Throughout the play there are different people that come from different classes, there are the high class of living and the lower class of living. The people that had a higher standard of living were the Croft family and the Birling family. These people could not behave the same way as the lower class; it was just not acceptable in 1912.
With the impending war soon to happen, none of the characters seem to be bothered about the war. The only character that even mentions that possible war was Mr. Birling, he said “a few German officers talking nonsense and a few scaremongers here making a fuss about nothing.” So if the rest of the Birling family have been told this from they’re farther, and in 1912 no one would question the opinion of the man of the house.
When you first meet Sheila in the play she is very selfish, she got Eva Smith fired from Mr. Birling’s company, because Eva looked nicer in a hat than she did. But when Sheila finds out the Eva has died Sheila then feels remorse and feels guilty for her death. Sheila says “let’s have another drink” by saying this J.B. Priestly implies there is hope for her yet.
The inspector talks to Mr. Birling with more respect than Sheila, Eric and Gerald. In the end Sheila responds to the Inspector in a good way, and the two of them have a positive relationship. This conveys that J.B. Priestly wants the Inspector to be a mystery character. Arthur Birling does not get on as well with the Inspector as well as his daughter Sheila. Mrs. Birling thinks that the Inspector is rude and insulting to her. The reason why she thinks this is because she is not used to being spoken to in this manner.
J.B. Priestly manages to keep a high-level of tension from the start of the play until the very last word. J.B Priestly wants the audience to be on the edge of their seats for the start. Trying to get the audience working out who caused the death of Eva Smith, and who the Inspector really is. The way J.B. Priestly keeps the tension in the air is by twisting the story more and more so it almost comes back on it self. The twists that happen in the play is where the Birling and Croft family link their stories together and it turns out that they all have a large piece of the puzzle that could lead to the death of Eva Smith. Mr. Birling had fired her from his business. Sheila was jealous of Eva because she looked better in a hat than she was was and went to her father and got her sacked from work. Mrs. Birling was working at the charity shop and Eva went to her for help with money but she got turned away by Mrs. Birling because she thought that Eva was “impertinetery” due to Eva using Birling as her last name, and naming Gerald as her husband. Gerald had a love affair with Eva, he looked after her for a while, but then he had to go on business and Eva ran out of money and that is why Eva went to Mrs. Birling for help.
The Inspector is the mystery character in this play. You never know what he is going to say or do next. At the end of the play, the birling family get a phone call saying that a girl called Eva Smith is dead and that they are sending a Inspector round to ask a few questions., and then the Inspector that we know has then suddenly vanished. There is a chance that Inpector Goole is a goul that has been made up by the imagination of the Birling family, because they all feel guilty to what they have done to Eva. The other option is that the Inspector is a stranger that had seen what they did to Eva and then trying to black mail them.
