“The mysterious figure of a man who dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period,” Was an inspector to question the family.
Stage Directions “The Inspector is an old man who speaks very precisely and weightily”.
Stage Directions “He is the kind of person who creates an awareness of solidity and massiveness although him not being a large man”.
The Inspector represents the role of moral conscience and an Inspector asking questions to The Birling family. The Inspector treats The Birling family as if they were all guilty and he acts like a nuisance due to him breaking up the celebration. The Inspector starts to interview the family with Mr Birling first and Sheila second. In Sheila’s interview The Inspector has revealed, what she did to Eva Smith. Sheila reacted that she was the one who started it all and the one who made her kill herself the most: “It was my fault”. However by Sheila’s byword she feels very blameworthy and remorseful. This happened to her when she was at a shop called Milwards, which the family spend money on a daily basis. Sheila was in the store one day and wanted a girl fired who worked in it because Sheila was in a furious rage for she caught the women laughing at her. Sheila blames herself mostly because she abused her power of wealth to sack the employee Eva Smith. I think that Sheila is being really unfair and rough, just for Eva laughing at the Sheila. Now Eva Smith has now nowhere to work and can’t earn money from working which is sheer substandard.
In the play this is where Sheila starts off to change. She changes fully as The Inspector interrogates her in the interview. After the interview she is feeling miserable and blaming herself: “I know, I know – and I can’t stop thinking about it.” Here she is taking responsibility for the death of Eva Smith and would be like what she is because of her not seeing anyone dead or being part of someone in the family who has died. Another quotation showing that she is feeling miserable and responsible:
“We all started like that – so confident, so pleased with ourselves until he began asking us questions.”
This is Sheila warning the family not to answer any of The Inspectors questions for it will make them feel guilty and as garbage. In Mr Birlings interview his actions in the death of Eva Smith was that he fired her due to her starting the strike so the workers could receive higher wages. His reactions are completely different to Sheila’s because Mr Birling thinks that it was Eva’s fault for just going on strike not earning money for a living. So the interview of Mr Birling’s is compared to Sheila’s and which one is right?
The Inspectors final speech reveals the writer’s speech of the play. The terms of the theme and Priestley’s point of view are both the same, for when The Inspector is about to leave he gives a lecture to the family of the overall incident of Eva Smith by The Inspector’s statement:
“Well Eva Smith’s gone. You can’t do any more harm. And you can’t do her any good now either. You can’t even say I’m sorry Eva Smith.”
The Inspector saying this deliveries the family an extra kick of pain of what the family feel for Eva Smith. They are regretful and remorseful for all their little parts of Eva’s life, turned also into her death. The Inspector also tells the rest of the family there are millions of Eva Smith’s and John Smith’s in the world that need aid and nobody rich are giving them a break. The Inspector says:
“We are numbers of one body. We are responsible for each other.”
What The Inspector is saying to the audience is that, everyone should look out for each other, as if a friend was in trouble you would try to help them out. As the more the Inspector talked the greater impact it had on Sheila for she took everyone little word very seriously and proved it on herself although it was not always Sheila’s fault. After The Inspector talks about that the family is not able to help and can is not able to harm Eva anymore Sheila bursts out quietly crying: “That’s the worst of it.” So Sheila is feeling absolutely broken up for she is the only member of the family crying and that she would have helped if she only had a chance to do so.
After The Inspector leaves, the family start to argue about what happened between them. Then the character Gerald Croft informs the family that The Inspector was a fake and then they all assume that it does not matter anymore. It is important to have this part of the play rather than the ending with The Inspector’s exit because this part really exposes the theme of Sheila’s social responsibility of the death of Eva Smith for she is accepting the responsibility unlike her mother and father who want to pretend that nothing has happened: “Nothing much has happened,” said by Mr Birling for he thinks that it was all unfortunate for them to have killed Eva Smith. The difference between Sheila’s and Eric’s attitude, at this stage of the play to Mr Birling and Mrs Birling is that again Mr and Mrs Birling are pretending that it did not happen or that it was not important because the character Gerald Croft revealed that The Inspector Goole was not a police officer, which was confirmed from one of the police officers Gerald knows. So Mr and Mrs Birling were glad he was a fake Inspector by Mr Birling saying excitedly: “By jingo! A fake!” This displays that he thinks that Eva Smith is a fake also, that there was no death at all. JB Priestley shows us through these different attitudes that the younger generation is feeling horrible about what has happened. They think that their actions of being rich and wealthy and using it to harm someone who is poor. The ways that this section relates to The Inspectors speech, are by him interrogating the younger members to make them scared and for them to take care in what they do in the future as adults.
Sheila, at the end of the play changes completely from the beginning of the play right to the end of it. She has changed because she partly caused a women called Eva Smith her death and by her taking responsibility for her actions. At the end of the play, The Inspector has left, and the parents still don’t have a clue about the dead women. Sheila successfully conveys the theme of social responsibility by the writer JB Priestley’s actions of the family and what they did and said made Sheila’s character responsible for her actions but does not with the family which gives more favour for Sheila. The play “An Inspector Calls” to me is a very absorbing play for it develops into a very satisfied way. Which tells the audience what the characters done in Eva Smiths life - to damage it and then the way the Inspector Goole is gone and is told to be a fake which might not be true which leaves the family at a still.
