Mr. Birling’s attitude is shown in his words, “...A man has to make his own way has to look after himself” and, referring to the working class, “If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people they’ll soon be asking for the earth”. Mr. Birling has a selfish attitude towards life; he only cares for himself and family, and ignores everybody else. In fact, this is exactly what he expresses in a speech on at the celebration of Sheila’s and Gerald’s engagement, “... a man has to look after himself - and his family too, of course...” which gives the impression of the selfishness, and also greed. Another example of this is when he delivers a speech about how it is the best day of his life, “Gerald, I’m going to tell you frankly, without any pretences, that your engagement with Sheila means a lot to me. She’ll make you happy, and I’m sure you’ll make her happy.”
Sheila is the daughter of Mr. Birling and is engaged to Gerald. She has a totally different attitude to Birling, and we see this emphasized as the play progresses. Sheila is described in the stage directions as "a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited." J.B Priestly is deliberately trying to portray Sheila as perhaps dizzy or unable to make an independent decision of her own.
When the Inspector arrives, Sheila is out of the room. When she enters, she is immediately 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." Her character, although quite naïve and selfish at the moment shows facets that will result in her changing throughout the play into a thoughtful, mature individual.
As the Act proceeds and the Inspector is discussing cheap labour in workhouses and factories, Sheila begins her change. She starts to think as Eva as a person and not as “cheap labour”. When the Inspector shows Sheila the photograph, she instantly recognises it, so much in fact she has to leave the room. When she enters again, she admits that she did sack her for being jealous. She shows knowledge of the error of her ways when she says "I felt rotten at the time and now I feel a lot worse." According to Priestley, Sheila is a woman who is willing to listen and change. Sheila is a woman for the future, trying to break the boundaries of the 20th century.
Although Gerald and Sheila appear to be the stereotypical ‘happy couple’, this concept is thrown into doubt when Sheila presents the statement, “Yes-except for all last summer when you wouldn’t come near me, and I wondered what had happened to you.” This plants doubt in the minds of the audience and suggests that everything is not as it may appear.
Eric is the son of Mr. Birling and a brother to Sheila. When Eric first hears about the death of a girl, Eva Smith, he is undeniably shocked because his first response is the outcry "Oh, God." Like Sheila, Eric feels immediate sympathy for Eva for the way she was sacked by Birling. Eric is presented by Priestley as an unstable character; he appears shy, awkward and close to getting drunk. Priestley conveys this through Eric’s irrational behaviour “Eric suddenly guffaws” and jerky speech, “I don’t know-really I felt I just had to laugh”.
Priestley introduces ‘Inspector Goole’ at a time when the family has a feeling of self-satisfaction, shown by Birling’s comments about responsibility,
“But take my word for it, you youngsters-and I’ve learnt in the good hard school of experience-that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own”
It is ironic that Birling’s lecture on responsibility coincides with the arrival of the Inspector because as the play progresses, it is revealed to the audience that the Inspector is there in an attempt to teach both the audience and the Birlings the real responsibility people have towards other people.
“We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”
From his arrival, the Inspector makes it clear that he takes his role very seriously. This is shown in the delivery of his speech and the dialogue he uses. The Inspector’s authorative words, “one line of inquiry at a time” suggests to the audience that the Inspector may be at the house for some time and that he has other family members yet to question. This builds up the tension as the audience is left guessing who will be the next to be questioned and what effect they had on the life of Eva Smith.
Eva Smith, the victim of the “chain of events” brought on by the Birlings, represents the stereotypical lower class worker of the time. She is a character of pivotal importance throughout the play with her role being to reveal other characters real feelings, thoughts and views on life. This is achieved through the interrogation of the inspector. She remains a mystery as the audience never actually meet her but her character is gradually revealed through the other characters reactions to her death.
“She was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself”
The very name ‘Eva Smith’ has been cleverly constructed as ‘Eva’ suggests ‘woman’ due to its biblical origins, and ‘Smith’ is a ‘common’ name which suggests that Eva Smith is a representative of all lower class women. Priestley uses this name to show that it could have been any working class girl that was affected and that there are many more still out there who need our help.
Priestley uses many dramatic devices and structures to make an impact on the audience. We see the use of detailed stage directions in Act One to ensure that the performance of the play is just how he would have directed it himself. When I saw a production of this play by Daldry, I became very aware of how Act One relates to the play as a whole.
At the beginning of the play, J.B. Priestley gives a very elaborate and detailed amount of stage settings, lighting and character descriptions. I feel that these were so detailed as Priestley wanted the mood of the first Act to linger through out the whole play. For example "The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and home like." I felt that this was actually taken in to account as the extremely large table was the central point of the beginning. The size of the table showed that although the characters were a family, they weren’t close, not even being able to eat and celebrate with each other.
