The apportioning of blame and responsibility are central themes in 'An Inspector Calls'. Each character plays a part in Eva Smiths downfall. Show how the playwright explores these themes during the course of the play.
The apportioning of blame and responsibility are central themes in ‘An Inspector Calls’. Each character plays a part in Eva Smiths downfall. Show how the playwright explores these themes during the course of the play.This essay will explore the two main themes in the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B.Priestley. These themes that I am going to explore are the apportioning of blame and responsibility between each one of the characters for their part in Eva Smiths death. The play is set on a spring Evening in 1912, Just before World War 1 began. Throughout the play we are introduced to two very different types of class. Those who live in large houses and wear expensive clothes, usually who own factories or stocks and who are oblivious to anybody not in their class. We are also introduced to those who work for upper-class people. They have to wear hand-me-down clothes and make every last penny count, when they even get the chance to have a penny. J.B. Priestley uses the interaction between these two classes to make a very serious point, at the beginning of the play Mr Birling says, “ a man has to … look after himself” yet the upper class cannot survive without the low class workers and this works both ways. This means everybody actually does need to look after everybody else otherwise the world would have no cycle! Nothing would work!This play takes place in a fictitious town in the Midlands called Brumley. As the curtain rises we see just how prosperous the Birling family are prepared fair we see this through the solid furniture, a large dining table, and the champagne glasses on this large dining table strictly from the glasses we can sell they had been celebrating.First of all the lighting is pink and intimate so the celebration is intimate and personal as well. Further and in the play we find out that it is the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft. At this point Edna clears the table and everyone begins a light-hearted chat, everything seems to be going smoothly. I think J. B. Priestley uses this cosy atmosphere so as to use dramatic irony to warn the audience that this atmosphere will not last long. I see this when Mr Birling changes to subject to the Titanic saying, “ why, a friend of mine went over this new liner last week-The Titanic-forty-six thousand, eight hundred tons-every luxury-and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” another subject to Mr Birling brings up is World War I by saying “ I’ll tell you...... you’ll be living in world that’ll have forgotten… all these silly War scares.” The fact that the play was first shown in 1946 means that the audience already knew that the Titanic sank, against everything everybody said, and also, that soon after, World War I did break out.So by this we know that the nothing can go wrong atmosphere is soon to change, leaving the audience wondering when this will be.Early on in the play we recognise Sheila is a fashionable young girl, probably in her early twenties, she uses fashionable words such as “squiffy” meaning drunk, when she says this use referring to her brother Eric this is the first point in the play relating Eric and alcohol. Sheila is put across, as an independent girl yet she still does what Gerald wants her to do. We see this when Gerald shows Sheila her engagement ring Sheila says, “ Oh, Gerald is it the one you wanted me to have?” At this point in the play Gerald is the more dominant in the relationship.Soon Mr Birling, Eric and Gerald are left on their own so Mr Birling begins a speech about how a man “has to look after himself” but he doesn't get to finish this speech. The doorbell rings. At this point in the play the lighting is still warm and intimate thoughts as soon as the Inspector walks into the room the lighting becomes higher than bright, as if trying to reveal something hiding in the shadows.We are told that the Inspector not a big man when he enters the room he holds all the and authority, he also gives a feeling of
massiveness. His name Inspector Goole also hints a supernatural and spooky person. This is an excellent play on words. Inspector Goole gains his leadership by staring long and hard at somebody before talking to them.We now see Mr Birling trying to gain this authority back when he tells the Inspector “ I was an alderman for years-and Lord Mayor two years ago-and I'm still on the bench” also By saying, “ well, what can I do for you?” He is trying to make it seem that the Inspector needs him, not the other way around.It is at this point the ...
