An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly
An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly, is the story of the visit by an
Inspector to an apparently normal family, the Birlings. They are
celebrating Sheila Birling's engagement to Gerald Croft, who is also
present, when the Inspector arrives telling them of the suicide of a
young girl called Eva Smith. At first they deny any knowledge of the
girl, but as the play goes on the Inspector manages to show that they
all helped kill her. Mr Birling had her dismissed from his factory for
demanding a small increase in wages; Sheila ordered her to be
dismissed from her job in a shop simply because of her pride; Gerald
Croft kept her as his mistress before leaving her suddenly; Eric
Birling (Mr & Mrs Birling's son) also had an affair with the girl and
stole money to keep her living; and Mrs Birling used her influence to
deny help to Eva Smith when she needed it most, driving her to
suicide.
After the Inspector's visit we can see which of the characters have
learned their lesson from what the Inspector has said and which are
steadfastly clinging to their old beliefs. The differing attitudes
between the older and younger characters are shown by their
conversations following the Inspector's departure.
It is Birling's speech in Act 1 that sets the scene for the action in
the play. Birling is confidently talking to Eric and Gerald about what
he thinks about the future. He thinks of everything in business terms
(for example, he says to Gerald that he hopes that his firm and
Gerald's father's will become partners) and also is a man who thinks
that a man should make his own way in life and does not believe in
living in a "community.o He disregards the people who preach this
philosophy of everyone living together and looking after each other as
"cranks.o
It is at this point that the Inspector enters the play, interrupting
Birling in his speech. In this way he can be seen as Priestly's
response to Birling's opinions and he soon begins to tear down the
ideas that Birling thrives on.
On hearing of Eva Smith's death Birling is at first dismissive of what
has happened, saying that he does not see what the events have to do
with him. Birling also repeats his earlier opinion on community,
telling the Inspector that he "can't accept any responsibilityo for
what happened to her, even though it may have been a chain of events.
He believes that if everyone was responsible for each other, "it would
be very awkward.o
When asked why he dismissed Eva Smith for asking for a relatively
modest wage increase, Birling tries to defend himself by citing
financial reasons. He is surprised when the Inspector asks why he
refused the increase as he is sure the Inspector will agree with him.
Birling again shows his disregard for other people when he says that
if Eva Smith did not like working at his company she could "go and
work somewhere else - it's a free countryo This view is undermined
when Eric points out that "it isn't if you can't work somewhere elseo.
As the Inspector's interviews with the other characters Birling
becomes more and more agitated and stage directions to describe his
mood such as "bothered, angrily and sharplyo show that he is not in a
good frame of mind. He appears to be slowly learning his lesson but is
getting very angry as he sees that all he believes in is wrong. As he
discovers the revelations about Eric's theft of the money he becomes
more and more desperate, and just before the Inspector's departure he
says he will give "thousandso to keep the story quiet. Birling is told
by the Inspector that he is "offering the money at the wrong timeo and
Eva Smith will make him pay "a heavy priceo in terms of emotion, not
money.
After the Inspector's departure Birling admits that he has "learnt a
loto from his visit. However, he immediately singles out Eric as
"you're the one I blame for this [the scandal]o, so he still seems to
have little notion of community as he should, if he had learnt
anything, be saying "we're the ones to blame for thiso. Instead he
seems to be shifting blame from himself. We can also see that as soon
as the characters begin to construct doubts about the legitimacy of
the Inspector he tries to find a way out of his predicament. As the
story unravels he becomes "excitedo on discovering that the Inspector
is not real and soon he has managed to put the whole episode out of
his head, despite protests from Eric and Sheila who try to tell him
that "you still haven't learnt anything.o Birling is far more
concerned about what may happen if the news comes out in public than
whatever he did to Eva Smith and makes fun of Eric and Sheila for "not
being able to take a jokeo. However, the phone call he receives at the
end of the play is not at all funny to him.
To sum up, from the play we can see that when Birling preaches his
"every man for himselfo philosophy he is very assured that he is
right. The Inspector's questioning manages to make him change his mind
slightly although he is still sure of what he believes in. When he
sees a chance to get out of the embarrassing situation he has been put
into he grabs it with both hands and manages to forget the lesson he
has learnt during the evening.
