s actions can end in terrible consequences for some.
When the Inspector enters, the stage lighting suddenly changes from a pink colour to a very bright blinding light:
“The lighting should be dim pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.”
The pink lighting represents the fact that there are plenty of hidden truths around the table, where Gerald and the Birling family really don’t know anything about each other. As the Inspector enters, the lighting suddenly becomes more revealing, to display the fact that he is about to uncover the truths about each of them.
We discover that Birling sacks a girl from his work place and the Inspector informs the family that this girl committed suicide. Birling dismisses her from his work place as:
“She’d had a lot to say…”
However, I believe it was because a woman had actually answered back to him and in those days men were considered as more dominant and far more worthy than women. I believe Birling was angry as, possibly, the girl slightly embarrassed him.
Even still, Birling doesn’t accept any responsibility at this point in the play. Yet, when finding out about his son’s involvement with the girl, he finally seems to accept some guilt.
Eric, Birlings son, is found to have got the girl pregnant. The Inspector slightly threatens Mr Birling and finally, Birling seems to accept some guilt:
“Inspector- ‘You started it…You made her pay a heavy price…And now she’ll make you pay a heavier price still.’
Birling- ‘Look Inspector, I’ll pay thousands – yes thousands.’”
Here he seems to be pleading with the Inspector.
However, like any other arrogant, self minded person, as soon as he thinks the trouble is over, he forgets all his guilt and goes on to pretend that nothing ever happened. When Sheila says:
“You’re pretending everything was just as it was before.”
Birling simply replies:
“We’ve been had, that all.”
This is because they discover that the Inspector isn’t who he really claims to be. His name, perhaps, is trying to suggest that Inspector Goole is not a living being at all. His name-“Goole” sounds exactly the same as the spirit type “ghoul” and the author could possibly be trying to hint to us that the Inspector is like our conscience or a good spirit trying to uncover all truths. He may be used more as a dramatic device rather than a real character. However, the fact still remains that the Birling families actions did make a girl take her own life. Sheila Birling still seems to remember this.
Sheila, the daughter of Mr Birling, is described as:
“…a pretty girl in her early twenties…”
She is also described as being “very pleased with life.”
At the beginning of the play she seems rather spoilt and very much a typical, pathetic female of her time in which she is dependent on Gerald.
She appears to be a daddies girl and wants to please Birling as much as possible:
“I’m sorry daddy. Actually I was listening.”
At this point in the play I would never imagine Sheila to answer back to her father at all.
The impression of her being used to getting her own way is confirmed when the Inspector reveals that Sheila is the second girl to have had dealings with Eva Smith.
By her father, Sheila is taught to look after herself only. Through jealousy, Sheila gets Eva Smith fired from her job at Milwards:
“She was a very pretty girl…that didn’t make it any better.”
Even from finding out she was slightly involved with the inspection though, Sheila starts to show some guilt, and, unlike her father, accepts it:
“…if I could help her now, I would.”
During just one night, Sheila changes entirely. She matures a great deal and seems to become independent. She even seems to gain more confidence and stands up to her family.
“Sheila (flaring up) – ‘If you want to know, it’s you two being childish.’”
Throughout the whole inspection it is Sheila who insists on knowing everything. In a way, I believe that in stepping into a more realistic world, rather than one where she is protected by her parents, she learns to grow up a lot and even seems far more mature than her parents. Now it becomes unclear whether or not she will marry Gerald, as she seems to want to learn to rely on herself a lot more.
Overall, the play was written by Priestly to teach us a very important lesson – that we should all be concerned for one another and that, even the slightest things we do may affect someone somewhere.
Our biggest relevance to this message is the incident on September 11th, where hundreds of people were killed and America was disrupted hugely. The Afghans were angry at America’s greediness and felt America was not doing anything to help them. As a result, lots of innocent people died and many families were destroyed. This just shows that, throughout the play, Birlings views are selfish and self-centred.
