“Yes, yes. Horrid business. But I don’t understand why you should come here, inspector.” – Mr Birling.
Even after he finds out that the suicide of Eva Smith did have something to do with him. He sacked her from his factory for wanting a little bit more money a week, he still does not seem to care and says that he had good reason to sack her and that it couldn’t have been the reason she killed herself:
“Obviously it has nothing whatever to do with the wretched girls suicide” – Mr Birling.
When the inspector turns out to be a fake Mr Birling wants to go back to his old ways and forget it ever happened. He does not learn anything from what the inspector said.
“We’ve been had, that’s all.” – Mr Birling.
“You’re ready to go on in the same old way” – Shiela.
J.B. Priestley does not want the audience to like or sympathise with Mr Birling and achieves this by making Mr Birling look foolish:
“The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war.” – Mr Birling.
This would make Mr Birling look foolish because the audience in 1946 would know that the Germans did want war.
The next character that I am going to talk about is Mrs Birling. Mrs Birling is a very cold, unfeeling woman who is distant from her children and does not know them at all. For example, she does not know that her son is a heavy drinker:
“You don’t get drunk.” – Mrs Birling to Eric.
When Mrs Birling finds out that she is also involved in Eva Smith’s suicide she accepts no responsibilty for it:
“But I accept no blame for it at all.” – Mrs Birling.
Mrs Birling is on the committee for a charity that helps women who are in need. When Eva Smith goes to the committee for help, Mrs Birling persuades the committee not to give her help because she did not believe her story.
“All a lot of nonsense. I didn’t believe a word of it.” – Mrs Birling.
Mrs Birling thought that Eva Smith’s feelings did not count because she was a poor person and she should marry the man who got her pregnant no matter what she felt:
“She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position.” – Mrs Birling
Mrs Birling, like her husband does not change when she finds out the inspector was a fake:
“In the morning they’ll be as amused as we are.” – Mrs Birling.
Here, she is talking about Eric and Shiela because they do not agree with their parents and do not find the death of Eva Smith amusing.
Shiela, unlike her parents does change, even when she finds out that the inspector is a fake:
“Everything we said had happened really did happened.” – Shiela.
At the beginning of the play Shiela is young, attractive and has just become engaged. She is also a spoilt young woman. She gets Eva Smith sacked from her second job, after her fathers mill, at Milwards. Shiela had Eva sacked bacuse she was jealous of her. Eva looked better in a dress than Shiela so Shiela had her sacked out of jealousy.
“You might be said to have been jealous of her.” – Inspector
“Yes I suppose I was.” – Shiela. When Shiela realises the consequences of her actions, that it was Eva’s last proper job, she begins to change. She realises that the class or status of a person does not matter.
“You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.” – Shiela. Shiela knows that the inspector will find out anything that he wants to know. She realises that even if the inspector is not real it doesn’t mean that the things that happened to Eva Smith were not wrong:
“So nothing really happened. So theres nothing to be sorry for, nothing to learn.” – Shiela. The audience would like Shiela because she changes at the end for the better and learns something, which means that the audience would support her views. Eric is the same as Shiela, the whole experience teaches him a lesson. At the beginning of the play he is seen as a spoilt, imature young man. When the inspector reveals his part in the suicide of Eva Smith he is very sorry:
“My God – I’m not likely to forget.” – Eric. Eric met Eva Smith at the Palace Bar, a place where the ‘women of the town’ were. Eric offered to take Eva home where he then forced his way into her house and made love to her. He said he did this because he was drunk. Eric made love to Eva a few more times before she told him that she might be pregnant. Eric offered to give her money but she soon found out that it was stolen from his father’s business so she refused to take any more. The audience has sympathy for Eric because he shows remorse for his actions towards Eva Smith. J.B. Priestley would want the audience to like Eric because at the end he supports the views of social responsibility. Throughout the play Eva Smith is never seen, but she is one of the most important characters. She is always portrayed in a possitive light, as a independent, honest, full of integrity, strong, pretty and lively girl.
“She wasn’t pretty when I saw her today, but she had been pretty – very pretty.” – Inspector. The audience would feel very sorry for her after they heard all that she had been through. They would hate the people who had caused her to take her life in such a painful way, especially the people who didn’t feel sorry for what they did. The way that Eva took her life shows that she had been a strong girl who could not find any other way of getting out of the mess she was in. The writer, J.B. Priestley deliberately made Eva’s death hurrific so that the audience would feel sorry for her and it would convey his thoughts of social responisbility. Inspector Goole is the most important character of the whole play. He represents J.B. Priestley’s own views and is a very impressive character. He has authority and can get any of the Birlings to confess what they did, Shiela realises this:
“I knew everything was coming out – it was simply bound to come out tonight – Shiela. The inspector gives the impression that’s he already knows what each member of the family is about to say, he even has authority over Mr Birling:
“I know – hes your son and this is your house – but look at him. He needs a drink now just to get him through.” – Inspector. The inspector portrays the social responsibilities of J.B. Priestley. This means that the audience would respect his views because of the authority he has throughout the play. This was a good way of communicating Priestley’s views to the audience. At the begining of the play it seems like a ‘whos done it?’ play. As the play goes on it becomes clear to the audience that it is not only one member of the family who is involved in the death of Eva Smith. This conveys the message that everyones actions affect other people. The whole play is set in one room, which means that the action does not move. This means that the audience could focus on the drama and the characters. The room is furnished in posh furniture which contrats with the poverty of Eva Smith:
“Substantial and heavily comfortable.” The lighting on the stage at the beginning of the play is pink, soft and intimate but as each member of the family’s actions become clear the lighting becomes harsher, harder and brighter:
“The lighting should be pink and intimate until the inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.” I think that the play An Inspector Calls is a very effective play. J.B. Priestley conveys his views very well and gets the idea of social responsibility across. I did feel sorry for Eva Smith and sympathised for Shiela and Eric because they felt remorse for their actions. Social responsibility still applies to the modern day, we are not classed any more but people’s actions still affect other people. I think that the play might not have exactly the same affect on an audience in the modern day but it would have a similar affect.
