The play starts in “The Dinning Room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer.” This shows how the Birlings live in luxury. The family is well off and appear to have a nice life since they live in a large suburban house. Mr Birling is very much stereotypical businessman and never strays from his main aim of making profit. Even with something as splendid as his daughter getting married he cannot resist to say what this marriage can bring him in terms of profit.
"Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now - though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and Company - and now you’ve brought us together, and perhaps we can look forward to time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but working together - for lower costs and higher prices."
This is a representation of most upper-class people. These upper class people are out to make money and disregard everything else. Using this stereotype makes it easier for the audience to relate to the characters
Gerald gives a ring to Sheila at this point and her mood changes she shows delight as she looks at the ring, this shows how her being upper class makes her value highly an object such as a ring, this is very materialistic. Gerald himself is not using this ring as a sign of love he is using it to cover up his wrong doings although Sheila does not know yet it is more to cover up his guilt from his affair with the girl – Eva Smith. Priestly uses all this to show how the ‘Social Superior’ people of that era attach more value to objects than they do to human qualities such as love. This shows that the poor are more caring people as they show there emotions.
Birling shows complete disregard to the meaning of marriage when he talks of it as a contract than a sign of love. He then continues to comment on issues like he is superior and knows better than the people who really do. He disregards all the news he has heard about war being close to this he says "The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war, except some half-civilised folks in the Balkans.” By saying this he is stating his superiority by knowing what’s right but this is very ironic as war does happen therefore he is proven wrong and the audience knows this as the play was written after the 2nd World War. This allows Priestly to show his anger towards the upper class people who think they know about these worldly matters but what they really no is wrong and is proven to be wrong. He is saying how the world should haven been prepared for the 1st World War but wasn’t, all people in the world were very ignorant considering the events at the time. In this instance Priestly’s main message is death must be for something and people like Birling need to realise this. Every time someone tries to argue what Birling is saying he continues to talk. For example:
"Just let me finish Eric, You’ve a lot to learn yet. And I’m talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business."
He continues to talk about things we know are wrong, he comments on the progress man has made with the building of an unsinkable ship which we know sank on its maiden voyage, he says how the world will be in peace in 1940 when we know it will be in another World War in 1940. Priestly is telling the audience how upper class people like Birling are responsible for the worldly disasters because of the ignorance. Priestly hopes the audience realise this they will try to prevent similar things happening again.
When the inspector enters the scene, the atmosphere on stage changes. The soft pink light scene before becomes harder as does the mood. When Birling starts to mention names to try and make his social status known the inspector does not acknowledge it and carries on. The inspector speaks of a girl called Eva Smith suffering a horrible death. Eric is shocked where as Birling does not show any sign of human emotion and continues to want the inspector to leave. Birling does not like the fact that the inspector is in control and he is not. Birling rids himself of any responsibility for Eva Smiths suicide he says how something that happened so long ago can not have an effect now. The inspector then makes a clear speech about how the events could have affected Eva Smith.
"Because what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events”
This is the main message of the play it is stating how actions can have repercussions and people should be aware of these. This is telling the audience that their actions can and probably will affect other people. Priestly is stating how it is wrong to be prejudiced in making decisions as it can affect people on a small scale or a world wide scale such as the 1st and 2nd World War. It shows Priestly’s thoughts on how the class system should change. Eva Smith was kicked out of her workplace because she ask for a pay rise well with in her rights nowadays, but back then she was kicked out for having an opinion and the bravery to confront her social superior. Eric mentions how he could have kept Eva Smith on. Priestly uses this as an example of how the upper classes are greedy and inconsiderate. Birling sees himself ranked above the working class. Birling says he had to be harsh to prevent them wanting more otherwise they would eventually be asking for the world. The inspectors reply to this leaves Birling speechless.
"They might. But after all it’s better to ask for the Earth than to take it."
Priestly mentions this in his play because he wants the upper class people to stop acting in a selfish way.
The inspector tells us how Eva Smith was living her life with no relatives in a poor state with hardly any food and money after she was fired. Sheila mentions how this is a rotten shame this shows her compassion. Sheila tells us how people like Eva Smith are not cheap labour but they are people. "But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people." Priestly again wants the public to think about there actions.
