Sheila is said to be ‘very pleased with life and rather excited’. Although in her twenties she seems very childish; the way her parents treat her reaffirm this feeling. After calling her brother Eric ‘squiffy,’ her mother seems quite shocked at the things ‘girls pick up these days’ showing the generation gap. When Gerald gives her an engagement ring she asks ‘is this the one you wanted me to have’ showing that Gerald makes the decisions which was normal for the time period in which this was set. I think Sheila is made to look so childish and dependent on her parents and Gerald so that when she does change it makes her look much stronger and independent.
Eric, who may well have been drunk during the celebrations, does not have much to say during the opening scene and is the most unsure of himself (‘not quite at ease’). He does seem quite excitable as his first contribution to the conversation is merely a ‘guffaw’. He questions his father during one of Mr. Birling’s long speeches however, showing that he may be able to think for himself and not take what he hears from his father or anyone else as the definite truth. He shows signs that something may not be right when he talks of Sheila and his mother shopping; he goes to say something, but stops himself, he also looks uneasy when his father and Gerald joke that he may have done something wrong; the dramatic irony is that they have all done something wrong and are about to find out about it.
Sybil Birling, the wife of Mr. Birling married into a lower class and the way she corrects her husband shows this(when he praised the dinner for example; ‘Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things’). While she doesn’t talk as much as her husband she feels that what she has to say is very important and should be taken as the last word; at the start of the play this was usually the case; “I don’t think you ought to talk about business on an occasion like this,” Mr. Birling diplomatically aggress with her before carrying on to avoid conflict with his wife.
Once the inspector arrives, some noticeable changes are made in the characteristics of the Birlings and Gerald Croft. Of the five characters Sheila makes perhaps the biggest change. Unlike her father she takes pity at the news of Eva Smith’s unfortunate death and sees how his firing of her might have had a negative impact on her life. Again, unlike her father, she sees past the cheap labour that Mr. Birling uses these young ladies for, noting that ‘they’re people’. When she learns that she too may have somehow influenced the young girl’s decision to commit suicide she reacts very differently to Mr. Birling, crying and having to run out to contain herself. We also see a change in Sheila’s language, a noticeable example is the way she addresses her mother, Mrs. Birling. In the first page of text she refers to her as ‘mummy’ but by the time Mrs. Birling is talking to the inspector, saying things she may later be sorry for, Sheila warns her as ‘mother’. ‘Mummy’ is much more informal and used by younger children in contrast to ‘mother’ which shows that she has ‘grown up’ in her experience.
The two parents, Mr. and Mrs. Birling do not show any pity to Eva Smith , Mr. Birling even refers to the event as the ‘wretched girl’s death’. Mr. Birling’s only concern is that there may be a public scandal which would put his knighthood in jeopardy; once again showing his priority lies in his own fortune and public status rather than the well being of others. They refuse any responsibility for their actions and genuinely believe they aren’t to blame. Mrs. Birling goes as far as to place the blame solely on the father of the unborn child – which unknown to her is her son Eric. But Mr. Birling by this time has lost any credit he may have had for previous statements about the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic and that there war was not going to happen. The dramatic irony is that these things did happen; the characters in the play do not have the luxury of knowing this but the audience in 1945 would have.
Gerald’s reaction changes through the course of the inspector’s stay. When he first hears of how Mr. Birling fired Eva Smith after the strike he supports Mr. Birling’s decision noting he ‘couldn’t of done anything else’. As he has done before, he is agreeing with Mr. Birling, but this stops once he realises he may have played a part in the girl’s death at the end of Act One. At the first mention of ‘Daisy Renton’ Gerald becomes ‘startled’. Interestingly, Gerald still maintains that they don’t ‘come into this suicide business’ and that nothing should be said to the inspector. Later on when Gerald finds out the Inspector was a hoax he rids himself of any guilt; this shows that Gerald believes in the philosophy of only cheating if you’re caught and has no real conscience.
Eric, like his sister Sheila, is more impressionable and takes the experience as a chance to learn from his mistakes and make self-improvements for the benefit of the community.
