All through the play the Inspector is attempting to get the message across to the Birlings that we are all responsible for each other and one small action can inadvertently affect another profoundly. This is in stark contrast with Birling’s ideals, at the beginning of the play, just before the family is interrupted by the inspector, he says “The way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense. But take my word for it, a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.” This shows he believes that, just because the Birling family is upper class they are somehow isolated from the poor and needy and they need not help them. I think he believes this because he was not always rich and feels proud of his achievement and doesn’t think he should help others when he’s worked so hard to get where he is. We can tell these are not Priestly’s views because Birling is so wrong about many other things. On the topic of war he says, “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war. There’s too much at stake these days. Everything to lose and nothing to gain by war” of course he is completely wrong because the play is set in 1912, very soon before the First World War. Birling also says the Titanic is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”. He states that they are “in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity.” when the great depression is soon to happen. He also says “There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere- except of course in Russia, which will always be behindhand naturally.” When the Soviet Union is about to become one of the most powerful countries on earth. When the Inspector arrives and makes a point that goes against Birling’s ideas of every man for himself and that we aren’t responsible for one another, “What happened to her may have determined what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.” To this Birling replies “ Put like that, there’s something in what you say.” Therefore contradicting his earlier speech. He soon remedies this, though, by contradicting himself yet again and reverting back to his former statement by saying, “Still I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?” The Inspector’s main argument throughout the play is that we must accept the fact that we are responsible for one another, whether we like it or not. As Birling points out, this would make life “very awkward” for some. Later on in the play the inspector points out that “it’s better to ask for the earth that to take it.” Meaning some people take everything and leave others with barely anything, he is of course implying this is what Birling does. Birling then gets angry and tries to intimidate the Inspector but of course the Inspector doesn’t care. Later still in the play, the Inspector plays on the fact that the Birlings don’t believe in community by saying, “You can divide the responsibility between you when I’m gone.” Not only is he implying that, because they don’t believe people share responsibility for one event, they will have to decide exactly who is responsible for what. This quote is also pointing toward the fact that the inspector isn’t in fact an inspector at all. This quote also has a somewhat dark humour and sarcasm to it, he’s talking to the Birling family as if they are children and the death of Eva Smith is but a trivial argument. Another quote that reinforces the Inspector’s views on responsibility is “Public Men, Mr. Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.” This quote is implying that, because Birling is in such a position that he has power over others this gives him a duty to take care of the people under his power ad not to abuse his power by mistreating his workers. Mr. Birling has a very different idea of what his duties are, as he indicates earlier in the play when he says, “Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down.”
The Inspector’s overall views of responsibility are no better summed up than in the speech he makes to the family before he leaves. The family is mostly quite different at this point in the play than at the beginning. Sheila feels deeply guilty for what she did, even though her contribution to the events that drew Eva Smith to commit suicide is quite insignificant compared to the contribution of Eric or Mr. Birling. Mr.Birling, who at the beginning of the play was inclined to believe that giving Eva the sack was the right thing to do has now offered to “give thousands” if it were to erase the past and bring Eva back (This is of course far too late but it does show his attitude has changed). Mrs. Birling’s attitude may not have changed, but she has been revealed to be unable to cope with the real world, believing things not on the basis of truth but on whether she considers them plausible. Eric has also changed, at the start of the play he seemed sincere and sorry about the girl’s death but it wasn’t very genuine, you would say things like “Well I think it’s a dam’ shame.” Of course he is later revealed to be perhaps the most important influence to the death of Eva Smith and then his sympathy becomes all too genuine. In the speech The Inspector says, “We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.” This speech contrasts directly with Birling’s speech at the beginning, in which he expresses his belief that basically from then on it’ll be plain sailing for the world and that everything will be fine. Of course, as we know, Birling was completely wrong and the Inspector was right. The Inspector practically prophesised World War One and two, which is undoubtedly Priestly’s intention. Also, the Inspector’s final speech is very unlike a policeman and much more like what you’d expect from a prophet. He speaks of morals and prophesises “fire and blood and anguish” while a regular inspector would just arrest the guilty party and get on with his job. The Inspector’s final speech is directed just as much to society than to the family specifically, and it is a real indication that he might not even be human, since he speaks of “men” as if he is not one of them.