When Sheila finds out about her part in the events she is very upset. Sheila finds out she is one of the main causes that Eva was fired for her job because of her jealousy due to the fact that Eva looked better than Sheila in a particular dress. She feels guilt about this but doesn’t change the fact that she did not think about the consequences of her actions. This is another instance in which Priestly gets his message across he uses repetition to force the message into his audience. When Mrs. Birling enters again she doesn’t realise what has happened and quickly tells everyone the impact the inspector has had on Sheila the inspector then says "we often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable." What priestly is trying to say is that the young generations are more impressionable and would be the ones to pay attention to the messages and morals of the play and will be the ones to change the ways of future society. This is backed up at the end of the play by the youngest of the characters – Eric and Sheila are affected by the events and change the way they act by saying they won’t do things without thinking of the consequences that it may have on other people. Sheila gives a speech about building up of walls and how there only built to be knocked down. This is a strong reference to how the higher classes theoretically build up walls around them to keep them separated from other classes. This in turn keeps them trapped, preventing them to understand the real world. It becomes known to us that Gerald has had an affair with Eva Smith and eventually dumped her on her own with nothing. This shows how the rich are always exploiting the poor, this is what Priestly wants to stop.
Mrs Birling’s effect on Eva Smith was that she had the chance to give Eva the aid that would have saved her from committing suicide. But at the time Eva was pregnant and was going under the name Mrs Birling, because of this Mrs Birling used her position of offertory to have her case dismissed. Once this has come into light Mrs Birling does not show any remorse. Priestly makes an example of Mrs Birling by using her to represent the worst kind of upper class people, the people that cannot be changed and even after the wrongness of there actions have been highlighted they still remain remorseless. However Mrs Birling eventually gets a big shock she doesn’t realise that Eva’s stories of a relationship with a higher-class boy whom drunk to much and stole money to try and keep her well when the boy is in fact Eric and the child Eva was carrying at the time was Eric’s. Eric is very much effected by these chain of events at this point the whole family are torn in conflict and it was there own actions which tore them apart. The inspector tells them that they are all to blame as much as each other. The inspector is put into a position of power he changes all of there lives. Before the inspector leaves he makes a point in saying that each and everyone should remember the girl, Eva Smith who is now dead and he tells them to remember what they have done to a human being. He retells everyone there part in the death of Eva Smith one by one when he gets to Birling he says
“She wanted twenty five shillings a week instead of twenty two and sixpence, you made her pay a heavy price for that. And now you’ll pay a heavier price still."
The inspectors closing speech is "One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears. Their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night." This speech is the main meaning of the whole play and the words blood and anguish are yet another hint at the consequences of the socially superior people will lead to the likes of World Wars. Priestly uses the inspector’s discovery of the truth behind the Birlings to show how each action has a domino effect on a person’s life taking it constantly on a downward spiral. Priestly wants to show the upper class – his audience that they must not abuse their position of power by exploiting those on “socially imperia.” Priestly does not want the suffering of people in the war to be worthless. He wants the socially scales to be levelled off and people to be more responsible for there own actions.
After this final speech everyone is left distressed and each person in the family is throwing the blame around. The family is torn apart. Mr Birling is now more concerned that he has been subject to a public scandal. Eric and Sheila seem to have learned from there mistakes as they are the young impressionable ones. Priestly is teaching the younger generations what not to do. Although the fact that the inspector didn’t really exist is irrelevant the young girl’s life has still been lost and the Birlings still affected her. Mr and Mrs Birling once again believe they have done nothing wrong once the inspector is revealed as a fraud. I believe Priestly has left the play unclosed leaving the audience to draw there own conclusions. This makes people think about what they saw and makes them realise that aspects of their life should be changed for the good of humanity.
I believe priestly conveyed his message well. Priestly’s messages would have been very effectual since Britain had just suffered a second world war messages that changes need to be made in society to prevent yet more damage. However Priestly’s attempts to change society may have only affected a small portion of people, these people hopefully would have spread Priestly’s message but this still only affects a small percentage of society. Priestly however was part of a bigger picture his attempts alone did not affect many but there was many other people who went about attempting to change society and in some ways they have succeed we have progressed a long way since the two Worlds Wars and in some ways we haven’t. The difference Priestly made to society was not a world changing difference, but a small difference in the way people think. Even if a few people leaving his play changed the way they thought and showed some more consideration, you would see that Priestley did make a difference. It would have changed people’s views on society, however small those changes would be, and so Priestley achieved his aims in writing the play.
