Near the end of the play when they find out that Inspector Goole was not a real inspector Mr Birling starts to think that it is all going to be ok and that the family is safe from a scandal and Sheila reacts to this by saying bitterly “I suppose we’re all nice people now.” And Eric agrees with her. This shows how the younger generation are not forgetting what they have done wrong and that they have still acted badly and need to learn from this mistake. Eric admits to his and his families wrong doing and in doing this he is showing a maturity that the older generation are lacking, “…the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her”. He is accepting responsibility for what he has done, but Mr Birling does no such thing and seems to regard the whole thing as some kind of joke “- the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke”. Gerald sides with the older generation as he to just wants to forget and immediately after they find out the inspector was a fake he seems to think that everything is fine again and offers the ring to Sheila again.
Sheila and Eric are the only characters to realise that what they have done is wrong even though the inspector turned out to be a fake, they still realise that the family have acted in a completely unsuitable manner. Eric accepts responsibility for his actions and shouts to the ignorant family “…I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters”, Mr Birling does not even consider what Eric has just said and immediately tells him to shut up or get out. Mr Birling is obviously unable to accept any responsibily for the death of Eva Smith and this attitude started at the beginning of the play when he is told that Eva Smith worked for him nearly two years ago and that he fired her over a petty wage argument. He insists to the Inspector that he has nothing to do with the whole affair “…I can’t accept any responsibility…”. This attitude continues right through the play and shows how he continues to ingnore the shameful things his family has done. He refuses to learn his responsibilities to others less fortunate than himself and is unsympathetic. As the play continues we see how Sheila begins to realise that her father is a hard headed business man and is insensitive to everyone but himself. Mrs Birling is very similar ion attitude to Mr Birling and will not accept responsibility for her actions and insists that none of the family have really done much wrong, after Sheila has confests and decided to stay to hear the rest of the reason why Eva Smith committed suicide, Mrs Birling says “I don’t suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class”, this shows Mrs Birlings complete ignorance to the lower class and is a way of Priestley showing the audience how poorly the lower class were treated by the upper class
Sheila and Eric have a completely opposite attitude, they are ready to learn from the experience and this proves the contrast between them and their parents.
Mr Birling considers himself to have a very high status in society. He is a prosperous factory owner, a local magistrate and ex-Lord Mayor of Brumley. His first priority is to make money, as he admits in conversation “It’s my duty to keep labour costs down”, and therefore he pays his employees no more than the going rate. He does not value the life of one of his ex-employees and is more concerned with a public scandal and him losing his Knighthood. He is also scared of Gerald knowing to much about the whole affair and when Eric and Sheila try to tell him Mr and Mrs Birling both try to stop them saying anything and try to keep it hushed up, but Eric and Sheila are better than that and accept what they have done and tell Gerald anyway because they feel they have nothing to hide. Mrs Birling interrupts Sheila by saying (warningly) “Sheila!” this meant to warn Sheila and stop her saying anymore but it doesn’t work and Mr Birling buts in by saying hastily “…we needn’t bother him with all that stuff”. Mr Birling admits he is very much afraid of a public scandal when he says “They just won’t try to see our position or to see the difference between a lot of stuff like this coming out in private and a downright public scandal” this shows he is obviously scared of the incident reaching the public and shows how shallow he is because he shows no remorse about the death of Eva Smith. Eric and Sheila are the only characters that are deeply affected by what the inspector has revealed to them during the play. They value the experience and are going to try to learn from the experience. Eric tells Gerald that he stole some money, much to the displeasure of Mr Birling, but Eric is not bothered and admits he cares more about what happened to the girl “The money’s not the important thing. It’s what happened to the girl and what we all did that matters”.
At the beginning of the play Sheila is very much like her parents, full of self importance and belief that she was better than the lower class citizens, an example of this is when she gets Eva Smith fired from Millwards because she saw Eva laugh at her and was in a place of power and was just able to get her fired. By the end of the play she is quite upset, but she has learn’t from the experience. She is more forceful and is putting her views across more strongly, she tries to make the other family members realise what they have done and that even thought the inspector was a fake they have still done bad things. Eric is very similar to Sheila and agrees with her views that it is not all over and that the rest of the family need to learn from this. Mr and Mrs Birling are very set in their ways and refuse to take any responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, they believe that what they did was just another unrelated event in an unfortunate womens life and there was very little they could have done and very little they would have done about it. Throughout the play Mr and Mrs Birling refuse to change in their ways. Gerald is in between these two generations and at first it is hard to see whose side he takes but when the inspector is revealed as a fake it becomes clear that he is like the older generation, he does not take in the message that the inspector was putting across and tries to forget the whole thing happened. This is shown when he tries to offer Sheila the engagement ring again assuming that it was now over and that she would just forget about his affair.
Priestley tries to convey the message to the readers that the older generation are only interested in making money and their position in society. Priestley chose Mr and Mrs Birling to represent the upper class and uses the language and plot to show his hatred of the behaviour and attitutues of the upper class. Sheila and Eric are left to learn from the mistakes of the older generation and to ensure that the mistakes are not repeated. Priestley uses Sheila and Eric as a constant voice and to tell the audience that Eva Smith could be anyone and that we all do things like this everyday and do not realise the possible consequences. They are the only open characters and are there to represent the lower class and show sensitivity towards them. Throughout the play she is there to remind the audience how her family treated and spoilted the life of a young girl. Priestley must have felt that he needed to send a message to the audience reminding them how badly the upper class treated the lower class.
