By setting this play in 1912, Priestly uses complacent irony to show how self-righteous Birling is, examples of this are abundant throughout the play, “ The Germans don’t want war”, “ The Titanic” …” absolutely unsinkable”. Mr Birling was the first person who we were led to believe started off the train of events that ultimately led to the death of Eva Smith. When the inspector starts to question him Birling denies any knowledge of the girl, however when the Inspector presented him with the photograph, he remembers, “She was one of my employees and then I discharged her”. When asked about reasons for discharging her Mr Birling replied, “She had a lot to say; too much she had to go”. In addition it was thought that the reason Eva Smith was “discharged” was because of a particular involvement in a strike at his factory. Arthur Birling fired ringleaders, one of whom, Eva Smith. The strike was caused due to poor pay and long hours, although he refuses to accept any responsibility for her death. He suggested to the Inspector that “If we were all responsible for everything that had happened to everybody it would be very awkward.” Although he has done something wrong, in this statement that he has made he has got a fair point here and it could be argued that he was just acting as a businessman, as many others would do. However, it is true to say she was making trouble as Mr Birling said, ‘She had a lot to say – far too much so she had to go’.
Mr Birling acts as a shrewder human – being. He is very sly and cunning. This is mostly emphasised when Birling attempts to intimidate the inspector, although his threats prove weak, “Now look here inspector, I consider this uncalled for and officious. I’ve half a mind to report you.” Here the inspector proves unconcerned as Birling continues to abuse his position as ex-lord mayor and associate of the Chief of Police. After the Inspector's departure Birling admits that he has "learnt a lot” from his visit. However, he immediately singles out Eric as "you're the one I blame for this”, so he still seems to have little notion of community as he should, if he had learnt anything, be saying "we're the ones to blame for this”. Instead he seems to be shifting blame from himself. As the story unravels he becomes "excited” on discovering that the Inspector is not real and soon he has managed to put the whole episode out of his head, despite protests from Eric and Sheila who try to tell him that "you still haven't learnt anything. Birling is far more concerned about what may happen if the news comes out in public than whatever he did to Eva Smith and makes fun of Eric and Sheila for "not being able to take a joke”. However, the phone call he receives at the end of the play is not at all funny to him.
To conclude to Arthur Birling’s involvement with the death of Eva Smith, it is true to say that he did play a part in her downfall, although how little or how much is debatable as he can be seen as treating her as he would anyone else. Although I don’t think that Mr Birling did anything really wrong regarding Eva he does not come off well throughout the play as he shows himself up a number of times because of his personality. , I would say that even though the fired her, it isn't the end of the world, and she is cable of finding another job as we find out later. The major flaw in his personality is that he seems to show no remorse for Eva who after all was a person. In my perspective Mr Birling seems to be a very hard man, and shows no regret for dismissing Eva, despite knowing that if he had not then she may still have been alive. He merely stated that, ‘If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people they will soon be asking for the earth’. We see none of Mr Birling’s good traits instead we see him as a foolish, cold know it all of a man. I think that Mr Birling’s character is portrayed in this way because then it doesn’t matter that his part in Eva’s death was so small and understandable we dislike him just as much or perhaps even more than the other characters. It is very noticeable that Birling is very supportive to his wife throughout the play and the two always back each other up when stating an opinion. When Birling is ranting and raving after the Inspector's visit he flays virtually everyone except his wife (and himself), showing his respect for her. As the Inspector's interviews with the other characters Birling becomes more and more agitated and stage directions to describe his mood such as "bothered, angrily and sharply” show that he is not in a good frame of mind. He appears to be slowly learning his lesson but is getting very angry as he sees that all he believes in is wrong.
