Birling is the typical upper class rich entrepreneur of the day. He is totally self obsessed and has no grievances over the utter poverty his workers live in. there is a massive gap between Birlings standards of living and the conditions Eva lived in. on page 21 of the text just after the inspector has told the family about Eva Smiths’ death he couldn’t give a damn about her and shows this by saying, “we were having a nice family celebration and look what a mess you have made of it!” Another example of his selfishness is his complaining about his knighthood on page 57 of the text. He says “I was almost in line for a knighthood…there will be a scandal.” Although a young girl had horrifically died all he is concerned about is his reputation and his Knighthood. Later on in the play he tries to shift the blame off himself by saying the inspector is fake, but even if the inspector was fake it wouldn’t matter because he had admitted to what he had done and the inspector hadn’t made him but he is so self centred he doesn’t realise this. On page 69 of the text, Birling says “No Police inquiry, no one girl that this has all happened to, no scandal.” He thinks he has got away with it so he goes back to his old ways and even finds it funny, to prove this, a few lines down he starts laughing at the reaction Eric gave when he was told about the girl. The sheer fact that they all actually did what they admitted to doesn’t cross his mind. Before the inspector left he tried to give money to rectify the situation (he says “I’d give thousands – yes thousands…”) but even his own son realises’ he is giving it at the wrong time.
As soon as Birling is about to finish his infamous speech about everyone for himself and no community, the inspector rings the doorbell. This is heavily ironic as the inspector portrays a totally different personality and mentality. JB Priestley times this very well for great effect. On page 26 of the text the inspector gives a spooky air about himself because he seems to know everything about Eva Smith and all her misencounters with the Birling family and Gerald. When quizzed about how he knows this by Gerald he simply responds by saying he found a diary in her room. This makes the reader wonder whether he is supernatural or something like that. The inspector’s curtain speech is of great importance because that was Priestley’s ways of showing his political beliefs and views, although this was left out of the black and white version. The main reason Priestley decided to make the inspector visit was to teach the Birling family a lesson and change their stereotypical ways and at the same time teach the families of Britain a lesson too.
On page 23 of the text the inspector lightens up on Sheila by saying she is not entirely responsible. He does it again on page 56 of the text by proclaiming “You helped – but you did not start it.” He does this because he thinks he can influence her because she is young and isn’t as set in her ways as Birling is. Later on in the play Priestley proves he is right by making Sheila say later on in the play that she still remembers what she did and she will never forget nor forgiver herself. Birling is unrepentant in his views, instead of spending time contemplating his actions he is constantly trying to find flaws in the authenticity of the inspector. On pages 63, 64 and 65 of the text Eric and Sheila challenge their fathers attitude towards the inspector and getting his knighthood and not even caring about Eva, but he simply responds by getting angry at them or by laughing at them. This shows that the inspector has been successful in generating friction in the family.
I think that Priestley decided to write this play because he realised that the war was about to end and he had witnessed the appalling condition most of the countries peoples were in and he certainly didn’t want to return to those times and wanted to get something positive and constructive out of the war other than death and destruction. Although the play is still applicable today because Britain still isn’t a classless society although not to the extent of 1912 because things such as unemployment pay and the National Health Service are around to support people. In Birlings time there was genuine unemployment unlike today when people ‘leech’ off the system and forge illness and disability to get an easy life of no work. I believe there is still genuine unemployment but hardly any strikes over pay due to the minimum wage so I doubt this play would work if it was updated to today’s era without major overhaul on the story and then it would probably lose its origins.
