Body of Essay
The plot of the play is well thought and keeps you guessing through out the play. The play kicks off with the Birlings and G Croft at a small party where Mr Croft proposes to Sheila. The party is later interrupted by a visit from Inspector Goole, he explains of the death of a poor worker girl called Eva Smith and shocks them when he tells how they are all entwined with her life and assisted in her death. Through the course of the play you get to see the differences in the way the characters think of life. When the Inspector leaves they find out he is a fraud and there is no dead girl, when trying to work out how they had been fooled they receive a call saying a girl had died and an Inspector is on there way to ask questions.
Each individual character or group is a symbol to others in society. Priestly sees this society as unhealthy, unhappy and gloomed to failure. In this way he was correct, as the times have changed for the better. A quote form the Inspector on page 56 is seen as the moral of the play “We do not live alone, we are members of one body, we are responsible for each other.”
The Crofts are symbols of the highest class (second only to Royalty). They are described on page 8 as “old county family – landed people.” Arthur Birling espiers to their level and dreams of the day he can look to them as his equals. He hopes the marriage between his daughter, Sheila, and their son, Gerald, my help his chances but is worried by Gerald’s mother “Lady Croft feels you ……… might have done better for yourself socially.”
The Birlings represent the higher business type of class. He is hoping to be knighted soon and his social class would grow as he is currently seen as an older man and a majestic. He lives the highlife of “a prosperous manufacture” with his rich furniture and maid’s rich cloths and lifestyle but is still consous of his inferioty of the Crofts. In this family Arthur Birling and his wife Sybil symbolises the older generation and his children Eric and Sheila Birling represent the younger generation. The relationships between the two groups are poor as each no little about the other.
Inspector Goole symbolises the Professional class who does the important hard work but still no’s his place. He views society in the exact opposite as Mr Birling and doesn’t see the lower class as cheep labour but sees them as people.
The Staff at Millwood’s are symbols of the people that make the world go round, the people that are there to make life easier for people like the Birlings. They are not the lowest group in society and landing a job at Millwood’s was a big step up for Eva Smith.
Eva Smith is a symbol of the lowest class of society, the poor people who will work in the poorest conditions for little pay and have no influence in what goes on in the world. At the time there was millions of people living in conditions like this and are described on page 19 as “lonely and half starved” and the Inspector tells of the “millions of Eva Smiths.”
Most of the characters in the story experience a whole range of changing emotions through the play. Mr Birling starts the play as the cheerful farther of two and looks like he hasn’t a problem in the whole world, but when he here’s of the connection to him and Eva Smiths death he changes to a strong character in his belief that he cannot be blamed for her death, then towards the end of the play seems to beg the Inspector saying “I’d give thousands, thousands.” How ever Mrs Birling seems to be made out of stone refusing to take responsibility for the death of Eva Smith but does seem to be a but emotional when she hears that Eva was pregnant with Eric’s child. Sheila and Eric seem to be worst affected by the situation and always try to see the situation from all the points of view and accept their responsibility for what happened to Eva Smith.
The arguments between Mr Birling and the Inspector Goole are a symbol of Capitalism Vs Socialism. Mr Birling is satisfied with the capital ways of the government and likes the system that he is socially high in. The Inspector how ever sees this system as inadequate and believes the people have a right to views and voting however low their classes. The Inspector on page 56 quotes the political message of the play where he says, “We do not live alone, we are all members of one body, we are all responsible for each other.”
Conclusion
I found the play quite effective which is surprising, as the situations of the people described in the play no longer exist. The main effectiveness of the play was have it gets you thinking and guessing what’s going to happen next and leaves you on cliff hangers which are revisited later in the play. Even though the same situation do not apply to the social system of today the message of the play still works.
Personally I enjoyed the play because of its story is so original and how Priestly seems to visualise what the society of today is like and brings it to life through the Inspector. The message is clear and easily under stood. The only disappointment in the play is the narrow mindedness of Eric and Sheila and they come across as a bit think and it annoyed me and they could not see what Gerald was trying to say about the Inspector being a fake and that a girl isn’t dead.