Sheila Birling, (Arthur and Sybil’s daughter), was the next to be interviewed after her father. Before the Inspector’s entrance we see Sheila as a young, attractive girl in her twenties. She is “very pleased with life” as she has a very good lifestyle and spends a lot of her time shopping for clothes. Sheila is excited and looking forward to marrying Gerald Croft. She has no worries at the beginning of the play and knows nothing about the lifestyles of working-class people who work in her father’s factory or in the shops she spends her time.
When Sheila first came into contact with Eva Smith in Milwards, the dress shop, she showed herself to be a jealous and spiteful young lady who used her position and family’s money to get Eva the sack. This was just because she didn’t like Eva looking better in the dress than she did.
Sheila is very distressed by Eva’s suicide and agrees with the Inspector that she behaved terribly and insists she never meant anything ghastly to happen to Eva. Sheila admits her faults readily and is anxious to change her behaviour in the future, “I’ll never, never do it again”.
The maturity of Sheila is shown during the break-up of her engagement. She would not be rushed into accepting the ring back off Gerald once the Inspector had left.
Priestley shows that Sheila is the exact opposite of her father, in that she is willing to learn from her experience. By the end of the play Sheila has learnt to be more caring to those less fortunate than herself.
Gerald Croft is the rich young fiancé of Sheila Birling. He is a well-mannered upper-class man whose parents own the rival firm to Arthur Birling’s. His views on the way a business should be run, how workers are treated and the importance of making money are similar to Arthur Birling’s. Gerald is in his thirties, older than Sheila and Eric, whose parents look on Gerald as an equal for the reason that he is trusted with the secret of Arthur’s possible knighthood.
During his questioning by the Inspector, the audience learns of Gerald’s involvement with Eva Smith, Gerald however knows Eva as Daisy Renton. The audience learns of Gerald’s affair with Daisy and his treatment of her when he tired of her. The affair started the summer before when Gerald came to Daisy’s rescue from the unwanted attention of Alderman Meggarty, a large fat man, “half-drunk and goggle-eyed”, who Gerald knew, in the stalls bar in the Palace Theatre. When they met two days later by arrangement, Gerald found out that Daisy was completely penniless, starving and homeless. As Gerald was looking after an apartment for a friend, he let Daisy move into that apartment. Gerald found Daisy attractive from the start and their affair developed a short time later. He admits that Daisy’s feelings for him were stronger than his own for her. Gerald did feel guilty for finishing with Daisy; therefore he gave her some money before he went away on business. Although Daisy had realised the affair was to end, Gerald had “made her happy for a time”. Gerald does regret the way he treated Daisy but not as deeply as Sheila does.
Sybil Birling is Arthur’s wife. She is a “rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”. Like her husband she does not care for anyone but herself. Mrs Birling is a member of the “Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation” who Daisy went to for help when she was pregnant and destitute. To save Daisy the embarrassment of being single and pregnant she used the name “Mrs Birling” when asked for her details at the charity. The real Mrs Birling got very angry with this because she thought the girl was trying to insult her, consequently Sybil turned down Daisy’s appeal for help. Even though this was the last straw for Daisy before she committed suicide, Mrs Birling refused to feel guilty and showed little remorse for her actions. By the end of Act Two Mrs Birling shows how uncaring and superior she thinks she is with comments like “a girl of that sort”.
Eric Birling is the last person to be interviewed. He is Sheila’s brother and is a drunk, confused young man. Unlike his sister, Eric is “not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive”. Eric’s father does not approve of him and does not tell Eric about his likely knighthood. Eric drinks too much, made Daisy pregnant and stole money from his father’s safe. Eric must have seemed very frightening to Daisy when he was drunk the night they met at the Palace Theatre “in that state when a chap easily turns nasty”. Eric’s casual attitude towards his relationship with Daisy, who he refers to as “a good sport”, shows his immaturity.
Like his sister, Eric feels sympathy for Eva Smith when he hears how his father sacked her. When it emerges how Eric himself treated Daisy he is thoroughly ashamed of his behaviour and is capable of changing for the better and wishes his parents would admit their mistakes, as he has his.
