Inspector Goole is a mystery from the moment he enters the Birling family's home and lives. Mr Birling is impatient with Goole's suicide story from the beginning.
Yes, yes. Horrible business. But I don't understand why you should come here, Inspector.
But in spite of Mr Birling's expressed annoyance, Inspector Goole insists that his visit is both important and justified. It is not long before we are being informed of Mr Birling and Sheila's involvement with Eva Smith.
It is through the Inspector's methodical investigative approach
It's the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of inquiry at a time. Otherwise there's a muddle.
that we see each character being set up for a dreadful fall from grace. Goole does not give in to Mr Birling's bossiness and threats. He remains calm and progresses at a steady pace, always controlled, in charge and focused. The tensions increase as Gerald's affair is revealed and Sheila begins to understand that all of them are in some way implicated.
No he's giving us rope - so that we'll hang ourselves.
His skilful manipulation of each character through his barrage of penetrating questions, his crisp responses and hard stares leaves them awkwardly unsettled in a room filled with tension. This heightened tension, which pervades the play from the moment he appears confirms his role as more than a staging device. Further, it confirms Priestley's achievement in creating a character shrouded in mystery, whose actions and manner creates and maintains tension at a pace that keeps the audience in suspense from beginning to end.
But the Inspector's interrogation of each individual character does more than add to the prevailing tension. The characters slowly reveal to the audience the great moral divide between the two generations. Eric and Sheila, from the outset, are visibly shaken by the news of Eva Smith, whilst their parents grow increasingly defensive about their involvement with the girl's death. The children show compassion and deep regret for what has happened to Eva. Eric's sensitivity is evident in
I understand a lot of things now I didn't understand before.
In contrast to Eric's understanding we realise Mrs Birling's arrogance and apathy in:
Well, really, I don't know. I think we've just about come to an end of this wretched business
Mr Birling displays similar arrogance when the Inspector reminds him that
Public men ... have responsibilities as well as privileges.
To this Mr Birling replies:
Possibly. But you weren't asked to come here to talk about my responsibility.
It becomes clear that Eric and Sheila are empathetic while their parents remain rooted in their of the truth.
The positive response of the younger generation is indeed symbolic. Whilst Mr and Mrs Birling respond negatively to the Inspector's message of common responsibility, our faith is restored by the children's positive attitudes. Eric and Sheila symbolise hope for the future. The fact that they remorsefully admit to sinning against Eva Smith suggests that they (and the generation of adults) will make a conscious effort at improving human relations. Unlike their parents, who are bent on only creating and sustaining material wealth, they will endeavour to create and sustain spiritual, meaningful social relationships by fulfilling their moral obligations towards their fellow men - especially those oppressed and desperate people such as Eva Smith.
Inspector Goole's remark
But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.
is important and we should all learn from it because Eva Smith does represent millions of similarly desperate people "with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other." Goole reminds us that if man will not learn the of "common responsibility", then "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."
In the final analysis, it becomes evident that success for the future lies with the younger generation. Whilst Mr Birling, to the very end, insists on regarding the Inspector's visit as a 'joke', it is Eric who restores our hope when he says
"And I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her - and that's what matters -."
Eric's admission confirms that Inspector Goole's visit was justified and that valuable lessons were learned. This confirms that Inspector Goole is indeed more than a staging device. He proves to be a powerful force, a catalyst whose skilful and disciplined investigative approach is both instrumental and victorious in initiating positive change in the hearts, the minds and the attitudes of Eric and Sheila and thereby increases our optimism and faith that disadvantaged people will in the future be treated with dignity and respect.