Sheila is probably the character who changes the most during the play.
At the start of the action she is very happy about her engagement,
"pleased with life and rather excitedo. However, even at this point we
pick up some of the qualities in her that are so marked later in the
play, such as her clear stating of opinions which can be seen when she
half-teases Gerald about his absence during the summer and her opinion
of wine drinkers. Sheila's reaction on receiving her engagement ring
from Gerald show her state of mind:
"Sheila: Oh - it's wonderful! Look - Mummy - isn't it a beauty? Oh -
darling!o
Sheila appears to be inattentive over her father's speeches at the
dinner table and has to be told to listen. This suggests that she
neither find his opinions interesting nor agrees with them, which may
point to her future conduct in the play.
Sheila's explanation of her conduct when interviewed by the Inspector
shows how naive and thoughtless she was up to that point. However,
unlike Birling she feels very upset about her conduct, shown by her
running out of the room sobbing when first shown the photograph of Eva
Smith. She also swears that she will "never, never do it [behaving
like that towards others] again to anybodyo.
This is a turning point in the play for Sheila. Almost at once she
sheds her ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
point to her future conduct in the play.
Sheila's explanation of her conduct when interviewed by the Inspector
shows how naive and thoughtless she was up to that point. However,
unlike Birling she feels very upset about her conduct, shown by her
running out of the room sobbing when first shown the photograph of Eva
Smith. She also swears that she will "never, never do it [behaving
like that towards others] again to anybodyo.
This is a turning point in the play for Sheila. Almost at once she
sheds her image of being a naive and ignorant young lady and takes on
the most profound understanding of the Inspector's message. During the
rest of the play she often makes several cutting remarks during the
other characters' ?interviews' with the Inspector. For example, when
the Inspector is talking to Mrs Birling she warns her mother not to
block herself from Eva Smith in her answers to his questions:
Mrs Birling: ...And in any case I don't suppose for a moment that we
can understand why
the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class --
Sheila : Mother, don't--please don't For your own sake, as well as
ours, you musn't.---
Mrs Birling: Musn't - what? Really, Sheila!
Sheila : You musn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that
girl. If you do,
the Inspector will just break it down...
Incidences such as this, where Sheila is clearly contradicting the
opinion of her parents, lead Mrs Birling to remark to the Inspector
that "You seem to be making a great impression on the childo. The
Inspector's response, that "we often make an impression on the young
oneso is proved to be true. The younger characters - Sheila, Eric and
to an extent Gerald, are able to see the Inspector's message realise
that he is right. However, the older characters are too entrenched in
their beliefs and still stubbornly cling to what they believe in.
Sheila appears to understand that the Inspector already appears to
know all the facts and will force them to admit the truth sooner
rather than later. In her conversation with Gerald he claims that he
will be able to keep the truth of his affair with Daisy Renton a
secret from the Inspector. Sheila calls Gerald "a foolo and correctly
tells him that the Inspector "knows about everything.o
After the Inspector's departure Sheila, supported by Eric, tries to
make her parents understand what the Inspector has taught her. As they
show no sign of having learnt their lesson from the night's events,
she despairingly says "you don't seem to have learnt anythingo. When
the Inspector is exposed as a fake she endures the ridicule of her
parents yet steadfastly clings to her beliefs. She would doubtless
find the final phone call very satisfactory.
In summary, during the course of the play Sheila changes from a rather
naive and ignorant young lady into a person who can fully understand
the Inspector's message and see that he is right. She is the person
who becomes the Inspector's ally during the questioning and agrees
with him the most.
Mrs Birling is perhaps the character who remains most resolute in her
beliefs during the play. From start to finish she believes steadfastly
in her husband's opinions, out-doing even Birling himself in her
refusal to listen to alternative notions. Throughout the action she
only once shows the slightest sign of wavering.
It is very noticeable that Birling is very supportive to his wife
throughout the play and the two always back each other up when stating
an opinion. When Birling is ranting and raving after the Inspector's
visit he blames virtually everyone except his wife (and himself),
showing his respect for her.
