The inspector reveals all these involvements, and then disappears. The family discover that he is not a real inspector, and they are not in trouble with the law. They also discover that Eva Smith has not committed suicide.
When they discover this, Mr. Birling believes that it is all a trick and wants everything to go back to how it was and that they should all forget about it,
“There you are! Proof positive. The wholes story’s just a lot of moonshine. Nothing but an elaborate sell!”
“Well here’s to us. Come on, Sheila, don’t look like that. All over now.”
He has learned nothing form the experience - to him the plight of Eva Smith is nothing more than an inconvenience or an embarrassment that has now been removed. To him, now that she is no longer a threat to the stability of his family and his business, she no longer matters.
On the other hand, Sheila and Eric have been greatly affected by what has happened, they are not only shocked and worried about the inspector’s message but they also feel sympathy and compassion for Eva. Sheila in particular has completely changed her attitude, at the beginning of the play she was confident, strong willed and interested in money, as demonstrated by her excitement over the expensive ring that Gerald gives her. When she finds out that she is in part to blame for the death of Eva she is really upset and at the end of the play she has definitely learned something, and doesn’t care that the inspector was not real – for her the message is still clear, and she has realized her responsibility to help people like Eva smith. She is surprised that her father doesn’t feel the same:
“I tell you – whoever that Inspector was, 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.”
This represents the difference between the older and younger generations. Mr. Birling is stuck in his ways and won’t open his eyes to the real problems that are affecting the world. It is too late for him to learn, but his children have got time to change their ways, the hope of a better future for the working classes rests with them and other young people like them.
In the very end of the play, it looks like Mr. Birling is going to receive his punishment for his narrow mindedness, when the police call and say that a real inspector is going to visit:
“That was the police. A girl has died - on her way to the
infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a
police inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions – “
Mr. Birling should have seen Inspector Goole’s visit for what it was, a warning. But instead he ignored it, and now he will have to face the real inspector unprepared.
He should have listened to what the inspector had said and understood that he is wrong about his views about the working classes. Just like he should have listened to the ‘silly little war scares’ he talks about in his speech on page 7,
“In twenty or thirty years time – let’s say 1940 – you
may be giving a little party like this – your son or daughter
might be getting engaged - and I tell you, by that time
you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten these Capital
versus Labour agitations and all these silly little war scares.
There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress
everywhere - except of cause in Russia, which will be
always behind naturally.”
This speech is ironic because, as we as readers in the present day are aware the war scares were real and there was war in 1914 and Russia became one of the super powers of the world. J.B Priestly is using this to send out a message to his 1940s audience about how middle and upper class people should not be blind to the needs of the working classes. Eva Smith was a symbol for working class people, and Mr. Birling for upper class, and they showed how the upper classes treated the working classes.
The most interesting thing about the ending of the play is the question about what Inspector Goole is, is he a ghost? Is he real? When Mr. Birling calls the Infirmary it proves the Inspector’s supernatural powers. He tricked Mr. Birling into calling the infirmary; if Inspector Goole had never told them the story about Eva smith, he would never have called the infirmary to ask about her suicide. It was that call that he made which aroused the police’s suspicions and caused them to send round a real inspector when the girl really did die. How could inspector Goole have known about her death, unless he was a ghost, and had supernatural powers of premonition? This keeps the audience guessing and wanting to know what happens. The play is very clever, it makes the audience think.