The second person that the Inspector tries to catch involving the death of Eva Smith is Sheila Birling. Sheila Birling, the daughter of Arthur Birling, understands the effect she had on Eva Smith unlike her father. Sheila had a cadaverous effect on the death of Eva Smith but, it was also a painful one. Sheila is a volition kind of person. She also shows her volatile side of her characters Sheila has a very different set of characteristics. Upon recognising the photograph she immediately runs out the room, as if in disgust of her previous actions, a complete contradiction to her father’s views. Sheila's explanation of her conduct when interviewed by the Inspector shows how naive and thoughtless she was up to that point. However, unlike Birling she feels very upset about her conduct, shown by her running out of the room sobbing when first shown the photograph of Eva Smith. She also swears that she will "never, never do it again to anybody”. This is a turning point in the play for Sheila. Almost at once she sheds her image of being a naive and ignorant young lady and takes on the most profound understanding of the Inspector's message. During the rest of the play she often makes several cutting remarks during the other characters’ interviews' with the Inspector. For example, when the Inspector is talking to Mrs Birling she warns her mother not to block herself from Eva Smith in her answers to his questions:
Mrs Birling: ...And in any case I don't suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class --
Sheila: Mother, don't--please don't for your own sake, as well as ours, you mustn’t. ---
Mrs Birling: Mustn’t - what? Really, Sheila!
Sheila: You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down...
Incidences such as this, where Sheila is clearly contradicting the opinion of her parents, lead Mrs Birling to remark to the Inspector that "You seem to be making a great impression on the child”. The Inspector's response, that "we often make an impression on the young one” is proved to be true. The younger characters - Sheila, Eric and to an extent Gerald, are able to see the Inspector's message realise that he is right. However, the older characters are too entrenched in their beliefs and still stubbornly cling to what they believe in. Sheila in my eyes is the mature, responsible one who automatically knows what she has done from her mistakes. In this case the Inspector shows her in an unfavourable light as she turned on Eva because she was jealous of her. Immediately her character is shown to be sympathetic because of this guilt. Sheila wrongfully used her position as an important customer to turn Eva out of a job. She even admits, ‘it was my own fault’, and that she ‘was in a furious temper’. She was jealous of Eva describing her as a ‘very pretty girl too – with big dark eyes’. Sheila goes on to explain how she was entirely responsible for Eva Smith losing her job at “Milwards”. “I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them¨ This shows that Sheila, like her father, abused her position as a wealthy member of the community, who could influence others due to her relations.
Her actions do show her to be a very bad tempered, jealous and malicious person you get the impression as she begins to talk that that is quite a harsh view of her and that although she does have bad characteristics she isn’t really as bad as you first think her to be. She shows herself to be honest admitting straight away all that she had done, that she caught sight of her smiling at the assistant and ‘I was furious with her’. I believe that the audience get the impression that Sheila isn’t as bad as Mr Birling. She does feel sympathy for the girl. Sheila feels great guilt over the crime that she has committed however, she agrees with the Inspector when he says “You used the power you had to punish the girl” Unlike her absurd father Sheila is full of sorrow and remorse for what she did, the inspector supports her when stating, “She feels responsible”. Sheila does honestly, says that “I know I’m to blame, and I’m desperately sorry.” This shows her difference from her father. Sheila changes from a rather naive and ignorant young lady into a person who can fully understand the Inspector's message and see that he is right. She is the person who becomes the Inspector's ally during the questioning and agrees with him the most.
It is obvious that she does regret all that she had done with regard to Eva claiming that, ‘If I could help her now I would’. Sheila comes across as very remorseful as she says ‘I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse’. She bitterly resents what she did as well promising that ‘I’ll never, never do it again’. Here the audience get the feeling that Sheila after all isn’t a bad person. It makes you feel less anger for Sheila who now feels terribly guilty for Eva and has now been punished severely simply by knowing the implications her temper and jealousy had. Sheila was jealous of Eva Smith, so just to show off her power, she got her sacked from her last decent job. All these incidents are adding up, and resulting in an enormous and heart breaking situation at the end as we all know.
