Embedded Files
Mr Birling
Mr Birling
Priestley uses Birling as a symbol of the callous and heartlessness of capitalism. Through his character he is criticizing the complacency of capitalist prosperity. He is representative of the older generation who were unwilling to change. However, he is presented as a realistic character by Priestley through his use of colloquial language appropriate for the time. Furthermore, he is described as ‘panic stricken’ this indicates that his defiance and bravado have finally been shattered and so Priestley lets the audience see someone who is so blindly wrong and never as really in control of events as he would like himself and others to think. Therefore the audience is invited to feel sympathy.
“I’m talking as a hard-headed practical man of business” ‘you’ll hear some people say war is Inevitable ... fiddlesticks!’
‘The Titanic – she sails next week...and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.’
“I gather there’s a very good chance of a knighthood”
“A man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course”
“(rather impatiently) Horrid business. But I don’t understand why you should come here.”
“you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.”
“I was an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench – so I know the Brumley police offers pretty well”
“there’s every excuse for what your mother and I did”
“Probably a Socialist or some sort of crank”
“Now look at the pair of them- the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke-”
Mrs Birling
Mrs Birling
Priestley uses Mrs Birling to epitomize all that is wrong with society. She represents the social snobbery and hypocrisy of the upper classes and shows no remorse in her cruel treatment of Eva Smith. Priestley presents her as an absurd character that ironically passes her own social guilt onto her own son – condemning him. As a result, Priestley deals with Mrs Birling with special severity, having her fall into a trap of her own making: she is confronted with the knowledge that Eric is a hard drinker and the father of the dead woman’s child. She has helped tokill her own grandchild. It is only when she realises this does she begin to show any signs of weakening. Priestley shows us that we should not trust the wealthy members of society to tell the truth.
“About fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”
“girls of that class”
‘you know, my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he’s still a magistrate’
‘I’m very sorry. But I think she only had herself to blame’
“I’ve done nothing wrong – and you know it.”
“Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.”
“She was giving herself ridiculous airs...claiming elaborate fine feelings...that were simply absurd in a girl in her position.”
“As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”
“I’m sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame at all”
“he ought to be dealt with very severely-...make sure that he’s compelled to confess in public his responsibility”
‘he certainly didn’t make me confess – I had done no more than my duty’
Sheila Birling
Sheila Birling
Priestley uses the character of Sheila to represent his own views of social responsibility. She offers hope for the future and Priestley uses Shelia as an example of people’s changing attitudes towards those less fortunate than themselves. She is sympathetic towards Eva and other girls in her position, recognising that they were “not just cheap labour but people”. She accepts that her actions impacted on Eva’s life and that she cannot disconnect her actions from the effects these have on others. She recognises and understands the Inspector’s message that we are all collectively responsible for all that happens in the world. At times she acts as almost an assistant to the Inspector, in that she supports his criticism of the other characters, becoming his mouthpiece when he has left the stage. Sheila’s character becomes quite didactic and this can make her a character with whom the audience do not sympathise with as her change has happened far too quickly and so she is in some ways quite unrealistic.
“A pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited”
“Yes, go on, Mummy”
“(rather distressed) I can’t help thinking about this girl- destroying herself so horribly- and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you hadn’t told me.”
“But these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people.”
“She was a very pretty girl...that didn’t make it any better.”
“I went to the manager and told him this girl had been very impertinent – and – and - ”
“And if I could help her now, I would-”
“I’ll never, never do it again to anybody...I feel now I can never go there again”
“Why- you fool- he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
“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. And it’ll be all the worse when he does”
“No, he’s giving us the rope- so that we’ll hang ourselves” Bitterly ”I suppose we’re all nice people now”
“He inspected us all right.”
