Unsympathetic, self made, craves social expectance, he never learns, he thinks he is always right,
Gerald has his own slice of blame as his part of the story is not one of the easiest to forgive the reasoning for this is that he used Eva as his mistress and maybe took advantage of her however he did give her a flat to live in and money to fill her ribs but after the period of time Gerald had to through Eva out as the flat was not his and belonged to his friend and his friend was only way for a short while Gerald croft was also a very rich man and was due to marry Sheila Birling it was there engagement on the night of the inspectors call. After this visit they were no longer due to get married after Gerald secret was out in the open. Gerald was one of the few that realized that what he had done was wrong and felt sorry for Eva Gerald’s characteristics are as follows:
Caring (because he helped Eva), sticks with power this is because when the inspector talks about the strike that Eva smith arranged Gerald agrees that the right thing to do was to fire Eva and make an example of her.
Every character gives a first impression, and Sheila is one of them. “Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited” My first impressions when I heard Sheila’s quote was that she’s an immature, naïve girl, and she’s happy and enjoying life.
When Sheila heard about the girl’s death, she begins to be more caring, and her character starts to change. “Oh-how horrible. Was it an accident?” this quote is showing that she starts to be caring, and she starts asking more questions to know more about the girl maybe she could help. The dash means that she paused, and this shows how shocked she is..
Sheila was a very spoiled little girl we know this as she talks to her mother and farther my saying mummy and daddy here is the quote “yes, go on, mummy.” Sheila is also very perceptive as she notices that Gerald was no were to be see all summer the time were he was seeing Eva as she says “yes-except for all last summer when you never came near me.” Sheila was also very childish as she says things like “you’re squiffy” but after the inspector made Sheila spill the truth she also wanted to change the past and she said she would have helped her “if I could help her now I would”. Sheila as you can see has changed her ways and realized her mistakes and she tries to make every one else tell the inspector everything.
Sheila’s reaction to questioning was quite strong, “but these girls aren’t cheap labour-they’re people” Sheila was standing up for these girls, she’s doing what she believes is right, and she doesn’t agree with what her dad said, he didn’t care about Eva Smith when she wanted to get paid more money so he fired her, he was talking like they weren’t people, she’s saying this like she knows how these people feel.
Sheila begins to feel that the inspector was blaming her and the family, so she got angry and said “what do you mean by saying that? You talk as if we were responsible?” she starts to defend herself and her family, because she cares about them all and she doesn’t want any of them to be in trouble, and get hurt.
After the inspector was gone, Sheila was quite confused “that’s all” she said this like she wanted to be asked more questions, and she’s not sure that she did the right thing by saying the truth about what she did to Eva Smith, it’s like she expected to be asked more questions or something else happens like get blamed for it and goes to jail, and she feels like she disserves it.
When Sheila heard that inspector Goole wasn’t a real inspector, she said “(bitterly) I suppose we’re all nice people now.” Bitterly shows that she’s being sarcastic, and she didn’t mean what she said, she meant the opposite. She said this because when they said the truth about everything it makes them nice people, but it doesn’t, and she thought that they all were a nice and a perfect family, but her thoughts were wrong after she heard what everyone in her family had done.
Sheila’s character changed from a girl who had a perfect life, to a caring girl. She couldn’t keep the truth from the inspector because he seems to know it already.
Mrs. Birling works on a comity that gives people money and help when they are in need this is were Eva went after she lost her job at the shop. Mrs. Birling immediately took a disliking to Eva as she used Mrs. Birlings name because of this she didn’t give Eva any money and this leading Eva to prostitution the last thing she could possibly do. Mrs. Birling also tells the inspector that Eva smith was also pregnant and Eva told her that the farther had left her with out a place to live and without any money Eric Mrs. Birlings son was obvious drunk and all the others noticed that when Mrs. Birling was slating the man that left Eva was in fact her own son.
Mrs. Birling is very much like her husband she didn’t admit to her mistakes and demanded that the inspector leaves her house just like Mr. Birling she does this by saying that see will talk to the head of the police and demand an apology the inspector doesn’t really care about this and continues to ask questions. Mrs. Birling is also unsympathetic and she blanks things that Sheila says.
Mrs Birling sounded very posh and heartless when I read her first quote “a rather cold woman”.
Mrs Birling was very calm when the Inspector arrived “My husband has just explained why you’re here, and while we’ll be glad to tell you anything you want to know, I don’t think we can help you much” this quote shows us that Mrs Birling doesn’t care about whatever the inspector wants, and she doesn’t want to help much, because she knows that she doesn’t have anything to do with this girl. She thinks that it was Eva’s fault for using her name (Mrs Birling) and she should find the real father of the baby. She didn’t want to take any responsibility about Eva.