Edna, the maid, appears only for a short time. Her attendance shows the wealth of the Birling family. It is Edna who announces the Inspectors arrival.
Every bit of information we learn about Eva Smith/Daisy Renton is from the Inspector. Eva was a pretty twenty-four year old woman whose parents were both dead. We know she was pretty enough to make Sheila jealous and attract the attentions of Gerald and Eric. Eva worked hard, first of all in Birling’s factory until Arthur sacked her in September 1910 for asking for higher wages. She had been out of work for two months and was becoming desperate when through good fortune; Eva managed to find employment at Milwards. She must have been very lonely and desperate for a fresh start to change her name to Daisy Renton after she was sacked from Milwards in January 1911. Even though Daisy was reduced to earning her living by picking up men in the Palace Theatre bar, she was unhappy at exploiting herself. She knew right from wrong when she refused to marry Eric or accept his stolen money.
Daisy loved Gerald but he didn’t love her. Eric felt he had to marry Daisy but she didn’t love him. Daisy went to a charity for assistance and was turned away. She was pregnant with no husband or job. Daisy had no faith left in herself or society and killed herself in a terrible painful way by drinking strong disinfectant that “burnt her inside out”.
Inspector Goole is a mystery in the play, he appears as mysteriously as when he leaves. The main role for the Inspector is revealing the description of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton’s death. He uses a letter, photograph and diary that she had left. The Inspector decides whom he will or will not show the photograph to. Goole also manages to make the characters feel guilty for how they had treated Eva/Daisy and he also cleverly turns the family against each other. The Inspector was in complete disagreement to Arthur in his views, compassion and openness. The doorbell rings by the Inspector just as Arthur Birling is saying “that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own”.
Priestley uses the Inspector to create the drama and the tension in the play by Goole being in control of the characters on the stage. The drama and tension rises gradually from before the Inspector’s arrival. Everything is very calm and cheerful at the engagement dinner until Sheila comments “Yes– except for all last summer, when you never came near me”. This is the first hint of any friction within the family. The audience is now listening carefully to what this could mean.
With the Inspector’s arrival and the questioning of Arthur Birling, the news of a suicide starts the audience wanting to know who was to blame. The hideous way that Eva died is extremely dramatic and the Inspector repeats this information a number of times throughout his questioning. For a young woman to drink disinfectant and burn their insides out is a dramatic death.
The tension rises with the questioning of Sheila and her part in Eva’s life and death. To the audience this is another character that could have been the deciding factor in Eva’s death.
As Gerald tries to persuade Sheila that they can keep the news of his affair with Daisy from the Inspector, Goole slowly opens the door and says questioningly “well?” This concludes Act One abruptly and leaves the audience wondering what could possibly happen next.
Act Two begins exactly where Act One finished. There is tension between Sheila and Gerald over his affair with Daisy. Gerald’s questioning by the Inspector begins. Here is another character that was involved in some way with Daisy, although apart from breaking their affair off, Gerald did not treat Daisy too badly. The inspector seems to deal with Gerald less harshly than the others, since his only real crime was his unfaithfulness to Sheila Birling.
As the drama and tension increases through each interview, it is the turn of Mrs Birling. She is so sure of herself and readily blames someone else for Eva/Daisy’s misfortune; little knowing that it is her own son who is responsible for Daisy’s pregnancy. The audience hears Sheila try to warn her mother to be quiet and the tension rises each time Mrs Birling speaks. Sheila, and most likely the audience as well, realises that it must be Eric who her mother is chastising for being weak and irresponsible as he is the only one that has not been questioned yet. At the end of Act Two Eric enters back onto the stage and the thick of the drama. The Inspector wants to make an example of Eric as Mrs Birling wishes. This was before Mrs Birling knew that all along she had been pulling her son to pieces over the treatment of Eva/Daisy. The curtain falls quickly as Eric enters, which increases the tension further.
