“takes charge, masterfully.”
All of the characters are responsible for Eva Smiths death. But each of the characters react in different ways. The Inspector tells each of the characters that
“if you're easy with me, I'm easy with you” (p.22)
He has compassion for those who are willing to accept their responsibility, but nothing so simple as forgiveness. After all, 'the girl's (still) dead though'.
The inspector aims firstly at Birling who sacked Eva Smith from her job 2 years ago. Mr Birling had no feeling of guilt when the Inspector told him that that girl he sacked was Eva Smith. Mr Birling just said
“I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened we’d have anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?” (p14)
This just shows that Mr Birling does not care for what he did to Eva Smith as she is not his responsibility which is what he didn’t say on pg 10 where he said ‘men has to mind his own business’.
Sheila is the next character the Inspector confronts. Sheila sacked Eva from he job just because Eva laughed at her when she tried a dress on. This just shows how immature and spoiled she is. She says
“....and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you hadn’t told me. What she like? Quite young? Pretty?
This shows she is selfish by telling the inspector that he has ruined her evening and immature by asking stupid questions like was ‘is she pretty?’ But the Inspector changes Sheila after he tells her that the girl who died is the girl she sacked at Milwards. She becomes the most emotional over her death and becomes from the most immature to the most mature of the family. The inspector makes her learn that she had been selfish and has learned from her wrong doings. The Inspector makes her the most guilty about Eva Smith even though she is the least involved, by saying
“A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony-hating life-”
This repeated phrase makes Sheila more distressed and she says in distress
“Don’t please - I know, I know - and I can’t stop thinking about it-”
This is all psychology and the Inspector uses it throughout the play to mess with their minds by repeating phrases he knows will upset them, such as
“The girl’s dead though.”
Gerald is the next to become involved, but I don’t think that he has caused Eva Smiths death (Daisy Renton to Gerald) as he simply was the only one out of all the characters involved who cared for her. He gave her a room, he fed her, and he left her in a cheerful manor, unlike the others. The inspector knows this and does not concentrate much on him.
The Inspector then concentrates on Mrs Birling who simply has no guilt at all about the girl, even when the Inspector tells her that she had turned her down at Mrs Birlings’ committee. Mrs Birling just says
“Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.”
The word responsibility is echoed all the way through the play as it is one of the main themes of the book.
But Mrs Birling feels guilty, not for the girl, but for Eric, who made the girl pregnant.
The inspectors main task was to make each character guilty for what they had done. Was he successful? He was very successful with Eric and Sheila, but not with Mr and Mrs Birling as after the inspector had gone they simply wanted things to go back to the way they were. He makes the whole family argue, where they are all blaming each other, and they don’t admit to their responsibility, apart from Sheila. When the argument gets out of control the Inspector says
“But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. (he looks from one to the other of them carefully)”
The inspector is trying to make the point to the family that they all killed her and that they are all responsible for each other.
Responsibility is one of the play's two key themes, and I think that the Inspector is Priestley's spokesman for putting across his own views of this as a socialist. In this final speech, he is speaking to the audience as well as to the characters. The significance of the inspector is to warn the audience in 1945 not to repeat the selfish mistakes Britain made that led to the “fire and blood and anguish” the two World Wars and the years between them. The Birling family being very selfish towards society led to the “fire and blood and anguish” when they argued over who it is to blame. This is an example of one of many of dramatic irony in the play by Mr Birling.
The Inspector's gloomy appearance and the news he brings at the start of the play are a contrast with the happy and graceful air of celebration of the marriage of Sheila and Gerald. His name, Goole, gives him a mysterious, disturbing sound - a ghoul, differently spelt from the Inspectors name, is a spirit which takes fresh life from corpses, and the Inspector's existence is a result of the girl's death. If he is not a real Inspector, what is he? A clever impostor collecting data from a girl or girls‘ lives. Is he a personification of the social conscience all the characters in the play all lack? A supernatural, God-like being from above, as he seems to know what each character has done, without being told? Or maybe he could be the spirit of the girl's dead child getting back at the Birling family, telling them of what they have done, and they have to learn how to change themselves. It only worked for Eric and Sheila, not with Mr and Mrs Birling. But that is not important because as long as Sheila and Eric understand, their children, and their children will. That is probably why the whole process of an inspector coming around is repeated again at the end of the play, to make sure that Mr and Mrs Birling understand about their wrong doings.
After they found out that he is not a real inspector Mr Birling and Mrs Birling were relieved and only Sheila realised that it does not matter if he is real or not. She cleverly says
“He inspected us all right”