“Well, well – this is very nice. Very nice. Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell cook from me.”
“Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things”. (Act 1, Pg 2).
Quite early on in the play Inspector Goole comes round to the Birlings’ house. He explains that his come round for information on a young woman’s suicide. The Inspector then starts Mr Birlings’ interrogation, asking about Eva Smith working at his factory. He denies any responsibility for the girl’s suicide as he sacked her for going on strike almost two years ago.
Sheila then enters and is told what has happened. When the Inspector tells them about Eva’s next job at a shop and mentions a customer who complained about her, Sheila realises he is talking about her.
“I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them”. (Act 1, Pg 23).
She confesses to being jealous of Eva at that time and therefore got her sacked by complaining for no real reason. Her interrogation ends with her saying;
“I’ll never, never do it again to anybody”. (Act 1, Pg 24). This shows that she has realised her involvement in the girl’s death and admits some responsibility for it. She would not dare to do anything like it again.
At the end of Act 1, while the Inspector has gone to the drawing room, Sheila and Gerald are left. Sheila is wondering how Gerald knows the girl, because he gave himself away when the Inspector mentioned the name she changed to, Daisy Renton. Sheila wants to know if Gerald was seeing the girl during the time he said he was really busy with work.
“How did you first get to know her…were you seeing her last spring and summer…Of course you were.” (Act 1, Pg 26).
Act 2 begins with the Inspector asking Gerald how he knows Eva Smith, but they are interrupted when Mrs Birling enters the room. After a while, the Inspector gets back to Gerald who tells everyone how he was involved with Eva Smith after the Inspector said he knew Gerald was involved.
Gerald begins by saying: “I met her first, sometime in March last year, in the stalls bar at the Palace.” (Act 2, Pg 34). He tells them how Eva ends up being his mistress and when it all ended. This tells us that Gerald was unfaithful to Sheila.
“..she hadn’t a penny and was going to be turned out of the miserable back room she had. It happened that a friend of mine had gone off to Canada for 6 months and had let me the key of a nice little set of rooms he had…so I insisted on Daisy moving into those rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there.” (Act 2, Pg 36).
At the start of Gerald’s interrogation he tries to resist telling the Inspector what he had been up to, but later on he admits it all. He still chooses not to speak publicly on how his actions contributed to her death. Sheila says to Gerald that she respects him for now being honest about last year, but that they are not the same people as they were before.
Next to be questioned was Mrs Birling. First of all the Inspector showed her the photograph but she says she does not know the girl. Sheila then says: “And now you’re pretending you don’t recognise her from the photograph. I admit I don’t know why you should, but I know jolly well you did in fact recognise her, from the way you looked” (Act 2, Pg 41).
After quite a lot of questioning from the Inspector, Mrs Birling admits to having seen the girl two weeks ago. She explains that the girl came to the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation for help, and that the committee refused. When Mrs Birling talks about who is to blame, she says first the girl and secondly the father of Eva Smith’s child who we find out to be Eric. “He should be made an example of. If the girl’s death is due to anybody, then it’s due to him.” (Act 2, Pg 48). Act 2 finishes with everyone realising Eric was the father of Eva Smith’s child. Mrs Birling will not believe it.
As soon as Eric sees that everyone knows about him and the girl he tells them how it all happened. He says that he also met her in the Palace Bar like Gerald, and then went to where she was staying at the time. She did not want Eric to come in with her, but said that: “I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.” (Act 2, Pg 52). After being threatened, she let him in and - he does not say the words in the book - but he effectively rapes her. With the relationship between Eric and her, Eva is effectively a prostitute, but a reluctant one. After a few more visits she told Eric that she was going to have a baby, but didn’t want him to marry her, as it was not what either of them wanted.
Instead Eric gave her money to keep her going, as she still did not have a job.
When they find out that Eric had stole the fifty pounds from Mr Birlings’ office, Mr & Mrs Birling are very shocked, even more shocked and disgusted than when he told them about raping Eva Smith. The Inspector finishes off with a long speech on how none of them will forget what has happened and then leaves.
The Birling family then try to adjust to all that has happened and discuss it, some accusing others for Eva Smith’s death.
Gerald then returns to the Birlings’ house with news that the man questioning them that evening was not a police officer as he checked it out. Mr Birling double checks by phoning the police station who confirm it. After finding this out, Mr & Mrs Birling start to act as if nothing has happened that evening and do not take any responsibility for the girls death.
Sheila: “You’re pretending everything’s just as it was before.”
Eric: “I’m not!”
Mr Birling: “Well isn’t it? We’ve been had, that’s all.” (Act 3, Pg 71).
The play ends with a call from the infirmary telling them that a girl has just died after swallowing some disinfectant and to say a police inspector is on his way to ask some questions. This leaves them having to go through the interrogations again, possibly for real this time.
At this point, they have realised that the man who was questioning them was definitely not a real police inspector. This leaves the audience wondering what the Inspector was and how he came to know all the information he has on the Birling family and Gerald. I personally think that the so called Inspector could have been God in another persons body, as God is said to see all and know all so this would explain how he knows about the secrets of the Birling family.
I think that the character that has changed the most during the play “An Inspector Calls” is Gerald. I think this because at the start of his interrogation he tried to keep his secret concealed from everybody else, but after he tells the Birling family what he had been up to Sheila thanks him for being honest.
Later on in the play, Gerald goes out for some fresh air and finds out about the man who questioned everybody not being a real police inspector. He comes back to tell the others and while Eric and Sheila are still very sorry for what they did to the girl(s), Mr & Mrs Birling were not. Gerald, I think, was still sorry for what he had done too, but could also see that it did not matter as much as it would have if the Inspector was real. There is not much proof at the end of the play on what Gerald thinks, but he does say:
“Everything’s all right now, Sheila. What about this ring?” (Act 3, Pg 71).
From this quote I think Gerald means that it is all sorted out now, they know what everyone has been up to in secret and by holding the ring out to Sheila again he is saying that he wants them to try and make their relationship work, even if they did not know everything about each other before, they are almost willing to get to know each other again. Gerald has learnt that what he did was wrong and I think he is trying to make it up to Sheila, even if he can’t change what happened between him and Eva Smith.