Gerald Croft has a large contribution to the death of Ms Smith. Gerald Croft is the only person who is not a direct relation to the Birling family, but is engaged to Sheila, also has significant involvement with the death of Eva Smith. Gerald bolstered Eva Smith.Gerald was the third person to come under the spotlight. Gerald felt very differently towards Eva than either Mr Birling or Sheila did as he knew her personally, not as Eva Smith but as Daisy Denton; who in short was his mistress, for a while until it was no longer convenient for him. Gerald in the play recognises the name Daisy Renton as soon as he hears the inspector say it. He tries to make Sheila leave the room as he knows her heart will be shattered as is the engagement party. After at first trying to make Sheila leave the room, for reasons that become more apparent later, he tells the story of how he met Eva Smith, or as he knew her as “Daisy Renton”. He describes her as “very pretty” “soft brown hair and big dark eyes.¨
Gerald tried to tell his story as truthfully and honestly as possible. He claims to have rescued her from “horrible old Meggarty” in the County Hotel and set her up in a friends set of rooms, where she later, inevitably, became his mistress. He is clearly upset by what has happened by what has happened to her, “She knew it couldn’t last. She didn’t blame me at all. I wish to god she had now”. To me this shows Gerald emotions towards Eva Smith and how she meant to her. I believe that he did genuinely care for Eva but he didn’t love her as he admitted that: ‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me’. The fact is that Gerald did attempt to help Eva Smith, unlike all the others, who were simply punishing her out of spite. Even if Gerald had not been responsible for the death of Eva Smith, his actions certainly have a consequence as he is engaged to Sheila, who now knows that Gerald was actively having another relationship while they were together. This puts their relationship into doubt, something that Mr Birling would no doubt be displeased about. Overall Gerald was a fairly honest person admitting his part in Eva’s life fairly readily. He had good manners and said the right thing but it is hard to decide whether he does mean what he says or that he is simply trying to come across as well as he possibly can.
I personally would put a question mark over Gerald as he is a rather narrow minded old-fashioned person. He would never marry Eva because she was of the wrong class, on the other hand in a way you could say that he simply used Eva for his own needs. Although he denies this saying, ‘I want you to understand that I didn’t install her there to make love to her!’ However he did make her happy for a few months and you have to give credit for that. Gerald does show immense signs of guilt towards Eva Smith. Gerald did not love Eva he did have feeling towards her as he stresses to the Inspector, “I’m rather more upset by this business than I probably appear to be”. I believe that Gerald has done something which not most people would do. He had given life to a girl. He created a sense of happiness in Eva Smiths life. He gave her food, shelter, money all the things she wanted, but was it worth directing her to the edge?
The next person that the Inspector interrogates is Mrs Birling. In the initial stage directions, Mrs Birling is described as a "rather cold woman” and that she is "her husband's social superior”. She therefore has a high point in life where she looks down on others, whilst never having experienced the life that they lead. This means that Mrs Birling is immediately prejudiced against Eva Smith, dismissing her death with the comment "Girls of that class...o. and she ignores Sheila's warning about building up a "wall” between herself and the Inspector. Further examples of this snobbery are shown when she tries to impress the Inspector with the positions that her husband holds:
Mrs Birling (to the Inspector) I realise that you have to conduct some sort of inquiry...but you seem to be conducting it a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was a Lord Mayor only two years ago and he's still a magistrate -
Mrs Birling shows characteristics in some ways, to be very similar to her husband, and denies any responsibility herself, instead choosing to blame others, which later becomes a very bad decision. Before Mrs Birling the Inspector had been talking to each person in order of when they have met Eva. However Mrs Birling was in fact the last person to have seen Eva and was the one that had given Eva the final shove by refusing her any help from the society that she helped run. Her organisation was called “Bromley Women’s Charity Organization”. Mrs Birling treats the inspector in a patronising, threatening way. “I realise you may have to conduct some kind of enquiry, but I must say you seem to be conducting it in a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago”. This tells you a lot about Mrs Birling’s attitude towards the inspector. It shows how highly she thinks of herself and that she is ready to abuse her position, like other members of the family. As I said earlier Mrs Birling was the final shove for Eva Smiths death. The reason for rejecting the bid was because she had used the family name to claim to the organisation.
Mrs Birling was adamant that she did, ‘Nothing I am ashamed of’. It was clear that Mrs Birling disliked Eva and even admitted that, ‘I didn’t like her manner’. Mrs Birling felt no guilt for her part in Eva’s death I think she was the only one who didn’t feel guilt as I think that even Mr Birling did to a certain extent. In the meeting between her and Eva Smith she ironically tells Eva Smith “To look for the father of the child it’s his responsibility”. Just like her husband Mrs Birling refuses to acknowledge any guilt over Eva’s death, even though the girl had been trying to protect the father of the child. Mrs Birling digs a very hole for herself and her son when she was saying, ‘Secondly I blame the young man who was the father of the child’ unknown to her she was describing her son as he was the father of the child. Without realising the consequences she calls her son an “a youngster silly and wild drinking too much”. He tells the inspector that “he ought to be dealt with very severely”. She does not realise of course, that she is describing her own son Eric. After knowing this she was incandescent. She was definitely “stuck in the middle”.
