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 sharply” 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 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 "thousands” to keep the story quiet. Birling is told by the Inspector that he is "offering the money at the wrong time” and Eva Smith will make him pay "a heavy price” in terms of emotion, not money.
After the Inspector's departure Birling admits that he has learnt a lot from his visit. However, he immediately singles out Eric as "you're the one I blame for this the scandal”. So he still seems to have little notion of “community” because if he had learnt anything, he would admit that they were to blame for this tragedy. As the story unravels he becomes excited 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” Birling is far more concerned about what may happen if the scandal becomes public, than whatever he did to Eva Smith and makes fun of Eric and Sheila for "not being able to take a joke”. However, the phone call he receives at the end of the play is not at all funny to him.
In the initial stage directions, Mrs. Birling is described as a rather cold woman and that she is her husband's social superior. Mrs. Birling therefore has a superior attitude in life where she looks down on others, (In Particularly the lower and middle class families, such as Eva Smith,) 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...” and she ignores Sheila's warning about building up a "wall” 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:
“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 with regard to refusing Eva Smith/Daisy Renton any charitable money, she is still unsympathetic towards her, saying, "She only had herself to blame”. She still maintains that she has done nothing that she is ashamed of, even though the Inspector warns her that she will "spend the rest of her life regretting what she has done. Finally, she states that, "you have no power to change my mind”, 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 man 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 distressed” and she begins to moan, "No - Eric - please - I didn't know...” However, she soon recovers and joins Birling in condemning Eric, saying that "I'm absolutely ashamed of you”. She also, like Birling, is delighted when the Inspector is exposed as a fake and even tries to pretend that she knew 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.
When the whole story about Eva Smith is revealed to be untrue, she is able to believe that the whole story was a joke, and is most grateful to Gerald for showing her that the Inspector was not real, thus telling us that she has learned absolutely nothing from the night's events.
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-care attitude. This drawing together of ideas is ironic as in the first scene Eric and Sheila spend most of their time annoying each other.
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 and Mrs. Birling will agree with and he also attempts to please Sheila, though he is not particularly successful.
Gerald comes out of his interview 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.
We feel 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.” Consequently Gerald's conduct is probably biased and hiding his true opinions.
Initially, the Birling’s all feel very secure and believe that they can do no wrong. The opening stage directions state that they are all "pleased with themselves.” Later on, in his speech to Gerald and Eric, Birling states that he is sure he knows what he is right because of his experience.
Birling at the beginning makes lots of statements about the war and The Titanic that his friend is sailing on. These grand predictions would have seemed particularly bitter and ironic to the audience. During the period of 1914-1919 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!” followed by another war twenty-five years later. Birling's comment that "the Germans don't want war” 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 prosperity” 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 unsinkable” and stresses the size of ship, 46 800 tons. However, a few weeks later, the "unsinkable” 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.
Lastly the Inspector is shown to be a mysterious character that, before the characters of the Birling family says anything about their actions towards Eva Smith or Daisy Renton he already knows. The Inspector starts of by tearing down the ideas that Birling has thrives upon and begins questioning of the Birling family. Individually he makes the younger people of the family regret their actions and vow to make a new start. Whereas the older people such as Mr. And Mrs. Birling stick to their ideas and don’t let go until the end.
The Final point is how Priestly uses the double bluff to add a twist to the story, as in one chapter the Birling’s are being scrutinized for their actions towards Eva Smith, then in the next chapter there is the relief when they find out that the Inspector is not really an inspector and has never been one. In the last chapter the phone rings and Birling answers. His face drops and he tells his family that a girl has just died outside the infirmary of poisoning and that an Inspector is on the way to talk to the Birling’s. Priestly uses the double bluff very well to add a twist to the story showing that in the end only the younger of the Birling Family e.g. Eric and Sheila are remorseful for their actions and that Mrs. Birling and Mr. Birling have stuck to their previous ideas and have not changed for the better.
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.