As the dinner is coming to a close, Birling takes Gerald and Eric aside and begins to lecture them upon his capitalist views. He was just finishing when there was a knock at the door. The Inspector arrives very boldly and instantly creates an “impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness”. He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking very hard at the person he addresses. He arrives in a casual, but very focused manner and the Birlings are obviously not quite sure what to make of him. The Inspector somehow dominates the stage, probably through his natural authority he can exert upon
the Birlings and the audience.
The Inspector uses a variety of techniques to raise his points and retain order. His techniques slowly, but surely uncover each family member’s involvement with Eva Smith. His single disregard for the Birlings superior class is a technique in itself, because Birling keeps trying to threaten the Inspector with contacts etc. “ I don’t play golf” this is said after Birling threatens the Inspector with one of his powerful contacts, which he knows through golf. The Inspector, by saying this, shows he is not intimidated and does not care about his connections.
Emotive language is used to put guilt on the Birling’s “so that after two months, with no work, no money coming in, and living in lodgings, with no relatives to help her, few friends, lonely, half starved, she was feeling desperate.” This is an unnecessary amount of detail and is only being said for dramatic effect. On a number of occasions the Inspector tries to shock the Birling’s. “This afternoon a woman drunk some disinfectant, and died after several hours of agony, tonight in the infirmary” this is again an unnecessary amount of detail which is meant to shock the Birling’s into paying attention and feeling they need to, for the sake of the girl, respect the Inspector.
The final speech from the Inspector has a moral teaching within it, which he wishes the Birlings and all other people of the upper class to learn. This is also a portrait of the author’s thought, which he hopes the audience will learn. The beginning of his speech he says “ one Eva Smith is gone but there are millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still with us ...” this is to say that that the Birlings should drastically change their lifesyle and veiws upon the lower class. Towards the end of his speech he says “if man cannot learn this lesson, they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish“ This shows how astute the Inspector is. In this quote he, seemingly, accurately predicts a world war. The inspector may also be saying that if the Birling family retains their ways then they are certain to go to hell. In lots of the things the Inspector said he exerted lots of socialist views, which the Birling family, especially Mr Birling, disagree with, as they are capitalists.
The Inspector has a catastrophic affect on the family, causing conflict, some seemingly new perspectives on life and also some issues with pride concerning Mr Birling. When he finishes his speech he walks straight out, leaving them “staring, subdued and wondering”. When the Inspector leaves the house after making his final speech there is several different reactions to what he has said. Mr Birling sees the Inspectors knowledge to be a threat to the family name and may stand in his way of a knighthood, which Mr Birling is confident he will receive. “I was almost certain for a knight hood in the next honours list” all Birling seems to worry about is the “public scandals” he is obsessed with his image as is Mrs Birling, but the two children seem to have some different views. Eric and Sheila take what the Inspector said very literally and believe that what he said is important and hey need to change to become more thoughtful to people that are less fortunate than themselves. Sheila all through the Inspectors presence in the house has been regretting her actions, as has Eric, Whereas the parents in the family believe they have done no wrong and the blame is on the girl. “Oh for gods sake! Does it matter if they give you a knighthood or not” Eric said this after Birling is talking about how the Inspector may threaten his public image, this shows a mature channel of thinking which is vastly different from the beginning of the play, this also shows that Eric has grasped what is truly important.
The Inspector’s identity is somewhat translucent, he gives his name at first arrival, but apart from that he never explains anything about himself and every time something comes up about him he quickly, but intelligently, changes the subject. At the end of the play, questions are raised about his identity; the younger Birlings begin to discover if he is who he really says he is.
When Gerald returns from his walk he confirms there is no such Inspector of the name Goole on the local police force, which is not unexpected but still very dramatic to the Birlings and the audience. When the play is finished the audience will leave feeling confused and they will ponder upon the Inspector’s identity. If the Inspector was not a real Inspector then, it was reasonable when Gerald began to question the true happenings of Eva Smith. Gerald called the infirmary to check if there really was a girl who died in the Infirmary, but they could not confirm. The newly found evidence of Eva Smith and the Inspector meant that the audience began to really think what the Inspectors true role is in the play. The Inspector was evidently a socialist and the Birlings capitalists, maybe he was solely there to change them and make them better people. I have already mentioned the metaphor ‘the Inspector is the iceberg to the Birlings titanic’ this is very relevant and he might have been just there to break the family down.
In conclusion, all of the drama in the play is either directly related to the Inspector or is involving the Inspector. He disrupts the Birling household immensely; he leaves the foundations of the family shattered. One of the clever things the Inspector does is; instead of breaking the family down by telling them they are awful people and that they have killed a young, innocent girl. He gives them some facts, tells them how they were involved and then he lets them work out in their minds what they have done and how they can avoid a similar situation in the future.
