The characters all have their own personalities which differ from each other. Arthur Birling, from the very beginning of the play, we see that he seems to be a very stuck up, arrogant, selfish, greedy, and some what stupid man. He can be described as "his wife's social inferior", he is the first of the family to be interrogated by inspector Goole, yet after the story of how he had fired Eva Smith from his factory when she worked there after a protest she lead, had been put out in the open, he did not show any remorse at all, 'Eva Smith was one of them. She'd had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go', here Mr Birling is showing no regret that he had fired a girl who is now dead from his factory, who did nothing but protest for a more decent pay. Mr Birling's beliefs and values are that it is every man for himself and people should not look after anyone else but his own. 'You'd think everybody has to look after everybody else', this contradicts Priestley's beliefs. Mr Birling's initial response to the inspector's arrival is that it is something to do with politics. When he first hears of Eva Smith's suicide he shrugs it aside and does not seem sympathetic at all, cutting right to what it had to do with him. Even after he realises that he knew the girl who committed suicide and he might have something to do with the case he still seems not to care,'…Obviously it has nothing whatever to do with the wretched girls suicide'. When Sheila enters the room Mr Birling tries to get rid of her and attempts to send her away because he feels that women should stay out of men's business, 'nothing to do with you Sheila. Run along', here Mr Birling is attempting to protect his daughter form the truth therefore not allowing her to become involved with the real world. These attempts were ruined by the inspector who felt that Sheila had just as much right to be there as Mr Birling. This selfishness will make the reader feel that they do not want to be like Mr Birling, so again Priestley's aim is coming into action. Mr Birling seems to be very stupid iswell, '..- the titanic - she sails next week - forty six thousand eight hundred tons - New york in five days - and every luxury - and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.' Here, there is dramatic irony, because everyone knows that the titanic has sunk, so this makes Mr Birling seem rather daft.
Sheila Birling, is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Birling, she is the next to be questioned after her father. When the Inspector starts to interrogate her she is very honest and is very upset when she realises that it was her that got Eva Smith fired from Milward's. One thing that the firing shows about Shelia is that she did things without thinking of the results. I think that if she had thought about the idea of firing Eva Smith she would not have spoken to the manager. Another thing that is interesting is that she is a bit of a spoilt brat as her only reason for being angry with this girl is that she looked better in a certain dress than Shelia. She knows what she has done is wrong and is still upset over it. Her father however just doesn't care. He will not even admit that he has done wrong at all. She even goes so far as beginning to think that she is horrible for suggesting to Gerald that he is accusing her of being the same. Often in the play, Shelia says how she feels responsible for Eva's death, 'no, not really. It was my own fault.' She is very honest with her thoughts and feelings. We see her as a very honest woman who tells her parents and the Inspector how her brother drinks, but only when she thinks that it is necessary to do so. Although she is very kind, she is not completely forgiving, and is still angry with Gerald for having an affair though she does however recognise that Gerald is not all bad and although he walks out she says, 'Gerald. In fact, in some odd way, I rather respect you more than I've ever done before', here Sheila respects Gerald more because of confessing the truth and being honest. Sheila seems to be the most intelligent and mature one out of the family, 'but you're forgetting one thing I still can't forget. Everything we said had happened really happened', Sheila said this after everyone had realised the inspector was a fake, she still took responsibility for what she did, and she wanted everyone to do the same, Priestleys aim has been coming throught Sheila, since she has been taking responsiblity, and she knows that everyone should treat everyone the same.
Gerald Croft is the next character to be interrogated by the inspector. Gerald is a calm and sensible person, Gerald is an interesting character from a moral prospective. He appears at some points to be kind and gentle and at others to be almost like Birling in his attitude towards everyone. The conservative side of him appears early in the play when he agrees with Mr Birling that the girl should have been fired as she asked for a better wage. At first, Gerald seems like a kind man, who loved his soon to be wife Sheila, 'thank you. And I drink to you - and hope I can make you as happy as you deserve to be', here we see Gerald being very loving towards Sheila, but as we go further on into the story, we soon discover the truth behind Geralds, 'I was awfully busy at the works all the time', the truth is that Gerald was actually having a affair with Eva Smith, so we see that adultery has come into the play, but soon he had ended it with Eva Smith, leaving her heart broken. This is a example of how some people can be deceitful and hurtful to each other, knowing about Geralds affair, makes you feel sad for Sheila, you shouldn't lie to each other. As he tells of his affair, Gerald does show remorse for what he did, 'she didn't blame me at all, I wish she had now, perhaps I would feel better about it', he is shown as a thoughtful person at that point. At the end of the story, Gerald is the one who works out that the inspector Goole was a fake, 'a man comes here pretending to be a police officer. It's a hoax of some kind.' So Gerald is as we can see, a intelligent man. Althought he works out that inspector Goole was a fake, he seems to think that everything is normal, and that althought he did have a affair, it didn't matter since the inspector was a fake, 'Sheila. What about this ring?' he is acting very cocky.
Mrs Birling was then questioned after Gerald. The key words I would use to sum up Mrs Birling's character would be cold, unfeeling, socially correct, self - important, stuck up and cruel. Mrs Birling is described as a 'rather cold woman and her husband's social superior´. Her coldness and lack of conscience make her unsympathetic, while her keen awareness of the rules of polite behaviour, makes her seem out of touch with what really matters. Mrs Birling's refusal to help the Eva Smith, 'Im sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it all' could easily have been what finally led to her suicide. Yet it is only when she realises that Eric was the child's father and so her actions had resulted in the death of her own grandchild that she begins to show any signs of weakening, 'no - Eric - please - I didn't know - I didn't understand -' here we see see her feeling quite sorry for herself. The speed with which she recovers after the Inspector's departure emphasises how cold and unsympathetic a character she really is. I think Priestley wanted the reader to dislike Mrs Birling, she was shown as a stuck up rich british woman with lack of understand of the real world, no one would want to be like her, nor would they want to be in contact with her, she doesn't consider other peoples feelings, the reader will end up disliking her for her disrespect of other people. Mrs Birlings attitude will teach others not to act so highly and end up in her situation.
