Characters of An Inspector Calls
The inspector arrives at the Birling's house in the evening, during a
family get-together to celebrate the engagement of their daughter to
Gerald Croft. The inspector questions every member of the family
individually, starting with Mr. Birling. Mr & Mrs Birling who do not
like the way the inspector is interrogating them, get angry with him,
and accuse him of being rude. However Sheila, Mr & Mrs Birling's
daughter, and Gerald are honest, and can face their mistakes. This is
one of the reasons why I like Sheila and Gerald, and dislike Mr & Mrs
Birling.
Sheila is a young and pretty girl, who is honest and likes it when
other people are truthful. We know this because when the Inspector
shows her the photograph of Eva Smith, she says, "You knew it was me
all the time, didn't you?" Here she admits straightaway that she had a
part to play in the death of Eva Smith. Unlike Mr & Mrs Birling who
put up excuses every time the Inspector catches them out. As I have
said before she also likes it when other people are sincere. We know
this because when the Inspector is questioning Gerald about his affair
with Eva Smith he asks him if he was in love with her. At first Gerald
hesitates to come out with the truth but when he gets persuaded by
Sheila to tell the truth he says, "All right-I did for a time. Nearly
every man would have done." Sheila's reply to that is "That's probably
about the best thing you've said tonight. At least it's honest."
Sheila objects to her parents attempts to protect her from unpleasant
truths; I'm not a child, don't forget. I've a right to know.' At the
end of the play she feels that, whilst for a time it had seemed as
though her parents had learnt something ...
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..., because the girl was 'giving herself ridiculous
airs' and 'claiming elaborate fine feelings'. Mrs. Birling tries to
use her husband's social position to threaten the Inspector, she says
to him, 'You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two
years ago and that he's still a magistrate,' the Inspector already
knows this and Mrs. Birling is confused when this tactic fails. When
the Inspector has left, Mrs. Birling forcefully criticises the others
for not standing firm against someone who is their social inferior.
She argues that if she had been present when the Inspector first
arrived, she would have dealt with his cheekiness severely. It is
difficult to decide whether, at the end of the play, Mrs. Birling has
learned to behave in a compassionate or caring way in the future.
Perhaps the Inspector's call has only served to harden her attitudes.
Priestley mainly uses the characters in the play to present his views, especially Mr and Mrs Birling, to present his ideas about class and society. In the Birling family, Mrs Birling is the most upper class, and is always referring to the lower class female factory workers such as Eva Smith as ‘girls of that class’. She seems to think that working class people are not humans at all.
The play is set in the house of the Birling family. As soon as the
return: "I don't give a damn now. Do you think Eric has ever stood up
his facts as they usually go to find out if the things they know are
John Boynton Priestley was born on 13th September 1894 in Bradford, Yorkshire and died in 1984. Queen Victoria died in 1901 (when Priestley was seven years old), thus ending the ‘Victorian’ era. Her son then became King Edward VII, which was the start of what we know as the ‘Edwardian’ era.
§ He is obviously in a great hurry towards the end of the play: he
The Function of the Inspector in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls J.B Priestly was a British journalist, novelist, playwright and essayist. He was born in 1894 in Bradford and died in 1984. The play "An Inspector Calls" is about a family who, each member without knowing, have participated in a young girl's suicide. Inspector Goole makes every member of the family realise that they have played a part in killing the girl.
Each and every member of the Birling family and Gerald Croft, have met Eva Smith, however, none of them is aware of the others being involved in the
the beginning where he talks to his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, about a date they have been planning and hiding from his parents. During this scene, they are interrupted by a lady who is advocating for the preservation of the historical bell
Mrs Birling: It’s just funny how you have the same name as the head of
I am going to start my essay by looking at the way in which plays were
At the start of the play, “the four Birling’s and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other”, Priestly here is telling us about the status of women, as Mrs Birling is not equal to her husband so she is removed. Nevertheless it might indicates to that the two parents got control in the family where the older generation is against the younger generation.
... At the end of the novel Mrs Sybil Birling has to come to the truth that she declined Eva Smith who needed urgent help and her daughter want marry a good man and Mrs Sybil Birling does not accept any sort of responsibility for Eva’s smith death.
...er than sympathize with her as more than just a character on stage. The audience therefore witnesses firsthand the breakdown of a strong and independent character as her torment trumps her.
The nurse in the play opens the play, expressing her desire to undo the past. “How I wi...