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massiveness. His name Inspector Goole also hints a supernatural and spooky person. This is an excellent play on words. Inspector Goole gains his leadership by staring long and hard at somebody before talking to them.We now see Mr Birling trying to gain this authority back when he tells the Inspector “ I was an alderman for years-and Lord Mayor two years ago-and I'm still on the bench” also By saying, “ well, what can I do for you?” He is trying to make it seem that the Inspector needs him, not the other way around.It is at this point the Inspector tells Mr Birling, Eric and Gerald the reason he is here.“ Two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmary-she had swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant-burnt her inside out of course” after the Inspector told them this account there are two completely different reactions.Eric involuntarily sees “ my God” this shows real shock he did not expect the Inspector to say what he did. Yet Mr Birling becomes agitated as if he couldn't care less he says, "Yes, yes. Horrid business. But I don't understand why you should come here Inspector."The Inspector now begins to address Mr Birling about his part in the girl, Eva Smiths, death.Eva Smith was one of many young women working in the Birlings factory. The women were on very low rates and could barely manage to live on them and so decided to go on strike for high wages. Mr Birling did his best to keep the Labour cost down to a minimum even if this means firing a few ringleaders. Eva Smith was one of these ringleaders.After this came out Mr Birling was unwilling to accept any responsibility in Eva Smiths downfall. He says "still, I cant accept any responsibility" and “ if we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?" Mr Birling didn't think about how sacking Eva Smith would affect her life, he knew about the lack of work and the low rates everywhere. But on the other hand Mr Birling has a responsibility to make sure his factory runs smoothly even if it means sacking a few girls to make his point.Mr Birling is a man who likes to have a good reputation; J. B. Priestley shows this well when Mr Birling says Mrs Birling at the end of the play" I must say Sybil that when all this comes out at the inquest it isn't going to do much good” he is waiting for a knighthood and will only get it if he stays out of trouble. Gerald Croft backs Mr Birling up by saying "you couldn’t have don't anything else” But could he? Next the Inspector turns to Sheila who up till now has been put across to the audience as a pretty girl who is pleased with here life, she enjoys the lifestyle and is happy to marry Gerald Croft, A man who will give her a life similar to the one she has grown up in. This shows her immaturity and ignorance to the suffering people all around her, for example Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. Sheila and her mother Mrs Birling frequently shop in a department store called Milwards a well known store. After being fired by Mr Birling Eva has a stroke of luck and was taken on in this particular store as a sales assistant.As usual Sheila went to Milwards this one day and was in a terribly temper as she couldn’t find what she wanted, again showing her immaturity, and after trying on a dress that everybody said would not suit her she became worse. After taking off the dress Sheila catches Eva smiling whilst holding up the dress and takes this the wrong way, so she threatens to withdraw her account from them if Eva wasn’t fired. The manager fired Eva.After telling her story we see that Sheila take her share of the responsibility and even more, unlike her father who refuses that he had any involvement. I think Sheila was wrong to use her power of being ‘a daughter of a good customer’ to punish Eva, simply for being prettier than her, But we can see Sheila grow up a bit by saying, ‘It’s the only time I have even done that, and I will never, never do it again to anybody’ From this we can presume that this jealous attitude is not generally in her nature. She also shows her kind nature earlier in the play when Mr Birling refers to the girls as ‘cheap labour’ Sheila insists,‘But these girls aren’t just cheap labour - they are people’. Sheila is now beginning to show a more realistic, mature attitude to the one she has previously shown, she is growing up. The fact that Sheila truly repented for her actions tells me she is not purposefully to blame. Sheila was ‘desperately sorry’.The inspector now tells us that Eva smith changed her name to Daisy Renton. Gerald realizes that he too was involved in the young girl’s death but pretends he doesn’t know her; he doesn’t want to face this situation like Arthur and Sheila did and lost. At this moment in time Gerald is liked and respected by both Mr and Mrs Birling, at one time in the play this was the same for Sheila but she is quickly coming to her senses and is now becoming suspicious if not aware of Gerald’s involvement. Whilst the inspector is outside of the room he confesses to having an affair with Daisy to Sheila.The inspector returns to the room at this point Eric is referred to as a young man who drink far too much everybody agrees, except Mrs Birling who stays in a blissful ignorance about the whole thing. The inspector now turns to Gerald and asks him what relationship he had with Daisy; Gerald immediately puts up a defence saying ‘Where did you get the Idea that I did know her?’ But the now more mature, sensible Sheila puts a stop to this defence straight away saying ‘Its no use Gerald, your wasting time’. Gerald Gives in and explains how he knew her.It was when he was out one night in the palace bar, somewhere he shouldn’t have been anyway since it was mainly for drunkards and whores, and he caught sight of a pretty girl who didn’t seem to fit in. This pretty girl was Daisy Renton.Gerald saw That she was having trouble with a man and so being the gentleman that he is he saved her from him and after realizing she had nowhere to stay and no food to eat he put her up in a temporary apartment and gave her money to eat, she became his mistress, but as time went on he fell for her looks and had an affair with Daisy. In Gerald told Daisy the affair was over, she left the apartment that Gerald let her stay in as she couldn’t stay there much longer anyway as it was only temporary, Gerald didn’t see her after that.Gerald was wrong to string her along the way he did, deep down he would have known that the relationship wouldn’t last long, why would it he had the daughter of a rich, respected, self made business man. Gerald is not totally in the wrong, it wasn’t right having an affair but he did give Daisy a place to stay and made sure she had something to eat. He got caught up being the ‘wonderful fairy prince’ and did not think realistically of the consequences of both him and Daisy. Sheila sees that he didn’t intentionally set out to hurt her feelings and can also see he was being honest she says to him ‘that’s probably the best thing you’ve said all night. At least it’s honest’. She also ‘respects him more now that he has been man enough to admit to what he has done. Gerald shows his shame in what he has done by requesting to ‘be alone for a while’. He shows genuine remorse for what he has done yet even though Sheila can see this she gives him the ring back, she now knows that the Gerald she got engaged to isn’t the same, neither is she just from this act we can see her becoming more and more sensible. Gerald accepts the ring and leaves.Whilst all this has been going on Mrs Birling has had a very cold attitude towards the inspector, she is very out of place. Whilst everybody in the room are very sad and guilty of their own parts in Daisy Renton’s downfall and death, Mrs Birling was always very bright and cheerful in a arrogant and ignorant way. We can see that even from the beginning she wanted the inspector to view her as important as she says ‘I’m Mrs Birling y’know’ this attitude though is soon to change as it has done in every ones case. Yet even though she is getting more and more uneasy at the fact that the inspector has singled her out and knows she too was involved with Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton she still goes on in a struggle to make herself seem important and not guilty. She tells the inspector ‘my husband was a lord mayor only two years ago and is still a magistrate’ hoping this will impress him but the inspector keeps a face with no expression as usual. Mrs Birling has been used to getting her own way by bullying people into submission, we can see her trying this with the inspector when she calls him ‘impertinent’ and the way he spoke to her ‘disgusting’ yet she still cannot beat him and unknowingly her refusal to let anybody know she had been involved with Eva Smith/Daisy Renton fails and she ends up telling the inspector the whole story. Sybil is the head of The Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation. Just two weeks In a last hope of help Eva/Daisy has gone to this organisation appealing for some money, and help for her unborn child. We find out later that this child’s father was Eric and it is because of this that Eva/Daisy uses his surname and calls herself, Mrs Birling. Unknown to Eva/Daisy that the head woman that she was talking to was, Eric’s mother. Mrs Birling takes this the wrong way and is immediately turned bias against Eva/Daisy. She finally got the truth out of Eva/Daisy except who the father was but even still Mrs Birling abused her power as head and bullied the other committee members into refusing help for Eva. Mrs Birling knew that the father of the child was a drunk and would be incapable of looking after either Eva or the child but Mrs Birling remains stubborn and tells Eva to find the father and get money off him. When Eva explains she was getting money of the father but now cannot take it of him Mrs Birling is fuming that a girl of ‘her class’ can have such high morals and so becomes even more prejudice. She believed that Eva was talking a ‘lot of silly nonsense’Mrs Birling openly tells everybody in the room that she was Bias against Eva. It is obvious from this that Mrs Birling only motive in being head of the charity committee is only selfish and she is not really interested in the girls who are in need. If she was genuinely interested about how these girls turn out she would not have acted o heartlessly towards Eva. Mrs Birling feels that Eva has ‘only herself to blame’. Inspector Goole’s reaction to such a heartless and arrogant attitude very sternly trying to get across to the still ignorant Mrs Birling that she cannot believe middleclass girl can have ‘scruples’ as if only upper-class people can have these feeling yet she doesn’t even have the feelings of humanity if she wasn’t going to give money to Eva