When the inspector begins to ask Mrs Birling the questions, she answered angrily. “Well, come along-what is it you want to know” this shows that she wants the inspector to ask the questions as fast as possible because she wants him to leave quickly; she’s wasting her time for nothing. This suggests that she doesn’t care about the poor girl, and she doesn’t want to help. She has other stuff to do in the house which is better than this waste of time.
When the Inspector leaves Mrs Birling was ashamed of her son Eric, because of his drinking problem. “(Coming to life) I should think not. Eric, I’m absolutely ashamed of you” Eric has brought shame to the family and she’s going to be embarrassed if people will know about it, so she gets angry. This tells us that she loves Eric and he’s the youngest, and she didn’t expect this to happen from him.
When Mrs Birling hears that Inspector Goole wasn’t a real inspector, she was surprised and worried, “I felt it all the time. He never talked like one. He never even looked like one.” She didn’t know that he’s not a real Inspector; if she did she should’ve said it. She was trying to look like she wasn’t fooled by him, like everyone else did.
Mrs Birling’s character doesn’t seem to change in the play; it stays the same cold woman.
Eric is the final piece to the puzzle and in my book he is the most to blame as he takes advantage of Sheila the most let me just tell you what happened before I get to far ahead of my self. After Eva had lost both jobs and had been refused help from the comity she had to resort to prostitution Eric saw Eva in the bar and told the inspector that she was not the regular type in the bar so he went to talk to her and eventually they ended up at the flat were she was living and Eva wasn’t shore about it but Eric insisted as he had payed her so she let him in and they made love as such. A few weeks later Eva found out the she was pregnant this was bad for Eric as this meant he was supposed to marry her and this as not allowed as they were both from different social classes Eva agreed that she didn’t want to tie Eric down. Eric did the best he could to support her he even stole from his own farther just to try and support her.
Eric also realizes that he has done wrong by his family and by Eva, he is also in his fathers bad books as he is mixing with other classes he uses people when they are vulnerable for his own pleasure. When Eric was a young school boy he was never allowed his own opinion this may be a reason why he does what he likes now.
In conclusion to my essay I have discovered that Eric is the one most to blame as he finished Eva off and he stole from his mother and farther he is also Cleary irresponsible and a drunk also Eric only thinks about one thing when he was talking to the inspector he said “could I have a drink first” also his mum and dads negligence may have caused this as they never listen “you never even tried-you don’t understand-you never did “.
I think that the character that changed the most was Sheila as she matured as the play went on she stop calling her mum and dad mummy and daddy and she also learnt to tell the truth as she says “I’m trying to tell the truth”. And she has stop using her silly words like “squiffy”. All of these things Sheila did gave off the effect that she was a stupid immature little girl now she has stop this she seems like an extremely nice person and the only nice one in the Birling family.
As part of my essay I have to show that I understand dramatic devices one of the devices listed is the dramatic irony (Mr. And Mrs. Birling) this is the following: at the very start of the play Mr. Birling is making a speech how every man is for him self and he is also talking of how the war is never going to happen and how the titanic will never sink but as the audience very well knows the things he is talking about have happened also Mrs. Birling also does the same later on in the play as her job as a charity worker she doesn’t do it to help people she does it to make her look good to up her social status.
Another dramatic device is the lighting, at the start of the play the lighting is dim and pink to show a relaxed mood but when the inspector walks in the light goes sharper and brighter and also is just focused on the table like a spot light this is to sow that something bad is going to happen. Another device is the setting at the start of the play the house and the furniture are described as big and classy. As we know this is just to improve there social status and also Mr. Birling is only bothered about his night hood that’s why he denies all aspects of his doing so in the murder in the play.
In conclusion, the Birling family got divided into the parents and the children, the odd thing was that now the children are the more responsible ones and admit their faults, but the parents are ashamed of it and want to hide what they really feel. He admits that he didn’t treat Eva well enough when he left her alone. Anyway, she still looked a bit sorry, probably a bit more than Mr. Gerald was also surprised by the inspector, who came in telling him what Gerald has done with Eva Smith. Even though he was the character who harmed Eva Smith the least, he felt very sorry for what he had done. e could begin to fill sorry, because he now feels that he began with all the trouble in Eva Smith’s life. She didn’t want to realize that what she had done was wrong and treated the theme as if it wasn’t so important. He was going to get married with Sheila and the whole reunion was because the family wanted to celebrate that.