In the initial stage directions, Mrs Birling is described as a "rather
cold womano and that she is "her husband's social superioro. She
therefore has a high point in life where she looks down on others,
whilst never having experienced the life that they lead. This means
that Mrs Birling is immediately prejudiced against Eva Smith,
dismissing her death with the comment "Girls of that class...o. and
she ignores Sheila's warning about building up a "wallo between
herself and the Inspector. Further examples of this snobbery are shown
when she tries to impress the Inspector with the positions that her
husband holds:
Mrs Birling (to the Inspector) I realise that you have to conduct some
sort of inquiry...but
you seem to be conducting it a rather peculiar and offensive
manner. You know
of course that my husband was a Lord Mayor only two years
ago and he's
still a magistrate --
When Mrs Birling is questioned on her conduct in regard to not giving
Eva Smith/Daisy Renton any charitable money, she is still
unsympathetic towards her, saying "she only had herself to blameo. She
still maintains that she has "done nothing that I am ashamed ofo, even
though the Inspector warns her that she will "spend the rest of her
life regretting what you have doneo. Finally, she states that, "you
have no power to change my mindo, showing that she has learnt nothing
from the interview. She tries to shift blame onto others by blaming
Eva and the young man who was the father of the baby.
Mrs Birling is shocked when she discovers that this "young mano is
actually her son Eric and when he screams at her she begins to waver
for the only time in the play. The stage direction describes her as
"very distressedo and she begins to moan "No - Eric - please - I
didn't know...o. However, she soon recovers and joins Birling in
condemning Eric, saying that "I'm absolutely ashamed of youo to him.
She also, like Birling, is delighted when the Inspector is exposed as
a fake and even tries to pretend that she "knewo all along that this
was so(!). This is absolutely untrue as she was as taken in by the
Inspector as much as all the others. This behaviour appears to be her
way of restoring her faith in herself and her beliefs after the knock
given to them by the Inspector.
When the whole story about Eva Smith is shown to be untrue, she is
able to believe that the whole story was a joke, and is "most
gratefulo to Gerald for showing her that the Inspector was not real.
One gets the feeling, more than with any other character in the play,
that faced with a similar set of circumstances again that Mrs Birling
would behave in exactly the same way again. This idea is given
credence when, after Sheila sarcastically remarks "We can all go on
behaving just as we dido, Mrs Birling takes her comments as her true
feelings and says "Well, why shouldn't we?o, showing that she has
learned absolutely nothing from the night's events.
To summarise, Mrs Birling not only shows that she has not changed at
all in her opinions at the end of the play but she shows very little
sign of wavering from it during the action either.
Eric is a character whose ideas have changed considerably at the end
of the play. When we first meet him, he has had rather too much to
drink (or "squiffyo as Sheila puts it). He appears to agree with but
has little enthusiasm for his fathers' ideas until the Inspector
arrives. This is the point in which his ideas about Eva Smith change
and he begins to criticise his father and mother in a similar manner
to Sheila, although not in such as sophisticated a manner.
The reason for this early change is due to the fact that Eric, of
course, has been seeing "Daisy Rentono until very recently, and his
instinctive exclamation of "My God!o shows he knows whom the Inspector
is talking about when he mentions the murder for the first time. We
can see this by his initial anxiety about the girl's fate, for example
when he asks Birling "Is that [Eva's dismissal] the reason she
committed suicide, Father?o. When Eric hears the tale of events that
began with his father's dismissal of her he is disgusted by what he
did and begins to distance himself from his opinions. Interjections
such as:
Birling ...I said they[the striking workers] could go and work
somewhere else. It's a free
country, I told them.
Eric It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else.
show Eric's opinion of his father's conduct. This means that Eric soon
finds himself having a similar opinion as Sheila about their parents'
ideas - although for different reasons. Sheila is distressed that her
parents do not seem to have heeded the Inspector's warning, whilst
Eric is angry that the actions of his parents have led to the death of
the woman who was to have his child and is understandably upset at
their "don't-careo attitude. This drawing together of ideas is ironic
as in the first scene Eric and Sheila spend most of their time
annoying each other.