Eric is standing in exactly the same position as when Act Two finished at the start of Act Three. The tension is unbearable for the audience; the whole family is in some way involved with Eva/Daisy’s death. After Eric explained his involvement with Daisy he was curious to know how the Inspector knew about his stealing and thought Daisy had come to the house. Eric is told of his mother’s part in the story and turns on her harshly “yes, and you killed her – and the child she’d have had too – my child – your own grandchild – you killed them both – damn you, damn you -”, Eric is horrified of his own mother’s behaviour.
After everyone has been interviewed, the Inspector makes them all listen to how each of them in turn have had some part in pushing Eva/Daisy towards suicide. The Inspector’s final speech reminds the characters and audience that “One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, what we think and say and do”. The speech is powerful and dramatic, similar to a political speech. The reason it is so dramatic and powerful is because of the use of “we and us” and the phrases the Inspector uses to warn that if changes are not made the future will be one of “fire and blood and anguish”. Immediately after his speech the Inspector bids the family “Good night” and walks straight out leaving the family in chaos.
After the Inspector’s departure the family argue over what has happened. Arthur Birling is worried that he will not get a knighthood if there is a scandal and blames Eric for Eva/Daisy’s death. Eric says that he is ashamed of his parents like they are of him and believes they are all in someway responsible, just as the Inspector felt in the “chain of events” back in Act One. Arthur still believes that he and his wife were right in their conduct; Mr and Mrs Birling are behaving as if nothing has happened, “nonsense! You’ll have a good laugh over it yet”. Sheila, angry at her parents’ turns on them, “it was anything but a joke. You knew it then. You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way”.
Sheila realises it is very poingnont when she learns of exactly when the Inspector arrived and feels that “there was something curious about him” and that he “never seemed like an ordinary police inspector”. The Birlings think that if he were not a real Inspector there would be no scandal.
Sheila’s parents try to prevent her from telling Gerald about the involvement of Eric and Mrs Birling in Eva/Daisy’s suicide when Gerald returns. It is Gerald who tells the family that a local police sergeant had told him whilst he was out, that there was no Inspector Goole. Gerald suggests that they may not have each been involved with the same girl. He uses the uncertainty about Eva/Daisy’s name and the fact that no one saw the photograph shown to each other, to suggest that Mr Birling had one girl sacked from his factory, Sheila had another girl sacked from Milwards, Gerald had an affair with another and Eric made one girl pregnant who probably tried to get help from Mrs Birling. This leads to questioning by the characters if there ever was a suicide. Mr Birling telephones his friend, the Chief Constable who confirms there is no Inspector Goole and Gerald telephones the Infirmary to learn that no one has been admitted for drinking disinfectant.
Mrs Birling congratulates Gerald on how he has “argued this very cleverly”. Gerald and Mr and Mrs Birling are relieved that they have worked out the Inspector is an impostor, so reducing the seriousness of their own admission of guilt. Eric and Sheila do not feel the others relief, they do not care if the Inspector was a hoax as they know that things can never return to how they were before. They cannot forget how they have behaved in the past and agree to change their future behaviour forever.
From the Inspector’s exit until this point in the play, the audience feels a mood of anti-climax. They still don’t know who is responsible for the suicide and there are so many unanswered questions regarding the Inspector and Eva/Daisy. The audience will most likely think that this is the end of the play and will be thinking of leaving.
As Mr Birling tries to make a joke out of what has happened “And they can’t even take a joke-”, the telephone rings. He answers and hears that a police Inspector is on his way …
The telephone call at the end of the play reopens the question of the Inspector’s identity. It also leaves the audience wondering whether it will be the same Inspector as before, along with a dramatic rise in tension. The audience leave the theatre thinking it will all start again. This is a real ‘twist in the tale’ and creates the final tension. There are no answers but in real life there are no answers to some things that happen.
The historical content of the play shows to the audience how wrong Arthur Birling is in his views on life. He says, in one of his speeches that he loved to make, he is confident that the future will bring peace and prosperity, “the Germans don’t want war”, with “Capital” and “Labour” working together. (Capital meaning factory owners and Labour being the work force). This was completely untrue as there was unemployment and strikes for the next thirty years, as well as two World Wars. Arthur felt it important for businessmen to speak out against socialist ideas; he condemns “Bernard Shaw”, “H.G. Wellses” and others with socialist views. Both of these famous writers were interested in social justice as was Priestley himself. Birling was totally wrong with his prediction of the “completely unsinkable” Titanic as it sank in April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage. Priestley showed dramatic irony in the play using this small piece of information. Arthur is looking forward to the future but what he talks about is known to the audience to be untrue. Arthur is shown by Priestley to be a fool, thinking he knows best and that it is only his opinions that matter.
