We have so far determined what the main plot of the story is and what the messages that are portrayed are. We must now try to conclude if the inspector is the ghostly voice on conscience. The character of Inspector Goole is mysterious. This air of mystery is intentional. He is mysterious because of his character. The name Inspector Goole is an obvious play on words (Inspector- spectre, Goole - ghoul). As the audience we never get to find out who the inspector is, his mysterious appearance and disappearance leave us with no clues. Consider that it is possible for the inspector to be conscience or possibly the ghost of Eva Smith. Priestley left the character as a mystery so as to have a larger impact on the audience, making them think more about the play, and helping them think more about the messages the play brings. Through the Inspector, the audiences are educated in their social understandings and behaviour, seeing the examples of the Birlings and hearing Inspector Goole's prediction. The ending, I feel, symbolises the fact that if you do not learn your lesson the first time, you will be taught it again and again. It symbolises that you can't run from your conscience, or the inspector. Priestley uses the dramatic twist of the Inspector returning at the end of the play to emphasis this point, and makes it more effective by placing it just as the characters are beginning to relax. It serves to 'prick' the consciences of both the characters and the audience. The inspector seems to closely examine each character in more ways that one, first he studies them aesthetically and then he verbally assaults them with a barrier of questions. Any attempt to redeem themselves or each other is thwarted by the inspector, this is a strange characteristic, if the inspector is to be a true police inspector. The inspector is a very intimidating and unforgiving character, much like a persons conscience. The inspector seems to put himself in the position of Eva Smith, see everything through her eyes, thus making him bias against the Birlings. Almost every characteristic that the inspector shows through-out the play he shares with what we would expect from a persons conscience, except one thing, arrogance. The inspector seems very arrogant about the theory that the Birlings killed Eva Smith. It is even possible to say that the inspector is forcing the theory upon the family, however conscience does not do this, conscience only pulls on things that are fact.
Mr Birling does not have a high opinion of Eva Smith. He sees her as someone he can employ and use as cheap labour rather than an important member of society. He has many people employed in his factory, but these are just figures to him, he does not care about individuals,
“Well we’ve several hundred young women there, y’know and they keep changing”
Mr Birling does not appear to react to the news that Eva Smith has committed suicide, and that she died in great agony, whereas Eric exclaims,
“My God!”
when he hears the news. Mr Birling shrugs it off,
“Yes, yes, horrid business but I don’t see why you should have come here Inspector”
Mr Birling does not want to accept any responsibility or blame for Eva Smith’s death, not even to say the he may have triggered a chain of events by sacking her from her job. He sees no problem in refusing to raise the workers’ pay at his factory, from an average of about “twenty two and six” to “twenty five shillings a week”, even though previously he had said that she was a good worker and was due for a promotion. This shows that he is more interested in his business than the welfare of his workers.
Eventually the workers went on strike, and Eva Smith was sacked for being a ringleader. He thinks that people like Eva Smith should be put in their place, and if they do something such as ask for a higher rate of pay, they should be sacked, regardless if they cannot get another job, and another person should replace them. He simply thinks of them as statistics, as numbers which he can manipulate as he pleases. He sees Eva Smith as someone below him in society, and not as a real person.
When Sheila Birling hears about Eva Smith’s death or suicide, she is horrified. She asks the inspector questions about her and her death, and she does not realise that she could have played a part in her death or in the chain of events that lead to her death. She is disgusted at Mr Birling when the inspector suggests that he thinks of people like Eva as cheap labour.
“But these girls are not cheap labour, they’re people”
Sheila feels genuinely sorry for Eva, and says that she was very lucky when she heard that she got a job at Millwards.
When the inspector shows her a photograph, she gets upset, and runs out the room. When she re-enters the room she has evidently been crying, and she has realised who Eva Smith is. Sheila feels guilty for getting Eva Smith sacked from Millwards, for a very insignificant reason.
“I felt rotten about it at the time, and now I feel a lot worse.”
She says that she feels sorry for Eva Smith because she realises that she caused Eva to lose her last stable job.
Although in the social hierarchy of the time, Eva Smith was below Sheila, Sheila sees her more as an equal and regrets what she did to get her sacked.
Gerald Croft is startled when he hears that Eva Smith changed her name to Daisy Renton after she lost her job at Millwards. This is quite clear, as he exclaims,
“What?”
after hearing of her change of name. He tries to cover it up when Sheila questions him,
“Well what? Sheila?”
He then tries to hide the fact the he knew her, but soon realises that it is useless and tries to play it down. He suggests that they could keep the fact that he knew her from the inspector, but Sheila laughs hysterically, saying,
“Why- you fool- he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see, you’ll see”
Gerald then tries to get Sheila to leave the room, probably so that she will not hear what has been going on between him and Eva Smith.
Gerald finally explains that he met Eva Smith in the Palace music hall, at the bar, which is a “favourite haunt” of “women of the town.” He then stops, mid-sentence, and exclaims,
“My God,” – “sorry- I- well, I’ve just realised- taken it in properly- that’s she’s dead”
The author is perhaps showing that Gerald does care about Eva.