Eric Birling is the son of Mr and Mrs Birling and younger brother of Sheila Birling. Eric is a character whose ideas change considerably towards the end of the story. When we first meet him, he has had rather too much to drink or "squiffy" as Sheila puts it. He appears to agree with but has little enthusiasm for his fathers ideas until the Inspector arrives. This is the point in which his ideas about Eva Smith change and he begins to criticise his father and mother in a similar way as Sheila, although not in such as sophisticated a manner. The reason his opinions change is that Eric was indeed the father of Eva's baby. After the Inspector had left the Birling household, Eric had returned, and by then, everyone had figured out who the father of Eva Smith's child was, Eric knows this immediately as he walks in 'you know, don't you?', this builds some tension, as you cannot guess what will happen next. Although we first see Eric as a young care free man who drinks alot of alcohol, at the end of the play we can see that there is a more serious side to him, 'you lot may be letting yourselves out nicely, but i can't. Nor can mother. We did her in all right', here he seems to act more maturely than the others, showing his more respectful side to others. Eric feels great remorse and regret over what had happened to Eva Smith, we see that he is not a bad person.
Inspector Goole, is the person who stirs everything up, and reveals the truth. He is a man that creates an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness, he is a man in his fifties who wore a plain darkish suit. He appears to know about Eva's death before it has even happened, I think perhaps he has some kind of sixth sense. He says towards the end of the third act, 'And my trouble is - that I haven't much time.' Is this because he knows the real police will soon call the house to ask their questions? No one knows because the question is left unanswered, all we know is that he was a fake. Priestley seems to put his thoughts throught the inspector. At first, the inspector talks rather calmly when he interrogates everyone, 'Quite so', he replies using short sentences, but at the end of the investigation, he starts to talk more aggressively, 'She needed not money but advice, sympathy, friendliness. You've had children. You must of known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face', we can see that his sentences are much longer, and he expresses more of himself. The Inspector performs a very important speech that covers all the main themes of the play and allows Priestley to get his message across. The speech is very powerful and dramatic it is quite similar to a political speech. The reason it is so dramatic and powerful is because of the use of 'we and us' and memorable phrases like 'fire and blood and anguish'. We can see this at the end of act three 'We don't live alone, we are members of one body, we are responsible for each other.' 'If men will not learn this lesson they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish' What Priestly is trying to get across here is that we need to take responsibility in order to maintain peace in the world. If we don't then it could result in someone committing suicide. Priestley's aim came across in a good way. The Inspector's speech would have brought up alot of questions inside the readers mind because of the powerful language used and because he left the scene directly after speaking.
The play is set out like a crime investigation, this may appear strange to the reader, as actually no crime has been commited accept on a moral level. The classic 'who dunnit' has a detective (inspector Goole) with a room full of people who are, in some way, all related in some way, investigating a murder. But with An Inspector Calls, no murder has been commited, only a suicide, so there will be no arrests or jail sentences. There is a series of clues provided in order to let the reader work things out for themselves. Information is given out slowly to maintain a high amount of suspense, as in any play concerning crime and investigation. Only really valid and important pieces of information is released when the inspector himself, has figured it out first. As we read the play, some parts do suggest that a crime has been commited, but at the end we discover that there was none, only sins were commited. There is alot of use of dramatic irony in the play, such as the stupidy of Mr Birling, 'you'll hear some people say that war's inevitable. And to that I say - fiddlesticks! The Germans don't want war.' Mr Birling is completely wrong here, because a few years after he would of said this, world war II would have come, its dramatic irony which brings humour iswell. Another form of dramatic irony used in the play is that, the reader has been provided enought clues to figure out what on certain situations, but the Birling family do not discover what happened until later on. There has been alot of moments in the play, which has held the readers attention and made the point stronger, for instance, when everyone had known that the inspector was a fake, and had thought that Eva Smith hadn't died and it was all a joke, until suddenly the phone rang, it built to a climax, because at first, everyone felt relieved until they had got that haunting phonecall which soon confirmed all their fears and about what they all did to Eva Smith, when Mr Birling tells them what was said on the phone, they become all guilty and dumbfounded, it built great tension from the point of when the phone rang and just before Mr Birling revealed the bad news.
In conclusion, I think that Priestley's aim in An Inspector Calls was to teach others that we are all human beings who have feelings and emotions and that we must work together in this society, to avoid conflict, war and disasterous outcomes such as causing someone to commit suicide. I think that Priestley achieved it well, we are all responsible for each other, and we are responsible for how we treat others. I think this play has made the readers think twice about certain bad, rude or selfish things they have done in the past, and made them want to treat others better, how they would want to be treated, because at the end of the day, it could all backfire and come back to you. No one would like to be in any of Gerald's, Mr Birling's, Mrs Birling's, Eric's, or Sheila's position, or even in Eva Smiths. He put through his aim in a good way, using humour, dramatic irony and tension in the play, it made the readers want to read on, and when they read on, I think they learned more, and wanted to be a nicer more thoughtful person. Using a rich british family as the main focus, teaches you that just because you are of higher status doesn't mean you're better than anyone else, and that just because you have more money than another person doesn't mean you should treat them any different or act superior to them.
Thanh Huynh
English Coursework
10L/N
Miss Calouri