Eric's return at the beginning of Act 3 is greeted with fury by
Birling, who bitterly tells him that "you're the one I blame for thiso
and is joined by Mrs Birling, who is "also ashamedo of him. This
throws Eric into a wild rage in which he shouts at his mother for
turning help away from Eva Smith when she needed it most. Birling
dismisses Eric as a "hysterical young fool.o
After the Inspector's final message Eric seems to gain clear
understanding of the principle of the community (note that the
Inspector commented that "we often seem to make the greatest
impression on the young ones) and reminds his parents that "I'm
ashamed of you as well - both of youo. He tries to assist Sheila in
making the elder family members see the lesson that they have been
taught, but to no avail. Eric finally severs his links with his
father's ideas on community when he savagely criticises Birling's
description of people like the Inspector as "crankso, stating "I
didn't notice you told him [the Inspector] it's every man for
himself.o As Birling tries to talk about preventing a scandal, Eric
warns him that "you're starting to pretend than now that nothing's
happened.o
To sum up, Eric changes from a young man who reluctantly accepts his
father's ideas into one who is able to see that they are totally wrong
and is not afraid to criticise them out aloud.
Gerald is a character whose opinions are difficult to judge, because
unlike the other characters he has a motive for stating ideas that are
different to what he actually believes. Generally, Gerald attempts to
do and say what he hopes Mr & Mrs Birling will agree with and he also
attempts to please Sheila, though he is not particularly successful.
Gerald comes out of his "interviewo with the Inspector better than any
other character, because he did not do anything to Eva/Daisy that
harmed her in the way that the other characters. Indeed, had he not
been engaged to Sheila his conduct would have been entirely acceptable
for a normal relationship. However, the fact that he was means that he
is thought of in very low esteem by Sheila and her parents after he
tells the details of his affair. When Sheila gives Gerald back the
ring in Act 2 he would doubtless have wished to get back in favour
with Mr and Mrs Birling.
This state of mind means that he appears to finally come out on the
side of Birling and he does whatever he can to be supportive towards
them. Privately one feels that Gerald feels the same as Eric and
Sheila, but he cannot afford to agree with them if he wishes to get
back in favour with their parents, as this is the only way that he can
hope to re-start the engagement with Sheila. This is shown in his
systematic destruction of the Inspector's story, in which he is
constantly prompting Birling to cast doubt on each part of the tale.
He is also not afraid to telephone the infirmary to confirm that there
was no dead body there, despite Birling's reservations about it being
rather late to be doing this. Another example of Gerald's wish to
avoid upsetting Birling further is when he refuses Sheila's offer to
tell him about, as Sheila puts it, "our crimes and idiocies.o
Consequently Gerald's conduct is probably biased and hiding his true
opinions.
In the plot of An Inspector Calls, the characters respond to the
message that they are given by the Inspector in different ways. Sheila
and Eric fully understand the idea that, as the Inspector says, "We
all live as one body. We don't live aloneo and unsuccessful try to
persuade their parents of the merits of this arguments. Birling and
Mrs Birling stubbornly cling to their beliefs and Gerald also comes
out on their side, although this could be a result of him trying to
make the elder Birlings happy with himself.
As well as teaching a moral lesson about community, An Inspector Calls
reflects many of the historical, social and cultural attitudes that
were prevalent both in the time the play was set (1912) and the time
in which it was written (1944). In this way the play is Priestly's
comment on the values of that period.
Cultural and social attitudes of the time the play is set in are
prevalent in An Inspector Calls. There is a marked difference between
the attitudes of the attitudes and values of the older characters in
the play and the younger ones.
The course of the play centres on Birling's belief, stated by him in
Act 1 in various speeches to the other characters, that "a man has to
make his own way in lifeo. Birling has no time for the notion of
"communityo and comes across as a hard-headed businessman with no time
for anyone apart from himself and his family. This is why he is unable
to accept responsibility for what happens to Eva Smith/Daisy Renton,
and the Inspector - who arrives in the middle of one of Birling's
speeches - can be seen as Priestly's response to his ideas.