A different approach was used on the set design to convey the opinions held by the Birling family. The Birling house was situated on a raised platform, above the streets of Brumley; this symbolises the idea that the Birling’s are living in their own little comfortable world, above the common ‘riff raff’ below.
In Act One that the Inspector establishes immediately that he has immense power over the other characters. The Inspector’s one word question at the end of the Act, “Well?” and Sheila’s sense of the Inspector’s power, raise the Inspector’s position to an omnipotent, omnipresent inquisitor. When Sheila says this the audience know that she understands how the Inspector is working;
“Why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think what else he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
This adds to the audience’s feeling of mystery about where the inspector has got so much detailed knowledge.
The structure and pattern of Act One is a template for the rest of the play and reflects the cyclical nature of the play as a whole. In each Act, with each character, the Inspector outlines the events involving each family member, shows a photograph to the relevant family member which leads the character to confess to their misdeeds. Act One begins with this chain of events; the Birlings feeling self-satisfied, the next stage is that they are then upset by the Inspector, then the Inspector leaves and the Birlings return to feeling self-satisfied. The play closes with an inspector calling to bring the cycle full circle.
“That was the Police; a girl has just died - on her way to the Infirmary – after drinking some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here – to ask some questions.”
There is a dramatic mood change during Act One, brought on by the arrival of the inspector. Priestley’s stage directions regarding the lighting reflect this, “The lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder”. This change in lighting represents the idea that before the arrival of the Inspector, the Birlings were seeing the world through ‘rose-tinted-glasses’ (only seeing the nicer side of life, things they wanted to see) whereas when the inspector arrives the ‘truth is revealed’ and reality ‘kicks in’. There are no longer any shadows to hide the Birlings from their inconsiderate acts.
Another of Priestley's messages seems to be that there is hope for the future. On seeing how they have affected the life of Eva Smith, both Sheila and Eric act remorsefully. The character of Sheila is fairly caring at the beginning of the play, but as events unravel, and Sheila realises her guilt, her character develops from a fairly naive young girlish character to a more mature, understanding person. This change is so dramatic that to compare the Sheila who at the end of the play has taken to heart the Inspectors lessons, "I remember what he said, how he looked, and what he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish.", with the Sheila who had a young girl fired from her job because of her own personal paranoia and who acted so differently earlier, you would think they were different people. This is similar to a comparison made between the drunken, playful Eric of Act One with the sober serious Eric at the end of Act Three who has learned that his own mother played a major role in driving the woman bearing his child to suicide
The older generation, however, fail to change their views representing the fact that they are set in their ways. Mr and Mrs Birling are all too happy to dismiss the evening’s events as false once the chance appears that the Inspector may not have been a police Inspector. The senior Birlings are the examples of the people who will be taught through "Fire and blood and anguish". They will only learn through their own foolish mistakes. This is very different to the reactions of younger generation who are disturbed and moved by the Inspectors visit and comments. "You seem to have made a great impression on this child Inspector" comments Birling. The Inspector answers this comment with the statement "We often do on the young ones. They're more impressionable." This implies that Priestley is trying to say that there is potential for change in the "young ones" which is not as evident in the older generation.
The play “An Inspector Calls” is set in 1912 but was written in 1945. Edwardian society at that time (1912) was strictly divided into social classes and over two-thirds of the nation’s wealth was in the hands of less than one percent of the population. Below the very rich were the middle classes (doctors and merchants, shop workers and clerks), after that came the craftsmen and skilled workers. At the very bottom of the social ladder was the largest class of all - the ordinary workers and the poor, many of whom lived below the poverty level. The men of industry treated the workers very badly and they were paid a pittance. This caused workers to become better organised and strikes were becoming more frequent as they demanded better conditions and higher pay.
Act One presents the audience with Priestley’s understanding of the middle classes, of this time, through the life of the Birlings, very accurately, and sets the stage for this moralistic mystery to be played out. J.B. Priestley was writing the play for a middle class audience and was trying to speak up for the working class by showing how the Birlings and Gerald Croft were all involved in making a young working class girl’s life a misery. Priestley wants to show us that we have a responsibility to others to act fairly and without prejudice and that we do not live in isolation. Our actions affect others. This is the concept of collective responsibility. Priestley says, ‘things could really improve if only people were to become more socially responsible for the welfare of others’. We have to confront our mistakes and learn from them
Act One begins the process of inspection into beliefs and morals for both the audience and the characters. In my opinion, in the writing of this play, Priestley’s aim was to make us think, to make us question our own characters and beliefs. He wanted to show us that we can change, and we can decide which views we side with. He wanted us to ask ourselves if we wanted to be a Sheila or a Sybil, an Eric or an Arthur. Priestley wanted the audience to learn from the mistakes of the Birlings. Priestley wanted to make a difference in the way people think. The play gives the audience and society as a whole, time to change their actions towards others. That is, before an Inspector calls on you, to warn you that if the lesson is not learnt, it will be taught in “blood and fire and in anguish.”