Birling believes that you "can't let these Bernard Shaws and H.G. Wellses do all the talking" as being very conservative and believing he is a "hard-headed, practical business man", unlike Bernard Shaws and H.G. Wells who are socialists, he doesn't want socialists to dictate his life. He doesn't want things to change, as he is of a high class, and therefore wealthy and happy.
In 1946 the audience would see Birling as a selfish character, as although he has everything, there are people out there who needed things to change. It would help them see that a change was needed in their time, as things were still the same when it to came to class and wealth. The audience still had the class system, many people were still living on the streets, and life hadn't improved as much as he had believed would. Today's audience would understand why Mr. Birling was so conservative but would disagree with him as we can see that back then life was completely different to now. We can see that if things hadn't changed and people hadn't protested against racism and women's rights, we would still be living a life similar to that time, which we aren't fond of after been given these privileges.
Just before the Inspector enters, Birling advises Eric and Gerald that "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself" and informs them of how the modern man should live, as he is only concerned in individual gain and profit over a person. However eerily the inspector enters mid-conversation, and ironically at the end of the play when he leaves he says "we are responsible for each other" opposing to what Birling has said. Throughout the play, Birling shows one way of thinking, but Priestly, shows his opposing beliefs of the way people's lives should be through the Inspector. The Inspector represents community responsibilities rather than individual ones, whereas the Birlings represent the richer people of the society that do not care for their fellow people in 1910-12. So although the inspector is now changing the play into a detective story, he is still pointing out the social and moral issues.
Both today's audiences and the audiences of 1946 would understand the role for responsibility each of us holds with the context of the play, put beside the contrasting beliefs of Mr. Birling.
The play is very much a detective play when we find out about a young woman who died in the infirmary after "she'd swallowed some strong disinfectant" (Eva Smith). The play uses the "whodunit" genre for the enquiry although as it was suicide, no one was directly responsible. The inspector is now there to enquire into the death of this girl, and he provides evidence of what he knows through a diary she kept. It is also a detective play as there are several suspects, however in this case they are all responsible for the death. It also has a detective theme as some of the suspects try to push the blame onto another character, rather than learning from their mistakes and accepting responsibility of Eva's death, which is also one of the social morals of the story. Also each character has an alibi, except instead of it being an 'I wasn't there' alibi, it's an 'I can't be held for the blame' alibi.
On the contrary the play is different to a detective story in that it doesn't end in an arrest; the detective already knows the truth through the diary and so when he asks each person about their involvement with Eva, he's only getting a few extra details, but already knows the basic involvement; the detective makes a lot of social comments and he is very philosophical. But the main reason the play is not a detective play is the inspector is not real, and acts like a spirit (especially with the name Inspector Goole (ghost)) to warn them and make them learn form their mistakes, and give them a chance. Also, as the detective is like a spirit, he doesn't behave like the average detective and has little respect for the Birling family making rude comments like "don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people". They find him "a trifle impertinent" because of their class and Mr. Birling "was Lord mayor only two years [before]" and "he is still a magistrate".
Class is a theme that runs along the play that Priestly is trying to imply, doesn't matter and you should look after you neighbour. This would have an impact on the 1946 audiences, as the class system was still a very big thing in 1946. They would see that this girl had died and still this family won't accept responsibility merely due to their class and complacency. They could understand the disadvantages of a class system and that they should treat everyone as equals. However, today it wouldn't have the same significance, as there isn't a class system. Nevertheless, today's audience like the 1946 audience could still learn to treat everyone the same in that not to be prejudiced or discriminate against any other type of person or even be stereotypical.
From each character's contribution to Eva's death, there is a message to the audience. For the enquiry on Mr. Birling, we found out that through his complacency, he refused to give the small pay rise that Eva Smith and the other co-workers were asking for. He then sacked her for going on strike and later she dies after her other misfortunate treatments. This teaches the audience that complacency can lead to terrible occurrences. Also Birling believes he "can't accept responsibility" for Eva's death, as he says, "if we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward".
When the detective comes to the inquiry on Sheila's association with Eva Smith, it shows that due to Sheila's class and jealousy, what she thought was nothing "terrible at the time" eventually led to Eva's death. Due to her jealousy she wanted Eva sacked and due to her class, when she complained and asked for Eva to be sacked, the manager sacked Eva. Her contribution to Eva's death shows what class and jealousy can lead to.