Both Birling and Mrs Birling have a certain snobbish streak in them,
which is shown several times in the play. At the start of the play
Birling is worried that Gerald's mother feels that he, Gerald, "may
have done better for himself socially", whilst Mrs Birling
discriminates against Eva Smith with a dismissive "Girls of that
class..." remark, showing her disdain for her. Both Birling and his
wife also try to use the fact that Birling has a prominent position in
public affairs to try to influence the Inspector into relieving the
pressure on him, for example when Mrs Birling reminds the Inspector
that "my husband was an ex-Lord Mayor, you know". Mrs Birling also
used her social influence to deny charity to Eva Smith. There is also
the question of marriage - it is acceptable for the similarly classed
Sheila and Gerald to marry but not for Eric and Daisy.
Initially, the Birlings all feel very secure and believe that they can
do no wrong. The opening stage directions state that they are all
"pleased with themselves.o Later on, in his speech to Gerald and Eric,
Birling states that he is sure he knows what he is right because of
his "experienceo:
Birling ...We can't let these Bernard Shaws and H.G. Wellses do all
the talking. We
hard-headed business men must say something sometime. And we
don't guess -
we've had experience - and we know.
Although Sheila has been able to see that all is not perfect in the
world of the Birlings after her interrogation with the Inspector, the
older characters and Gerald still believe that what they are doing is
right. Gerald's remark, at the end of Act 1, "We're respectable
citizens, y'knowo shows the level of self-delusion. By the end of the
play the two older Birlings have still managed to keep up their
self-deception whilst the audience can see that they are a very
dysfunctional family.
Birling has appears to have a dim view of education, probably because
he did not experience itself. He criticises Eric for his life at
university, saying that "this public-school-and-varsity-life doesn't
seem to teach you [responsibility]o. Ironically it appears that it is
Birling who seems unable to grasp the notion of being responsible for
other people. Birling believes that when he was young "they worked us
hard...and kept us short of cash.o An interesting point in the story
is that whilst Eric has had an education and Sheila apparently has
not, at least not to such as high a level, yet she seems a lot more
sensible and mature than Eric by the end of the play.
This sort of sexist attitude, where it was thought more important that
men should have an education than women, is shown throughout An
Inspector Calls. Several times in the play Birling asks Sheila and Mrs
Birling to leave the room so he can speak in private. At the start of
the play, Sheila and her mother go out of the room and leave Birling
to talk about issues he does not want them to hear, such as his
worries about Gerald's mother and his desire to talk about his
business issues. Both Birling and Gerald initially try to shield
Sheila from the Inspector's questioning, and when Sheila recognizes
the photograph and runs out of the room Birling angrily asks the
Inspector "Why the devil do you want to go upsetting the child like
that?o Birling also tries to shield his wife from the gritty details
of what the characters have done and when the story of what Eric has
done he orders Sheila to "take your mother out of the roomo
This denying of access to the truth means that the women are a lot
more naive and innocent than the men. For instance, Sheila appears to
be very ignorant of business matters when Birling talks about them in
Act 1. Another example of this ignorance is the fact that neither has
heard of the Palace Bar, where both Gerald and Eric met Eva/Daisy
whilst the men definitely do. Mrs Birling seems particularly unaware
about matters such as Eric's drinking and the behaviour of certain
people she knows, such as Alderman "Joeo Meggarty:
Gerald ...Old Joe Meggarty, half-drunk and goggle-eyed, had wedged her
into a
corner with that obscene fat carcass of his --
Mrs Birling There's no need to be disgusting. And surely you don't
mean Alderman
Meggarty?
Gerald Of course I do. He's a notorious womaniser, one of the worst
sots in Brumley.
Inspector Quite right.
Mrs Birling Well, really! Alderman Meggarty! I must say, we are
learning something
tonight.
Birling's attitude towards industry forms the cornerstone of his ?one
man for himself' philosophy. He finds it hard to resist talking about
his business ideas, even when celebrating his daughter's engagement,
as he describes the time that they are marrying in "will be a time of
increasing prosperityo. However, his idea of increasing prosperity
does not extend to Eva Smith. Having admitted to denying her a miserly
wage increase "because we'd have added twelve per cent to our labour
costso. He is dismissive towards the workers' strike, describing it as
"a pitiful affairo. In these days there were no trade unions for
workers to express their views and Birling, who believes workers
should know their place, thought Eva Smith had "far too much to sayo.