at least some money or coupons to help the innocent unborn child would have been slightly acceptable but Mrs Birling couldn’t even do that. She shows absolutely no remorse for her actions and publicly shows this by saying such things as ‘I have nothing to be ashamed of’ and I accept no blame for this at all’She then began to slag off the father of the unborn child passing on the blame to him. Whilst doing this Sheila connects the fact that the man that got Eva pregnant was, a drunkard, of the upper-class, and then remembers that the only person not been interrogated is Eric. Sheila Immediately tries to stop her mother from talking badly of the father, she shouts ‘mother-stop-stop’ then in a final attempt ‘but mother- don’t you see?’ she finally gives up and begins to cry. Mrs Birling still doesn’t know why nobody is helping her to pass the blame onto the father and is the only person that hasn’t realized who the father is. Then finally it hits her, the father she was just calling names, the drunkard, the thief, is her very own son.Eric was out drinking in the palace bar and he saw Eva there. He had been drinking when he met her and so was not behaving rationally. He took her home where he made quite a scene so finally she let him in and they slept together. When Eric found out that Eva was pregnant he at least realized his responsibility and asked Eva to marry him but she could see that Eric wasn’t the best husband as he had a drinking problem so she refused. Eric stole some money from his father’s accounts intending to pay it all back and gave it to Eva for a while but when she found out one night that Eric had been stealing it she refused to accept anymore money from him. That was why she turned to the Brumley Women’s Organisation. Eric was wrong to take the money from his father but at least his intentions were good.During the course of the evening Eric was acting strangely as if he knew that soon it would be his turn and everything would come out. Still throughout Mr Birling telling the inspector his part in Eva’s downfall he showed some sort of a mature attitude when telling ho he felt it was wrong to have fired Eva just because she had ‘a bit more spirit than the others’. Even still Eric knows what is right he still isn’t mature enough to have the strength to do the right thing. Unlike Mr Birling who made his way up the ladder of wealth Eric was born into it and has never had to do anything himself so when his careless attitude got him into a problem that he could only sort out himself he couldn’t do it and ended up stealing a very childish thing to do. We can still see that Eric is truly distraught about what has happened to Eva we see this in the outburst he has when finding out about his mother denying Eva any help. At the end when everybody realizes the inspector was really a fake the only people who seem happy about this are Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald. This shows how narrow minded they are. Mr birling most of all, treating the occasion as something to celebrate by saying ‘Gerald-have a drink’. Mrs Birling decided that she was the ‘only one who didn’t give in to him’ she has learnt nothing an still remains the stubborn, ignorant, selfish person she always was.Gerald who at one point in the play was truly sorry for his actions has now changed and thinks there is nothing wrong in what he or anybody else has done, he feels that ‘everything is alright now’.Mr Birling decided that the girl who Gerald had an affair with now doesn’t matter an says ‘you’d better ask Gerald for that ring back’.Sheila, who after this whole experience has grown up and became a mature young girl, changes from what she was like at the beginning. We could see that It was Gerald who was in charge but now Sheila is as she replies to her father and Gerald ‘no, not yet. It’s too soon. I must think’. Sheila has learnt from the experience and cannot believe how naïve her parents are that they cannot see the lesson that she herself has learnt. Eric too is similar to Sheila and is ashamed of what he is done.Mr and Mrs Birling forgave Gerald from having an affair on their own daughter but when it came to forgiving their son of stealing money to try and help a young girl in need. Mr Birling says ‘you’ll stay here long enough to give me an account of that money you stole-yes, and pay it back too’Mrs Birling still blames Eric for everything saying ‘I’m absolutely ashamed of you’ I think the person, who holds most of the blame, is the blissfully ignorant Mrs Birling. Yes I agree that she had a right to hold the fact that Eva lied straight away when she was trying to get help but It wasn’t just Eva that needed help it was the unborn child inside her. Also the way Mrs Birling openly told everybody that she abused her power to deny help to Eva. If Mrs Birling wasn’t so ignorant to what was going on with her own son she may have been able to help Eric work through his drinking problems, maybe then he wouldn’t have been so forceful with Eva to sleep with her that night. Mrs Birling remained obnoxious throughout the play and became worse when she found out that Inspector Goole was a fake. Mrs Birling is a heartless, selfish, ignorant, snob and no matter what happens she will never accept any blame for anything and so will not change, that is why I feel she is mostly to blame for the death of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton and her unborn child.