When Gerald returns after a walk Inspector Goole has left. While the family are left debating whether the inspector was genuine Gerald seems much happier than before; he had asked a police sergeant he met whether he had heard of an Inspector Goole and is pleased when he finds out there isn’t one. An enquiry to the infirmary also confirms there was no suicide. Mr. Birling is overjoyed now that there will be no public scandal, Mrs. Birling now seems more concerned with how she never confessed to the inspector or took blame and Gerald is trying hard to make excuses in order to fool himself into believing he has done nothing wrong. I think the revelation that the inspector was a hoax and there was no suicide is very important to illustrate how there may be little difference between criminals and ordinary people who are mean spirited and use their power and influence for wrong. Sheila and Eric realise that although according to law they have done nothing wrong, even though they have not driven this woman to kill herself, they have all acted in self interest even when they were aware of their ill-doings. Now that they had been shown what circumstances could arise from their ways they had a chance to change. The younger generation took this chance and acted upon it while their elders chose to ignore and blame they may have wanted to feel.
Inspector Goole is a very interesting character; by the end of the play we find out he is not actually an inspector so who was he, and does the revelation that he is not an inspector diminish the importance of the moral issues? As in ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, the Inspector could be a ghost like figure (Goole sounding like ghoul which is ghost). The Birling Family could also be compared to Scrooge for their greedy and selfish mannerisms. Another possible option which Priestley may have wanted to present the inspector as is our own conscience. The Birlings and Gerald may have conjured up the inspector and are given the information about Eva Smith and her life; some choose to ignore their conscience such as Sybil and Arthur, others learn from it like Sheila and Eric while Gerald is torn between guilt and self pity. Just as he may act like a conscience he could be ‘justice’ for the wrong doings of the family; he is also a mouthpiece to display Priestley’s message to society. This message, which is a direct contrast of Mr. Birling’s speech about a man taking care of himself and his family, tells us that we are each responsible, ‘we are members of one body’.
The stage directions show us that when the inspector arrives on stage the light becomes ‘brighter and harder’ because he is about to shed light on events. During the course of the play he tries to show the Birlings and Gerald the error of their ways without being patronising or pitying. Of the seven deadly sins, several are committed by the Birlings and Gerald. There is envy displayed by Sheila Birling when she sees the pretty Daisy Smith working at Millwards. Sheila had tried on a dress that she did not look good in; Daisy was ‘the right type for it’. Because of her jealousy she gets Daisy fired from her job. The inspector speaks harshly to Sheila to make her feel bad about what she has done. Gerald has lusted after Eva Smith, or Daisy Renton as she was known. He did this while being away for the summer from Sheila and kept her as his mistress. Mr. Birling’s apparent love of money shines through, the avarice he displays at the expense of his family; trying to dismiss Gerald’s affair, ‘you must understand that a lot of young men - ’ to try and save the marriage so he would be on good terms with Crofts Limited, Gerald’s father’s company. Mrs. Birling acts incredibly snobbish when she says we can’t ‘understand why the girl committed suicide’ adding in another comment before Sheila promptly interrupted; ‘Girls of that class.’ It seems that almost all the Birlings and Gerald are guilty of hypocrisy when in the last act they claim not to confessing, Mr. Birling says ‘the fact is, you allowed yourselves to be bluffed.’ Even Mr. Birling believed the inspector at some point, he probably did not want to dent his pride by admitting he too was bluffed.
The play has a strong message of community and looking after each other but also makes many other announcements. It shows us that if we behave immorally we shall be consumed with our own guilt or be too blind to see it and become obnoxious. It shows that there ‘isn’t as much difference’ between ‘respectable citizens’ and criminals as we might think; as the inspector puts it he ‘wouldn’t know where to draw the line,’ meaning that we must be considerate to those less fortunate than ourselves . When this play was first performed the Second World War had just taken place, Mr. Birling’s attitude was that a First World War would not happen, to that he says ‘fiddlesticks’. The play shows that the world continued to make mistakes and wars became the product of those mistakes. If we continue to make mistakes then more wars would come as a result. Another thing Birling mentions in his speech is that ‘in 1940 – you may be giving a little party like this,’ of course, the war was taking place at this time, people would have remembered the terror of the war and associated it with the ignorance of Mr. Birling’s character. The way the Birlings’ pride gets in their way of having any real feelings is apparent; Mr. Birling being more concerned about business propositions than his daughter’s marriage, being more concerned about a public scandal and his knighthood being in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to suicide.
To conclude, the clear message set by the ambiguous character of the inspector is that we all have a responsibility in our society to look after each other. It was written in a time when much hope had to be placed on the future; the end of a war had left millions killed and people clearly didn’t want to see history repeated. The drastic changes shown by Sheila and Eric give hope to a new world and the message given is still relevant in today’s society where much emphasis is placed on avidity and one’s own benefit; most people do not see the need to help those they do not know, but we must treat others as we would like ourselves to be treated.
