Gerald: And I don’t see that this inquiry gets you anywhere, inspector. It’s what happened to her since she left Mr. Birling’s works that’s important.
Birling: Obviously I suggested that some time ago.
Gerald: And we can’t help you there because we don’t know.
Inspector: (slowly) Are you sure you don’t know?
The inspector tells the characters that Eva Smith had been out of work for two months and had finally got a job at a department store, Milwards. He says that she had been happy there until a customer had complained about her and she had been sacked from there as well. Sheila asks the inspector when this had happened and when he shows her the photograph (again not showing it to anyone else) she recognizes it and runs out of the room crying. Birling goes after her to find out why and to inform his wife of what’s happening. When Sheila re-enters she admits to knowing the girl and getting her sacked from Milwards by using her mother’s position.
The inspector explained that afterwards Eva Smith had changed her name to Daisy Renton and Gerald becomes “startled” upon hearing this and instantly gives himself away to recognizing the name. The audience if sharp will recognize Gerald’s reaction and will become aware that there is another twist in the tale now involving Gerald.
Gerald: (startled) What?
Inspector: (steadily) I said she changed her name to Daisy Renton.
Gerald: (Pulling himself together) D’you mind if I give myself a drink Sheila?
SHEILA merely nods, still staring at him and goes across to the tantalus on the sideboard for a whisky.
The Inspector asks to see Mr. Birling and leaves with Eric to see him.
As Eric moves, the Inspector looks from Sheila to Gerald, then goes out with Eric
At this stage of the play the audience might get the hint that the inspector actually might know something about Gerald’s involvement.
While the Inspector is gone Sheila confronts Gerald and Gerald at first denies that he recognized the name Daisy Renton but finally admits to not only knowing Eva (at the time Daisy Renton) but having an affair with her and asks her not to say anything to the inspector.
Sheila: About you and this girl?
Gerald: Yes we can keep it from him.
Sheila: (laughs rather hysterically) Why- you fool- he knows. Of course he knows and I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet.
You’ll see. You’ll see.
She looks at him almost in triumph. He looks crushed. The door slowly opens and the inspector appears, looking steadily and searchingly at them.
Gerald is now expressing fear and anxiety that if the inspector finds out that he had known Eva he might bring him in to the suicide.
The inspector has had the effect of making Gerald confessing his crime and making him guilty.
As the inspector re-enters he asks inquiringly to the both of them “Well?”
Now Gerald realizes that the inspector had known all along and the mood changes to increasing sentiments of guilt anxiety and agitation. The atmosphere heightens as the next chain of events unfolds.
Act2
At the beginning of act two the audience is left in suspense and they are at the edge of their seats as they await what happens next. The atmosphere is extremely tense amongst the characters.
When Mrs. Birling enters the scene she enters briskly and self-confidently, quite out of key with the scene that has just passed. Sheila feels this at once.
Sheila tries to warn her but Mrs. Birling dismisses her, revealing her selfish and stubborn attitude to life and the way in which her actions might have an impact on the events in the story. It could also indicate what sort of relationship Mr. and Mrs. Birling has with their children.
The next chain of events unfold when Gerald reveals that Daisy Renton after being kicked out of Milwards had in a desperate attempt to earn some money had worked as a prostitute. This was when Gerald met her. Gerald had looked after her for a while, had given her some money and then broke the affair off. Gerald then leaves the room to “walk about for awhile”.
After Gerald leaves the inspector shows Mrs. Birling the photograph and asks her whether she recognizes it. She refuses until the Inspector accuses her of seeing Eva Smith only two weeks ago. After the inspector constantly pressurizes her Mrs. Birling finally admits that she had come to the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization in which Mrs. Birling was a prominent member to ask for help. Again Mrs. Birling refuses to say anymore until the inspector corners her and reveals to the other characters (and the audience) that Eva had come to Mrs. Birling’s organization because she was about to have a child. He also reveals that the Organization refused her case mainly because of Mrs. Birling’s influence and that was what led the girl to suicide. Mrs. Birling in order to not have the blame on herself accuses the father of the child, saying that he should have taken responsibility and he should be dealt with severely. This shows how the inspector corners the characters and makes them admit their involvement in the death and makes them feel guilty and remorseful, all the time making the atmosphere more and more tense.
