J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

At the beginning of the play Sheila and Mr Birling are very different

characters and are still very much so upon the end of the play, they

both react with the different stages of the play in a variety of ways.

Sheila’s character at the opening comes across as a confident young

girl. During these times it would not have been popular for a young

girl to have seen her boyfriend on many occasions yet she still has

the confidence and belief in herself to ridicule her lover “(with mock

aggression) Go on, Gerald just you object .Yet at the beginning mr

Birling starts of as a cocky arrogant man and his only concern’s are

his own such as on a most joyful occasion such as his daughters

wedding party he decides to speak about busy “perhaps we may look

forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing

but are working together for lower costs and higher prices “surely

this is not the correct topic to be talking about on such a pleasing

event yet he chose to put his business first. This should be a part in

the play where the audience begin to realise what Mr Birling is really

like .Mr Berling’s involvement with Eva smith was that she was an

employee of his, a skilled factory worker who demanded more pay. Yet

as we have seen from the previous quote his worries are only his own

worries and he refused to accept her pay rise “they wanted the rates

raised so that they averaged about twenty-five shillings a week I

refused of course” during the period of which the book was wrote they

were paid just enough money to keep the deprived machinists alive. Eva

smith later died after being dismissed from the factory and my Birling

paid no remorse at all and continued to neglect his part in the

suicide of Eva smith “I don’t understand why should come here” this

shows that mr Birling still feels he was not involved in her death.