There is a lot of dramatic irony in the play, J.B. Priestly uses dramatic irony to prove how wrong Mr Birling was when he made his confident and quite convinced predictions about there not being a ‘war’ and his excited about the sailing of ‘The Titanic’. The audience knows that he is very wrong as they already know what has happened to the Titanic which sank famously on its first journey in 1912. This puts the audience at an advantage over Mr Birling and gets them more involved as they want to find out whether he realises that the ship sinks on its maiden voyage and what his reactions are going to be like.
Sheila’s realisation of what happened to Eva Smith changes her actions and behaviour during the play. Although she has never in her life considered the conditions in which the workers work in or are treated, she shows her sympathy immediately when she hears about the treatment her father has given to Eva Smith in the past. She says that, “but these girls aren’t cheap labour they are people”, this indicates to the audience that she is maturing and that she is thinking about someone else for once. Sheila also feels she is responsible for the death of Eva Smith, she even criticises her parents and Gerald for not feeling that they were as much involved in the death of Eva Smith as she was. This is made known when she said ‘probably between us, we killed her’.
Sheila is very disappointed about the behaviour of his father, she keeps telling him that he needs to change his opinions about Eva Smith and that she is as much of a human as they are, this is relating to the theme ‘class’. She says to her dad that ‘these girls aren’t cheap labour, they are people.’ Her dad still doesn’t accept that as he believes in capitalism. Capitalism is when the productions are owned by private individuals. The cost of production and prices of goods are determined by the market and the employers are allowed to pay the employees how much they think is right. Sheila is now very much against her dad.
So far in the play, Sheila Birling is the only who really understands what is happening, who the inspector might be and how this rather startling information of Eva smith’s death and how she died has changed her attitude to lower ‘class’ citizens. The only character who the audience can relate more to is Sheila Birling. When she is wrong she passionately agrees, like when she said ‘I behaved badly too’.
Sheila is really the only one who truly acknowledges that she is wrong and feels sorry for what has just happened. She becomes very angry and sees her parents for what they really are when they tried to “pretend that nothing much has happened” after the inspector had gone. She even says to her parents that “it frightens me the way you talk.” When she says this, another one of the main themes in the play is known. The ‘class’ was also shown by the age of people and their sex. In the Birling family, Sheila was the lowest ranked but she is still able to stand up to her parents. She doesn’t understand how her parents haven’t in any way or form learnt from any of the night’s experiences. She in turn very passionate speaks against her family about the night’s occurrence and tells them that ‘probably between us, we killed her’. This is a very strong case as she is claiming that the whole household had killed a girl in a long chain of incidents. Yet her parents are still reluctant to accept any blame for what has happened.
Class is one of the main themes in the play. There were two different classed citizens back in the early 1900’s. These were the lower class citizens and the higher class citizens, the Birling’s and the ‘Croft’s’ belonged to the higher class citizens. The play is mostly based on a maltreatment of a lower class citizen and how this leads to the change in her life. Mr. Birling was expecting a ‘Knighthood’, due to his involvement in the local community, so warns Gerald to keep out of ‘trouble’ until he gets his accolade. Apart from ‘Edna’ the maid, there were no other lower class citizens acting in the play. We only see the rich (the crofts) and the upwardly coming rich (the Birling’s) but yet we learn a lot about the lower class citizens as we hear of each stage in Eva's life and we see the attitudes in which the Birling’s had acted on her.
Using the theme ‘class’, the author J. B. Priestly is sending out a message to the audience about ‘socialism’ and ‘capitalism.’ He uses the play to express his views about Socialism. Towards the end of the play, J.B.P uses the inspector’s speech to the family about how everyone is ‘responsible’ for each other to put out a message to the audience about how we are all responsible for each other’s actions. Not is not only aimed at the family but it is also aimed at the audience. J.B. Priestly is using the inspector to express his own views and opinions out to the audience.