Sheila becomes aware of Eric’s involvement when Mrs. B says that the father of the child should be dealt with very severely. She asks Mrs. Birling to stop but she doesn’t listen to her.
Sheila: (with sudden alarm) Mother-stop-stop!
Birling: Be quiet, Sheila!
Sheila: But don’t you see?
Mrs. Birling: (severely) you’re behaving like a hysterical child tonight!
Sheila might have put two and two together and connected Eric to the stolen money and the drinking habits.
When Mrs. Birling realizes that Eric was actually the father, she realizes the consequences of what she has done. She has just condemned her child and blamed Eva’s death on him and she refuses that her child is mixed up in all this. This also shows what sort of relationship Eric has with his parents. They don’t know (until now) of his drinking habits and they have a impression that he is “perfect” and “can do no wrong”.
The act ends at the height of tenseness as Eric enters the room just before the curtain closes and it keeps the audience on the edge with its sense of mystery.
Act 3
Eric recognized the name Daisy Renton but had cleverly concealed it from the others apart from the inspector. He had left the house shortly after that .As he enters he expects the family to know about his relationship with Daisy Renton.
Eric: You know don’t you?
The dialogue shows that Eric is in a sharp, uncomfortable, tense mood.
There is a lot of tension in the room as act three opens.
Mr. and Mrs. Birling are shocked and are in disbelief of Eric’s involvement and Mrs. Birling has just said what to do with him.
Mrs. Birling: And if you’d been take some steps to find this young man and make sure that he’s compelled to confess his responsibility- instead of staying here asking quite unnecessary questions-then you really would be doing your duty.
Eric at once confesses of his involvement in the suicide and tells of his relationship with Eva smith. After he had met her in the palace bar and gotten her pregnant he had stolen some money from his father’s office to give to her. After making him confess the inspector makes a final statement and leaves the house.
The Birling family should all accept what they have done but even though Sheila and Eric accept responsibility for what they have done and feel guilty about it Their parents are quick to pass the blame to someone else and distance themselves from the situation as they do not want to admit their personal failings. This shows how different the younger generation is from their parents. While the older generation still believes in classes of people the younger generation is starting to believe that all men should be equal etc.
When Gerald arrives shortly afterwards he tells the other characters of his suspicions that the inspector was not really an inspector after all and develops a theory that there is no dead girl at all and the inspector had shown each one of them a different photograph each time to make the story fit.
When Gerald makes a phone call to the infirmary to conform the inspectors story. Upon discovering that there had been no dead girl there, almost all of them are relieved, especially Mr. Birling who was afraid that there would be a public scandal but Sheila and Eric insist that nothing has changed and that they are still the same people as before.
When they receive a phone call later, that a girl had just died of suicide and an inspector is coming to ask questions, they all are shocked and guilty.
Birling: That was the police. A girl has just died- on her way to the infirmary- after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here- to ask some- questions.
As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls.
When the play ends with a telephone call, it leaves the audience to think beyond the fall of the curtain. It creates suspense even after the play is over. Who was the inspector?
Priestley leaves the audience to answer that question, therefore the mystery and the tension of what awaits the family looms beyond the fall of the stage curtains.
Conclusion
Priestley uses ironic tension at the beginning of the play e.g. WW2, Titanic by using Birling’s capitalist viewpoint to life. At the end of each act he creates tension and suspense as to hook the audience in to the play and to promote the final message. In the inspectors final speech he tells the Birlings that there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths all over the world and that we are all members of one body and we must look after each other. Tension also develops when the inspector shows the characters the photographs and when Gerald suspects that he might have been showing them different photo’s in order to trick them. The audience has a chance to anticipate the plot and there are points in the play which hints to what might happen. The order in which the inspector reveals the characters involvement and the way in which he give an impression that “he already knows” also creates tension. He starts right at the beginning when Birling sacks Eva from the from the factory and works his way down to the latest development. The entrances and exits of the characters also create suspense and tension as times of entrances etc. become a crucial part of the play.