Of course, with no trade unions, there was no way for her to say
anything whilst being backed up by a powerful body. As the Inspector
comments, "if there weren't [poor people], the factories and
warehouses wouldn't know where to look for cheap labour. Ask your
father.o
There is also a lack of charity for Eva Smith which is very apparent,
and again would not happen today because then there was no National
Health Service or Social Security. The only place that an Eva Smith
could go for help was a charity such as that of Mrs Birling's.
However, it becomes clear from the interview of Mrs Birling that her
philosophy is charity rather than being charitable.
Historical attitudes of the time are also reflected in the plot of An
Inspector Calls. Most of these stem from Birling's early speeches in
Act 1, where he makes a series of grand predictions about the future:
"There's a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the
future. Don't worry. We've passed the worst of it.o
"There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere.o
"A friend of mine went over this new liner - the Titanic - 46 800 tons
and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.o
"There isn't a chance of waro
These grand predictions would have seemed particularly bitter and
ironic to the audience who first watched the play in 1944. During this
period the world was going through a disastrous war and Birling's
wildly over-optimistic prophecies would be seen to be totally wrong.
The audience knows that, with hindsight, all that Birling believes in
is about to be torn down.
Birling predicts that in twenty or thirty years' time that there will
be peace, greater prosperity and happiness everywhere. In fact, the
world was about to be plunged into the carnage of the First World War
- the chances of which Birling dismisses as "fiddlesticks!o, followed
by another war twenty-five years later. Birling's comment that "the
Germans don't want waro would seem particularly ironic because Germany
was heavily involved against Britain in both of these wars. Birling
also thinks that Britain is in for a time of "increasing prosperityo
when in fact in a few years the economy was to be devastated by the
Great Depression with thousands of job losses.
Birling also has a misguided faith in the progress of the future and
its creations. He claims that the liner Titanic - designed and built
by people like Birling - is "absolutely unsinkableo and stresses the
size of ship, 46 800 tons. However, a few weeks later, the
"unsinkableo ship was at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean with
the loss of 1600 lives. Again Birling's visions have been shown to be
totally incorrect.
Birling has no time for the idea of socialism and workers' rights,
saying that noone should worry about "labour troubleo in the future.
This is shown in his disregard for the strike conducted by Eva Smith
because there were no trade unions in those days to fight against him.
He dismisses Russia, where the communist movement was growing
strength, stating that it will "always be backwardo. Another place in
the play where he disdain for any movement representing equality is
when, after discovering the Inspector is not all he seems, he
dismisses him as "a Socialist or some sort of crank - he talked like
oneo. Birling was not to know of the rise of the Labour Party in
Britain or the Russian Revolution of 1917.
In his closing speech the Inspector warns about what will happen if
his message about men living together in a community is not heeded:
Inspector ...We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are
members of one
body. 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.
In hindsight we can see that the "fire, blood and anguisho that the
Inspector was warning about happened in the case of the First World
War. This had started because the countries of Europe, instead of
existing together, had formed themselves into two camps, with the
countries within them allied together. Serbia was Russia's ally, who
was also on the side of Britain and France, who had both promised to
protect Belgium. Austria and Germany (and later Italy) were also
allies. When Austria attacked Serbia, the Russians declared war on
Austria and the Germans invaded Belgium, sending Britain and France
into battle. The result was a hellish war in which millions died. Had
the countries been able to live together then there would not have
been a war. The fact that the play was written in the midst of the
Second World War suggests that Priestly was saying that the lessons of
what happened in the First World War had not been learned.
In summary, An Inspector Calls details the differing attitudes of the
Birling family to the events leading to Eva Smith's death and how they
accept the responsibility for their actions. The older characters are
too rigid to change but the younger ones are able to see their faults
and accept what they have done is wrong. The play also reflects
various cultural, social and historical, which reflect on the time
both in which the play is set in and when it was written.
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