The Inspector’s final speech shows the socialist view of J.B. Priestley; this is the main theme of the play. I think the Inspector is a reflection of Priestley himself. Priestley used Arthur Birling to show an upper-class factory owner and Eva Smith/Daisy Renton to contrast sharply with the Birlings and Gerald Croft’s lives. Priestley uses her tragedy to make people think about their responsibilities towards others. Arthur Birling on the one hand believes that people should look after themselves, “you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we’re all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense”, whereas Priestley wanted the Inspector to get across to the audience the opposite view.
The class system of the time of the play was shown by the obvious differences between the Birlings lifestyle and Eva Smith/Daisy Renton’s. Arthur Birling was more concerned with his social position in life than that of the lower classes. Eva, who had low status was seen by the upper classes as not being important and of little value as a human being. Mrs Birling’s thoughts on lower class women were “Girls of that class”. The Inspector reminds the characters what appalling conditions the working classes live in “There are a lot of young women living that sort of existence in every city and big town in this country, Miss Birling. If there weren’t the factories and warehouses wouldn’t know where to look for cheap labour. Ask your father”.
The importance of money is another theme shown in the play. Eva/Daisy was very poor and starving. She had to work hard for a living but still had a terrible life since she was so poor. The Birlings though had money, the women didn’t work and they were protected from the outside world. Money gave people a high position on the social ladder and class system. Arthur Birling thought more of his own wealth than giving his workers a decent wage to live on when he sacked Eva.
The power of men over women is another theme in the play. Arthur has no regrets in sacking Eva Smith just because she asked for more money, “If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth”. The Inspector retorted, “They might. But after all it’s better to ask for the earth than take it”. The Inspector implies that the upper and middle classes have stolen the earth and that the workers should own the factories.
A different theme is whether people admit what they have done is wrong and learn from it. The older generation e.g. Mr Birling has not learnt anything and is only concerned about a scandal. The younger ones, Sheila and Eric, have learned from the Inspector, “And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped kill her – and that’s what matters”. Also Sheila says “But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people”. This shows that both Sheila and Eric have admitted what part they played in Eva/Daisy’s death and have become aware of those less fortunate than themselves. This is what Priestley wants to happen in the whole class system.
Although all the characters played a part in Eva/Daisy’s death, I feel the person most to blame is Mrs Birling. As a responsible adult she should have done all she could for Eva/Daisy. She had the power to help Eva/Daisy but in not doing so pushed the young woman over the edge to commit suicide. It was her role in the charity to help girls like Eva/Daisy, but she didn’t like her and for that reason refused Eva/Daisy’s cry for help. Mr Birling was also to blame in some way as it was he who first made Eva’s poor life worse by sacking her and wanting to make an example of her to the rest of the workforce. Eva then got the sack again through Sheila’s jealousy. Gerald briefly made Daisy happy until he finished their affair although he did not consider how she would manage. Eric was weak and made Daisy’s life even more tragic by using her and getting her pregnant. To his credit though he did try to help Daisy by offering her money, even though he had to resort to stealing it and had every intention of paying it back somehow.
Having studied “An Inspector Calls” in some detail the play does not show that one person is to blame for the society of that day, however the whole of society should share the responsibility. The moral of the play is that each person should look out for his neighbour and no one person is better than another. Everyone should share the responsibility of caring for the less fortunate and help them to achieve better lives.
I believe that J.B. Priestley put across his point extremely well. He used Sheila and Eric as symbols that a brighter future lays in the younger generation, and the Inspector as a conscience for the characters, to manipulate them and help the audience to look at their own lives and how they treated others. If just one person went away from the play with this thought then I believe the play was worth writing for Priestley.