The year in which the play is set is very significant. It could have been set in any year but J.B.P chose 1912 as this was when the country (England) was going through a change. The year 1912 is a significant time to set the play because it helps the audience recognize that Mr Birling is wrong during his analysis about how things are getting better. It is also an important year because this was when England was a ‘capitalism’ country. Mr. Birling believed England should be a ‘socialist’ country; this is so he wouldn’t have to share his money fairly with his workers. If the country was a socialist country then Eva Smith probably wouldn’t have died such a horrible death.
J.B.P has witnessed two world wars, poverty and rations first hand, so he is in a better position to assess whether ‘socialism’ or ‘capitalism’ is the better solution for the country. Even though he would prefer a Socialist country, he knows it will not happen as there has to be someone claiming more money than someone else because they have put more effort into their work or business than their workers.
At the beginning of the play, Mr Birling has a 'man to man' chat with Gerald and Eric, he advises them that a man needs to ‘look after himself and his own family’ and not worry about the wider community. In telling Gerald and Eric about how they should deal with themselves, Mr Birling doesn’t follow his own words. He is involved in the way that Eva Smith is mistreated. Firstly he is the one that sacks her for wanting a small percentage rise in money, and then he denies having an involvement in the chain of events that happened after.
Sheila’s involvement in Eva Smith’s death is not as significant as the rest of his family but it was still one of the things
When Inspector Goole announces that he has come to investigate the suicide of a young working-class girl who died that afternoon and later shows a photograph of her. Mr. Birling admits that she used to be one of his employees: he discharged her when she became one of the leaders of a strike being organised to ask fore slightly higher wage bills. Mr. Birling tries to justify his reasons by saying he paid his workers the usual rates and that he cannot see that he has any responsibility for what happened to her afterwards.
The family begin to realise how much they are actually involved in the death of Eva Smith when the Inspector enlightens them of how Eva Smith died. Firstly, the inspector says that Mr. Birling kicked Eva Smith out of his company for wanting too much money, Eva smith then went and work in ‘Milwards’, where she got sacked because Sheila got jealous of her and complained about her. When the Inspector says that Eva Smith changed her name to Daisy Renton, Gerald realises to that he was involved, he had an affair with her a few months ago, this relates to the beginning when Sheila said about how Gerald weren’t around with her over the summer.
An attempt by Mrs Birling to usher the Inspector away leads to the exposure of Eric’s involvement and how much of a heavy drinker he actually is. When Inspector Goole showed a picture of Daisy Renton to Mrs Birling, she resentfully admitted that she to knew Daisy Renton, and saw her just two weeks before her death. During that time Daisy was pregnant and needed assistant, financially. She went to the Brumley women’s charity organisation. Mrs Birling was the chairwoman of the organisation and used her influence in making sure that Daisy wouldn’t receive any financial help because she believed that Daisy had made false accusations.
Towards the end of the scene when Mrs Birling condemned who she thought the father of the child should do and what should happen to him, she even claimed that he should be made an example of not and shamed in public. He should accept ‘responsibility, for what he has done. There is a dramatic Irony in that scene because the audience automatically realise what is going on but Mrs Birling is in no man’s land.
When Eric admitted that he had taken about £50 from the company in which his dad owned, one of the main themes in the play is revealed, and that is ‘responsibility.’ Responsibility is one of the things in which the characters in the play often referred to…….
Now that all the Birling’s know that they are all involved, and played a part in Eva smith’s death, some of the characters start idolising themselves from the situation, the main culprit of this is Mr. Birling. Sheila is the only one who really understands what has happened and has learnt anything from the situation. Mr and Mrs Birling are concerned about what is going to happen to them rather than the tragedy that has just occurred to them. They are also more concerned about covering themselves up; whiles on the other hand Sheila and Eric are accepting their involvements and are feeling guilty.
After the Inspector leaves, the family begin to ponder what has just happened and how they make the situation better. But yet Sheila still Sheila knocks off her parents for trying to protect themselves, she says that ‘I behaved badly too, I am ashamed of it, but now you are beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened”. This suggests that even though she is ashamed of her actions, she can’t live like how she did in the past. This proves to the audience that she is maturing.