Gerald had an affair with Eva whilst dating Sheila. Sheila was upset as "[Gerald] never came near [her]" during the whole of the previous summer, and although at the time he was helping Eva and making her happy, it did more damage to Eva after he ended it. He had given her something so good that losing it due to his relationship with Sheila hurt Eva. This tells the audience not to build relationships that will always end up with one person getting hurt. In his case Sheila and Eva were hurt.
When the inspector questions Eric it is evident that even Eric is responsible for Eva's death. One night the previous November, in the Palace Bar, Eric met Eva. As he was "squiffy" when they returned to her lodgings he forced her to let her in. Afterwards they met up a few times and soon she was pregnant with Eric's baby. As Eric "was in a hell of a sate about it" and she had no money, he resulted in stealing some money from his father's office. When she found out it was stolen, she refused to take it and then turned to Mrs. Birling's committee for help.
On the enquiry for Mrs. Birling association with Eva Smith's suicide, it was revealed that Mrs. Birling refused Eva any help from her committee-"the Brumley Women's Charity Organisation" as she was too cold to "have known what [Eva] was feeling", and was adamant that Eva was lying. Again due to her class and position over Eva she had the ability to refuse her help. She also refused to believe she did anything wrong, and take responsibility.
For each of these characters' contribution there is a theme of responsibility. There are also hints from the themes of wealth and class. For Mr. Birling he was responsible in starting the whole episode. If he hadn't sacked Eva, she may still have had a job. He used his wealth and class against her to sack her. Eva then, after a lot of trouble, managed to get another job, but Sheila was responsible in making her lose her second job through jealousy. Again, she used "the power [she] had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well known in the town" (wealth and class) "to punish [her]". Then came Gerald, who gave her money but then made her unhappy by leaving her. He was responsible in making her feel unhappier than she previously was, and he did this by giving her the love of a man of high class and more wealth than she had, but then he takes it away. She then meets Eric who is responsible for making her pregnant. He tries to give her stolen money, but she finds out, and again his wealth has come between them. As a last resort, she turned to the Brumley Women's Charity Organisation, which was run by Mrs. Birling. Mrs. Birling held the final responsibility but refused Eva of any help, by using her wealth, class and position in the committee to prevent it.
The preceding paragraph shows "we are responsible for each other" and wealth and class causes destruction. The audiences then and the audiences now can evidently see that, as we know Eva would never have committed suicide if everything that had happened to her had never happened. I believe that everything that had happened could have been stopped if the people involved knew their responsibilities, and that wealth and class was not everything. Birling had previously said, "There'll be peace and prosperity". As a member of today's audience I can see the reason peace and prosperity had not been achieved in1946 and has not yet been achieved, is people with wealth believe they are the only prosperous ones. However we can see that their wealth caused a disaster, and from this we can conclude a person with wealth can be more disastrous than prosperous, if they use it in an irresponsible way.
At the end of the play, the detective leaves, Mrs Birling and Mr. Birling try lower all the responsibility and blame onto Eric, and "begin all over again to pretend nothing has happened." However Eric and Sheila are willing to accept responsibility and blame. Gerald had left the house after he was questioned and when he returned he informed the family that he had "met a police sergeant [he] knew [and] and asked him about this Inspector Goole". There was no Inspector Goole in the force. Mr. and Mrs. Birling begin to celebrate now they know he is a "fake". In reply to their celebrations, Sheila bitterly says "I suppose were all nice people now" having learnt from the experience. Gerald isn't sure what to think of the situation, although he still remembers how the inspector made him feel. Therefore due to Mr. and Mrs. Birling's complacency, they receive a call from the police saying "A girl has just died on her way to the infirmary after swallowing some disinfectant. A police Inspector is on his way [there] to ask some questions".
You can see from this that the inspector was there to give them a chance to learn from their mistakes. To make them take on responsibility and appreciate their wealth rather than use it against people. However as Mr. and Mrs. Birling were irresponsible after he left and didn't learn from their mistakes, a real inspector is about to come back to ask questions, and Eva Smith is really dead.
From this, both today's audience and audiences from 1946 would simply learn to take any chances they get to put things right, and learn from any mistakes made or else things will go wrong.
In conclusion, I believe both audiences will see all the morals and themes from this play. This play encourages people to take on responsibilities and shows "we are responsible for each other". It shows wealth and class causes destruction unless used correctly and with appreciation and finally it shows we should all learn from our mistakes.