By the end of the play the Inspector has effectively split the family in two. The younger generation, Sheila and Eric, are overwhelmed with guilt for their actions that eventually caused Eva to commit suicide while the older generation, Arthur and Sybil Birling, while going some way earlier in the play to accept responsibility, refuse to accept any responsibility whatever for the girl’s death. As the inspector says “We often do (make a change) in the young ones. They’re more impressionable.” The fact that Eric and Sheila are more impressionable could be because they’ve never had a good role model before, they’re not close to either of their parents and have had a very sheltered public-school and varsity upbringing. He changes a lot of the family relationships as well, he reveals that Mrs. Birling is in no way close to her son because she had no idea he was a bit of a drunk. By revealing the revelations about Gerald and Daisy Renton he has split up Sheila and Gerald’s engagement, although she does gain some respect for him giving him credit for his honesty when she says “I don’t dislike you as I did” she does admit, though, that they will have to “start all over again”. The Inspector has also inadvertently brought Sheila and Eric closer together, at the end of the play they are unified because they both feel very bad for what they caused while Arthur and Sibyl try to forget they caused a girl’s death. As the inspector says “We have to share something. If there’s nothing else we’ll have to share our guilt.” Sheila and Eric are sharing their guilt while the older generation is simply ignoring it, as Sheila says “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 back to the same old way.”
The Inspector’s character maintains high tension all through the play by constantly revealing things the characters didn’t know about each other and creating conflict, Priestly especially keeps tension highest at the end of each act. During the first act he has already proven Birling and Sheila contributed to the death of Eva, and at the climax he reveals, without asking any questions, that Gerald was somehow involved with Eva by mentioning the pseudonym she was using at that time – Daisy Renton. Gerald is immediately started and says “What?” of course he is not asking the Inspector to repeat the name Dairy Renton because he didn’t hear, he is saying what in disbelief, wishing that he misheard the name when of course he didn’t. At the end of Act two an even more significant secret is revealed, the fact that Eric got Eva pregnant. Mrs. Birling, with her detachment from reality, especially refuses to believe this and says things like “But surely…I mean…it’s ridiculous…” and “I don’t believe it. I wont believe it…”. At the end of Act 3 the most powerful twist occurs which creates a sudden surge in tension. After the Birling were lulled into a false sense of security thinking the Inspector wasn’t real and possibly the girl didn’t even die Mr. Birling answers a phone call and says “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-“. This should leave the audience wondering. The phone call doesn’t really reveal anything, it could be that the girl who died wasn’t Eva Smith but another girl who once knew the Birlings. One things for sure though, the Inspector who comes to ask questions when the play ends wouldn’t be anything like the Inspector. He’d ask direct questions and not make subtle accusations like the Inspector, he’d not make a constant social commentary or speeches which have no relevance individually to the Birlings. He’d be a normal inspector, unlike Inspector Goole.
Even by the end of the play it is still not at all clear what or who he is, he might be a spirit or a ghoul as I discussed earlier or he may be just a normal man who did a lot of research into the Birling family and decided to teach them a lesson. His speeches suggest he may even be sent from the future to warn the Birlings and the world in general of the coming disasters and how “they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.” If they do not learn to realise their responsibility for one another, the future theory would also suggest how he knew Eva Smith would die drinking disinfectant. Maybe he doesn’t even exist, perhaps he’s just the collective conscience of the whole family, who feel the need to admit their sins. He also plays the role of a regular inspector in a normal detective novel, slowly discovering the truth through clever questioning, carefully piecing together evidence until the culprit is revealed. Here, each character is shown to have played a part in her murder, although not one of them has done anything to Eva Smith that a court of law would describe as a crime. The Inspector didn’t come to the Birling’s house to punish them but to teach them moral lessons by pointing out how the smallest thing that they may have forgotten now may have affected another’s life gravely. He succeeded partially, with Eric and Sheila prepared to change, but it seems the older generation were just too set in their ways to listen to his words of advice.