My personal opinion over Mrs Birling is that she has comes off worse in this play. She seems to be hard and cold with no sensitivity at all and shows no remorse for Eva at all. She was keen to direct the blame away from herself claiming that Eva, ‘only had herself to blame’. Throughout the play she patronises her children for example saying to Sheila, ‘You are behaving like a hysterical child tonight’. From the start Mrs Birling seems to be keen to, ‘keep up appearances’, in front of the Inspector which makes you think of her as a rather fake as well as callous, cold, hard and somewhat insalubrious person.
Last, but not least, the final and probably the most important person Eric Birling.Eric can be seen by the audience as a maverick person.Eric was the last person to come under scrutiny from the Inspector. Eric Birling returns to the play in Act Three and under questioning from the inspector reveals the extent of his drinking, his relationship with Eva Smith and that he had spent a night with Eva and she had fallen pregnant with his child. Eric had no stable relationship with Eva as Gerald did. It also comes to light that Eric is also an alcoholic something that he had managed to keep from his parents for a number of months. This shows him as dishonest, weak and immature. I believe that he did feel kindly towards Eva but she felt him to be too immature Erie even said, ‘In a way she treated me like a kid’.
On describing his night with her he said, ‘I didn’t even remember it that’s the hellish thing’. Eric also admits to stealing money from his father’s office in order to support Eva. However he was very truthful and admitted straight away that, ‘I got it from the office’. He had obvious reasons for stealing the money. His argument was that he was supporting her because she was pregnant. Just like Sheila, Eric feels very guilty and feels remorse for Eva. Although he is very young still immature he will certainly learn from his mistakes. When he discovers that his mother had turned Eva away, his guilt and remorse turn to anger, “You killed her. She came to you to protect me…. my child, your grandchild, you killed them both, damn you, damn you”. This here stresses out how emotionally drained he was then and how he is now. It is true that Eric has played, like the others, a part in the death of Eva Smith, although this can be put down to his naivety and youth, whereas the others should have known better. Eric did try to help Eva Smith after she became pregnant, although with money stolen from his father. This shows that he did care for her and did admit he his guilty unlike his parents.
The Inspectors goal was to make all of the characters feel guilty for what they had done to Eva Smith, and he was very successful in doing so, as he had turned the family against each other and upside down. I'm not sure if he meant to do that purposely, but he made them think about life and how one action can make a lot of difference. After the Inspector's visit we can see which of the characters have learned their lesson from what the Inspector has said and which are steadfastly clinging to their old beliefs. The differing attitudes between the older and younger characters are shown by their conversations following the Inspector's departure. In the plot of An Inspector Calls, the characters respond to the message that they are given by the Inspector in different ways. Sheila and Eric fully understand the idea that, as the Inspector says, "We all live as one body. We don't live alone” and unsuccessful try to persuade their parents of the merits of this arguments. Birling and Mrs Birling stubbornly cling to their beliefs and Gerald also comes out on their side, although this could be a result of him trying to make the elder Birlings happy with himself.
By the time that the inspector has left, it is quite clear that each member of the Birling family has contributed to Eva Smith’s death; one by one the inspector confronts them and deals a final blow. In conclusion to my essay J B Priestly deliberately makes Eva out to be the helpless victim in order for the others needs to seem much worse. I don’t think that you can fully blame Eva for her death, as she did not know how things would work out.
It may be more wise to blame society and they way in which we live, as it is Eva Smith’s class and time that set her apart, no real crime has been committed and it is more a case if social conscience, consequently a moral responsibility should be shared by the family and their future actions affected to aid others and not just themselves. There is no right or wrong person to blame for Eva’s death. Each person had a little to ‘help’ Eva make up her mind to commit suicide so in my opinion they each should take a little blame. However when each person made Eva’s life a little harder they had no idea that their actions would cause this much devastation. I am sure that other people have done much worse things with no consequences so perhaps it wasn’t fair that these people had to take any blame for Eva’s death.