He goes on to explain the chain of events that led to him leaving her, after giving her a substantial amount of money, to keep her going. I think that this shows that he again does care, and does not want her to come to any harm. He does however, admit the he did not love her,
“I didn’t feel the same about her as she felt about me”
Gerald felt sorry for her, so he looked after her, but did not fall in love with her, like she did with him. I think he saw her as a good person who did not deserve the treatment she was getting.
Mrs Birling has a very strong opinion about Eva Smith. When the Inspector shows her a photograph of Eva Smith, she says she does not recognise her. The Inspector replies,
“You’re not telling me the truth”
She then gets angry saying,
“I beg your pardon!”
J.B Priestly portrays Mrs Birling as an arrogant character who believes she is above everyone. She is very short with the inspector, and refuses to answer his questions properly. She finally admits to recognising Eva Smith from the Brumly woman’s charity. She tells him that Eva Smith appealed to the organisation for help, but she had got the help denied, by using her power in the committee. She says that she had her case refused was because,
“I didn’t like her manner”
She then goes on to say,
“I’m very sorry. But I think she only had herself to blame”
This shows that she did not, and does not care about Eva Smith, or what happened to her.
At this point Mrs Birling had a lot of power over Eva Smith and she abused this power, simply because she did not like her attitude or manner. She refused Eva Smith what turned out to be the last help that she could get, and this, I think, played a large part in driving her to suicide. In spite of all this, Mrs Birling does not care, or regret what she did,
“Unlike these three, I did nothing I’m ashamed of, or that wont bear investigation”
“In spite of what has happened to the girl since, I consider I did my duty”
This shows her arrogance, both toward the Inspector, and Eva Smith, and other people like her. She obviously believes strongly in the social hierarchy, and thinks that people below her, are worthless.
Eric Birling realises that the Inspector knows the he knew Eva Smith, even before he is questioned. He therefore admits straight away that he know Eva Smith, with out having to be questioned. He tells them how he met her and what happened. He tells them that she was pregnant with his child, and that he stole money, when he found this out, from Mr Birling’s factory. When he finds out that Mrs Birling refused Eva Smith help, he gets very angry.
“Then- you killed her. She came to you to protect me- and you turned her away- yes, you killed her, and the child she’d have had too- my child- you own grandchild-you killed them both- damn you- damn you”
This shows that he did care for her, and is sorry for what he did. Although he did not love her, he did care for her, despite getting her pregnant whilst drunk.
The Inspector sees Eva Smith as an unfortunate person who had a run of bad luck, and was in the wrong place in the wrong time. I think he does not like the attitudes of people such as Mr and Mrs Birling, at all. He obviously feels sorry for Eva Smith, and keeps reminding the other characters of what a horrible, painful death she suffered.
He comes across as a mysterious person, and there is a lot of doubt at the end of the play whether he was a real police inspector or not. The way the play is written, it doesn’t let you if he is a police inspector, it leaves you to guess.
Mr and Mrs Birling see Eva Smith as someone who is below them in the class system, or hierarchy, and is therefore less important than they are. They seen to think that they can look down on her, or people like her. They refuse to accept responsibility for starting a chain of events that led to her death, or refuse to admit that they were wrong in refusing her help, whether that was a slightly higher wage, of financial help when she was desperate. Mr Birling sees her as someone who is only good for use as cheap labour, and is expendable, and if there is the slightest doubt then she should be sacked, as there is plenty more cheap labour around. He is more interested in the profitability of his company than putting the wage of his workers up, to a level that they can survive on.
This shows that the older generation believe strongly in the class hierarchy, which causes them to see people who they class as ‘below’ them, not as human beings, but as workers who are there simply to bring in money for them. They appear detached from the real world. J.B Priestly shows us the they have not changed their attitudes at all through out the play, especially toward the end, where they try to go back to the way they were, when the inspector has left, and Gerald proves that he is not really a police inspector.
J.B Priestly shows us that Sheila Birling’s attitude has changed dramatically toward the end of the play. Sheila regrets what she did, and sees the wrong in what everyone did, and sees Eva Smith as an equal human being, who deserves as good a chance as anyone. I think that Sheila has learnt the most from their ‘experience’ with the Inspector, and has changed her attitudes towards people because of it
Gerald tried to help Eva Smith out, as he saw her getting into trouble, and tried to help her but in the end she ended up worse off than when she started.
Eric took advantage of her when he was drunk, and impregnated her. He did however try to help her out afterwards, by giving her money. He was probably the last straw that led to her death. At the end of the play however, J.B Priestly shows that he has changed, and regrets what he did.
At the end of the play, my final opinion of Eva Smith is that she was unfortunate, on many occasions, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After losing her job twice, she did not have anywhere to go, and got caught up in the lives of people such as Gerald Croft, and Eric Birling. These incidents got her into more and more trouble, and being refused help from the Brumly Women’s Charity was probably the last straw that drove her to suicide.
