The immense down fall on his personality is that he seems to show no guilt or remorse towards Eva. He seems to be a very hard man, and shows no regret for dismissing Eva, knowing that if he had not sacked Eva she might of still been breathing. He merely stated that, “If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people they will soon be asking for the earth”. The Inspector there shows Mr Birling’s wickedness that was expressed towards Eva.
Mr Birling always seems to want his own way by emphasising his status in society or whom he knows. When Mr Birling doesn’t get his way he resorts to threatening behaviour. Mr Birling starts to feel pressured by the Inspector asking him questions Mr Birling would refer to his friend the chief constable, “Perhaps I ought to warn you that he is an old friend of mine”. This aspect to Mr Birling shows his weakness and that he has to hide behind other people and his wealth to get his way.
At the end of the play, his views and attitudes aren’t changed. He still believes that his actions towards the girl were business-like and he was entitled to sack the girl.
When Mr Birling responds to having his own actions and responsibilities questioned he incriminates others, boasts, “yammers” and slips his way out by covering up the whole affair. When Mr Birling hears of Eric’s situation and association with Eva, the only problem is to get hold of the accounts that Eric stole from so he can protect his family name. It is clearly shown that his aim isn’t to protect Eric but his family from a social scandal.
When the Inspector leaves Birling wants everything to return to normal. He cannot comprehend Sheila’s and Eric’s concept that something has to be learnt from the whole experience. When the phone call brings an end to the play, J.B. Priestly lets us see someone who is openly ignorant and unfeeling towards others and one who cannot take responsibility for what he has done. Just before the play came to an end he cheerfully says, “the whole thing’s different now” and compliments himself for avoiding a scandal.
Mrs Birling (Sybil Birling) has a lot in common with her husband. They both see themselves as higher above the rest. She is presumably more arrogant than he is. She is intensely snobbish and anticipates others to have respect towards and for everyone to agree with her and not to upset her. She is always on the look out for any criticism against her family name. It’s like a fabrication for her family to make it seem to society that her family is ‘perfect’. Both Mr and Mrs Birling initially reply to the Inspector by trying to put him in his place, by stressing their position within society. Mrs Birling was being accused of turning Eva Smith away from the ‘Brumley Women’s Charity’. Mrs Birling’s excuse was that it was because Eva had called herself Mrs Birling. Mrs Birling felt very confident that she doesn’t know anything about Eva Smith and that the Inspector cannot find any involvement with her. “I shall be glad to answer any questions the Inspector wishes to ask me. Though naturally I don’t know anything about this girl.” The Inspector reveals Mrs Birling’s wickedness showing she has no guilt or remorse. But she is still unsympathetic towards her saying, “she only has herself to blame.” Mrs Birling belonged to a charity organisation was there to help people but on the contrary to this she turned Eva smith away. Mrs Birling shows no remorse or sympathy towards Eva Smith’s death. She poured scorn because she was an ordinary working class woman. I also think she is trying to take the blame off of herself. She says, “Therefore, you’re quite wrong to suppose I shall regret what I did.”
The inspector tries to make her reflect on what she has done to Eva Smith by saying “I think you did something terribly wrong – and that you’re going to spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
It was clear that Mrs Birling disliked Eva and even admitted that, “I didn’t like her manner”. She can’t understand why a death of a ‘lower class’ person would be of any importance to her. I think she feels that different feelings and different standards of behaviour are suitable for different types of classes of people. Mrs Birling refuses to accept that a girl of the lower class would ever have feelings that she claimed she had. Her vengeful attitude towards the father of Eva’s child changed when it was revealed that she finds out it was her grandchild. Mrs Birling is the only character that shows no weakness in the play. The only thing remotely weak about Mrs Birling is the fact that she didn’t want her daughter Sheila to listen to the conversation.
Sheila is the daughter of the Birling’s who at the start of the performance is getting engaged to Gerald Croft. Apart from Eric, Sheila is the only character whom shows us indulgence in the play. Sheila is an honest character and is not cold like her parents. Sheila’s involvement is the least grim of all the characters’ actions towards Eva. She made a complaint regarding Eva when she was working at Milwards. She complained because I felt she was frankly envious of Eva’s prettiness. Eva had smiled in what Sheila thought it was a faultfinding manner. But Eva wasn’t even smiling at her she was smiling at the shop assistant.
After Birling, Sheila is the next family member to be interviewed by the Inspector. Sheila is described in the stage directions as “a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.”
When the Inspector arrives, Sheila is out of the scene/room. When she enters, she is instantaneously drawn into the situation, asking questions that her father isn’t pleased about. When the news of the death of Eva Smith has finally been told, Sheila is shocked “How horrible – was it an accident?” As time progresses and Sheila is more well-informed about the situation, she reacts “I can’t stop thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh, I wish you hadn’t told me.” What Sheila just said shows both wickedness and weakness. She feels sorry for the girl killing herself. But is thinking about herself, and being selfish when she said that you shouldn’t have told me.
Sheila sometimes behaves like the Inspectors ally, she tends to add on the pressure to the Inspector questioning. She isn’t being vengeful but is simply trying to get to the truth. She sees how the other characters are trying to lie and cover up their actions. I noticed that until the Inspector Calls Sheila has gone with the socially accepted blindness to such ‘lies’ that have been made around her.
Sheila is the first individual who begins to interrogate who the Inspector actually is. Again she is the first to perceive who the father of Eva’s baby is. She is as well the only person to say the truth and speak out concerning the family’s behaviour, being dishonest and trying to pretend that nothing happened.
Priestly has given us a considerable description of a typical upper middle class working man in the first act of the play and we have a very detailed image of this type of man. Priestley uses the inspector as a tool to show us how deceitful and arrogant the upper class man and women are. The Inspector represents the voice of Priestly and was used to express Priestley’s own opinions. The inspector bring all the Birling family into the investigation and through these investigations that Priestley tries to disclose to us what conditions were like in the early twentieth century.
When the inspector leaves the family progressively come to the assumption that the ‘inspector’ was an impostor. Priestley has shown us how the middle class refers to, act and treat the lower class citizens and how they act in society. I believe by reading ‘An Inspector Calls’ that Priestley hopes that we will realise how the younger generation are the ones who can change society in which we live. The anecdote shown in the story is the fact that only Sheila and her brother, Eric seems to have learnt from their mistakes and are appalled at their parents’ readiness to discharge themselves from any wrong. This gives an unmistakable contrast between Eric and Sheila and their parents who do not learn at all. Priestley wants to show and would hope that the younger generation of today realises that they can change their society. The inspector (the voice of Priestley) summarises when he says, “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.” Priestley has shown the huge detachment between the classes were in the early 20th century. Priestley wants to show us the great significance of helping each other; the Birling family was an example of how not to act. Priestley’s message to the reader was conveyed very well.
The story’s moral can be understood clearly and makes the reader come to their senses. Priestley has also shown within the story how he feels the circumstances can be changed. ‘An Inspector Calls’ has been so effective because of the fact Priestley has included an interesting story line as well as bringing his readers a message. J.B. Priestly has conveyed a message within his story and we should all benefit from it, anyway possible. He shows how certain people get manipulated and we should treat people the same regardless of their, gender, race or religion. Priestly wanted to get this moral across, I think he did, but unfortunately there will always be people like the Birling’s.