Mr Birling's Responsibility In The Inspector Calls

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Responsibility is explored in JB Priestley’s play ‘The Inspector Calls’ by showing the contrasting opinions of the younger and older generations. The older and younger generations in the story take the Inspector’s messages differently. Mr Birling and Mrs Birling both choose to protect themselves, where Mr Birling tries to hide from his responsibility by saying if he were to be responsible for something that happened due to a choice made two years ago, it would be a very awkward world. Mrs Birling shrugs off responsibility by telling the inspector that the father of the unborn child is responsible for looking after Eva, not her charity organisation. Eric and Sheila are the young members of the family, and both are honest and admit their roles in the …show more content…

Midway through act one, Mr Birling is interrogated by the inspector. The inspector proclaims in front Eric and Gerald that due to Mr Birling’s decision to fire Eva after going on strike (pg 172) “I can’t accept any responsibility. 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’s response to the inspector’s accusation shows that he couldn’t see that he had any responsibility for what happened to Eva afterwards. This notion is contrasted to Sheila's response (page 179) “I felt rotten about it at the time and now i feel a lot worse. Did it make much difference to her?”. Sheila showed elements of responsibility, although belatedly, eventually realising that her actions in Milwards had a devastating impact on Eva Smith’s life. JB Priestley’s use of contrasting responses shows Mr. Birling’s outdated opinion that he doesn’t hold any responsibility for an event that occurred two years before his confession. Sheila's response is far more responsible towards her actions of which she is extremely guilty

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