The following character he deals with is Mr Gerald Croft. He deals with him in a similar way as he did with Mr Birling. He tricks Gerald when talking to Sheila by saying ‘Daisy Renton’ because he is startled when the name is said and gives an impression that he knows her so he can’t lie to the inspector later when asks him questions. Gerald therefore is more open and truthful because his ‘easy manner’ is disrupted.
Then the inspector asks Sybil Birling questions. He repeatedly asks her questions, ‘what is the name of the charity organisation of which you are chairperson?’, ‘what is the purpose of the organisation?’ The inspector cleverly does this in such a way that each questions leads to an answer that Sybil wouldn’t give if she knew the question properly. Sybil’s attitude towards the Inspector is very similar to her husband but angrier.
The final character that gets asked question is the son of Mr and Mrs Birling, Eric Birling. The inspector treats him similarly to Sheila because he understands what he has done and is being very open to the inspector telling every detail. The inspector starts with simple yes or no answer questions like, ‘do you drink’, to more complicated questions, ‘do you think you were in anyway to blame for this girl’s death’. He does this to get Eric talking and help give him confidence to speak for himself.
Mr Birling’s involvement in Eva Smith’s death was that he fired her from his factory because she was the ring leader of a strike that and because Mr Birling was a capitalist, he sacked Eva for the wage dispute strike. Mr Birling said to the Inspector ‘They wanted the rates raised so that they could average about twenty-five shillings a week. I refused, of course.’ Before Mr Birling meets the inspector the audience get the impression that Mr Birling is an arrogant and recognisable capitalist and only cares about his social class and what higher class people think of him. This sort of person was very common in the early nineteenth century because if you were a lower class person your living condition was very poor. He is also highly conceited and believes whatever he says is true, for example, he says to Gerald and Eric ‘The Germans don’t want war’, and this is dramatic irony because the audience know there was a war between Germany and England. After meeting the inspector, Mr Birling’s attitude and personality does not change, when it is suggested at the end of the play that the inspector was a hoax, he seems more pleased about the fact that he is in line for a knighthood again and there isn’t going to be a scandal on the family, Mr Birling says to his family, ‘I’d a special reason for not wanting any public scandal just now’, rather than learning from the experience, Sheila says to her father ‘you don’t seem to have learnt anything’. This reveals that Mr Birling is a selfish man who blocks out all the bad things in life and like typical early twentieth century men, he only cares about his social class and his money.
Sheila’s involvement in Eva Smiths death was that she got her sacked from her job at Millwards. She did this by using her status of being the daughter of a well respected women, She tells the manager of Millwards ‘I’d persuade mother to close our account’. This was all because envy, she was jealous of Eva, Sheila told the inspector ‘She was very pretty’. Sheila at the beginning before the inspector’s arrival seemed to be a naïve and innocent girl. She was lovely and playful. This can be seen by audience through body language and what she says to Eric, ‘you’re squiffy’. After she meets the inspector she becomes more serious and sees the consequences of her actions. She progresses from naïve and innocent to more mature and understanding. We can see that Sheila has learnt from the incident.
Gerald Croft reveals that his relationship with Eva Smith was that he was having an affair with her ‘last summer’, however he knew Eva under the name of Daisy Renton. These deeds committed by men at this time where common to be ok because at this time women were, inferior to men, so women could not really do anything about it. The impression of Gerald before the arrival of the Inspector was that he is a hard working ‘I was awfully busy at the works’, and very mature man. After meeting the Inspector Gerald seems to a lying, cheating and deceitful individual. This can be seen when Gerald privately speaks with Sheila, ‘I knew her. Let’s leave it at that…….We can keep it from him.’ Gerald reveals that he is just like Mr Birling; he cares only for himself, family and reputation thus doesn’t think of others. He is even willing to forget by suggesting the Inspector was a fake ‘that man wasn’t a police officer’.
Eric’s involvement in Eva’s death was that he got her pregnant by forcing himself on her and then supporting her financially, Eric said, ‘I insisted on giving her enough money to keep her going’. This was very common at this time; rich men often took advantage of young, poor females. The impression that we get of Eric before meeting the Inspector was that he is a young spoilt boy who does not understand and is not mature enough to be a responsible person. After meeting the Inspector the audience see that Eric has changed from being irresponsible to more responsible by seeing the consequences of his action and by realizing that society is a mess.
Sybil Birling’s involvement in Eva Smiths death was that she rejected her plea for help at a charity she rejected because Eva ‘importunately made use of our name’ (Sybil). Mrs Birling rejected the cases by using her ‘influence to have it refused’. These acts were common because people who had power and had money could get their own way. Before meeting the Inspector the audience get the idea that Mrs Birling is similar to her husband but has an even colder manner. She, like many other women of the same class of their time, would be living In very good conditions compared to others thus she has become spiteful with power. After meeting the Inspector the audience can see that Mrs Birling is like her husband; only cares about herself and her family. She learns nothing from the incident.
The play was written at the end of the Second World War and first performed in 1946. J.B. Priestley put a message in this play. He expresses his feelings about society in 1912. He does this through the character of the inspector. During the pre World War 1 years there was a divide between the poor and the rich, such as; the class system which gave privileges to the rich, this is emphasized In the play when Mr Birling tries to intimidate the inspector by saying he plays golf and knows ‘Chief Constable, Colonel Roberts’, also the poor dependence on the rich is highlighted In the play when Eva Smith takes money from Eric to survive. Also there was a divide between men and women, this is emphasized in the play when women leave the dining room and the men stay to smoke cigars. Priestley, being a socialist, emphasizes these points because he believes if people want to go forward in life and live a good life they must treat other with respect and everyone should be equal. This is highlighted in the inspector’s last speech, ‘there are million and millions……. of Eva Smiths and John Smiths left with us’, here Priestley generalizes, ‘with their lives hopes and fears…… chances of happiness all intertwined with our lives’ Here Priestly say that everyone’s lives are linked to each other’s thus are responsible for each other. Priestley is telling us that we haven’t learnt our lessons from history; therefore there was a grave lesson for the 1946 audience, who like the Birling family after finding the Inspector was a fake, were being given another chance. Mr Birling in the play says, ‘Everything to loose and nothing to gain by war’, this speech by Mr Birling is probably Priestley putting his views on the war across as he was in the army in the First World War and experienced some of the fighting and killing, this experience made him feel people should care and treat each other equally because if you don’t fights begin or arguments begin where there is ‘nothing to gain’ at the end.
Priestley also uses Mr Birling’s character to tell the audience that you can’t look in the future and anything can happen, he does this by using dramatic irony in the play e.g. when Mr Birling says ‘the Titanic……unsinkable’, but we the audience know that the titanic sank on its maiden voyage as the play was written at the end of the second world war but set before the second world war. Also Mr Birling says ‘The Germans don’t want war’, but once again we know there that there was the Second World War which tells us that you can’t see what’s going to happen in the future and anything could happen. Furthermore there still is that message for audiences today, thus making the play inimitable.
The inspector in the play isn’t real, as we find out at the end, the inspector could be many things but I think he was a supposed to be a ghost or each characters conscience. My reasons for this are because his surname is Goole, which sounds very similar to ghoul which is a ghost and that every character felt bad because of what they did and the inspector was that feeling by being their guilty conscience, this is why in the play the inspector consistently intimidates each person to make them see the consequences of their actions. Priestley has very thoughtfully made the inspector mysterious to sustain our interest in the play and made each character uniquely carry his message to us.