“It frightens me the way you talk”
Eric Birling
Eric Birling
Eric has the most active social conscience – at the start of play he says: “he could have kept her instead of throwing her out”. This demonstrates that there is potential/hope for the future. At the end of the play Eric shows remorse and his acceptance is evidence of his moral fibre. Through Eric’s treatment of Eva “I wasn’t in love with her or anything” an abhorrent picture of the upper-class emerges. They are shown to be callous and cold. However, Eric illustrates the capacity to change – despite your past errors and your family’s beliefs you can change. His transformation is more realistic – as at first he blames his mother for her death and then finally comes round to accepting responsibility. On the other hand, he is presented as quite a weak character and is the most emotional and demonstrative of all. This leads the audience to question whether he can change his ways for good or is he too weak and dependent on his parents? When Eric gives Eva stolen money, Priestley could be commenting that wealth does not replace goodness and integrity – there needed to be a more even distribution of wealth so people like Eric become socially aware.
“In his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive”
“Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices”
“it isn’t as if you can go and work somewhere else.”
“He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck.”
“I’d have let her stay”
“Well I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty- and I threatened to make a row”
“And that’s when it happened. And I don’t even remember- that’s the hellish thing.”
“I wasn’t in love with her or anything- but I liked her- she was pretty and a good sport-”
“she didn’t want me to marry her. Said I didn’t love her- and all that. In a way, she treated me- as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was.”
“You’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble- that’s why.”
“Then- you killed her. She came to you to protect me- and you turned her away-yes, and you killed her-and the child she’d have had too- my child- your own grandchild- you killed them both- damn you, damn you-”
“He was our police inspector all right”
“(shouting) And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her- and that’s what matters-”
Gerald Croft
Gerald Croft
Priestley uses the character of Gerald Croft to throw light both on the Birling parents who are too set in their social ways to be changed by the Inspector’s visit, and on the Birling children who are certainly very responsive to the Inspector’s message, but possibly in a slightly naïve and hysterical way. Gerald acts as a bridge between the two generations. Gerald provides a strong contrast to Eric, Mr Birling’s natural son and Priestley uses Gerald to show the tensions between Eric and his father. Priestley shows that it was common for the upper class to behave so badly towards the lower-class by having Gerald present. If the Inspector only questioned the Birling family, Priestley wouldn’t be able to convey to the audience how widespread the problem was. Nor would he be able to get them to inspect their own consciences.
“An attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town”
“Well, it came just at the right moment. That was clever of you, Gerald.”
“You couldn’t have done anything else” (sacking Eva Smith)
“After all, y’know, we’re respectable citizens and not criminals” (about Sheila): “She’s obviously had about as much as she can stand”
“Why should you [stay]? It’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing”
“It’s a favourite haunt of women of the town”
‘[Daisy] gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help”
“I insisted on Daisy moving into these rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there...I want you to understand that I didn’t install her there so I could make love to her...I was sorry for her...I didn’t ask for anything in return”
“She was young and pretty and warm-hearted- and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in her life- you understand?”
“She told me she’d been happier than she’d ever been before”
“Nearly any man would have done” (adored being ‘fairy prince’)
“That man wasn’t a police officer...I’m almost certain”
“But how do you know it’s the same girl? ... We’ve no proof it was the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl”
“Everything’s all right now Sheila. What about this ring?”
The Inspector
The Inspector
The omniscient Inspector is used by Priestley to further convey his views on collective / social responsibility. The Inspector is used very effectively to highlight the corruption and the selfish attitudes of the twentieth century society. The Inspector’s name leads us to question whether he actually exists. The word ‘Goole’ suggests his mysterious quality, being a pun on the word ‘ghoul’. Is he merely a ghost, someone whose very existence has come about as a result of Eva Smith’s death? Through the Inspector’s final dramatic speech, Priestley skillfully warns the audience of the potential social disasters of failing to support or help those in need in society.
Inspector Goole serves several functions in the play. He acts as the storyteller, linking all the separate incidents together into one, coherent story. Priestley has him supply dates for events, or fill in background about the girl. He also behaves rather like a priest, someone to whom characters confess their sins, helping them to see the extent of their involvement in the downfall of Eva Smith, and encouraging them to acknowledge their guilt and repent. While the Inspector himself does not hand out forgiveness or punishment, characters are made to recognise that they must find the courage to judge themselves, because only then will they have learnt anything and be able to change themselves. Certainly it seems that Priestley did not want to promote a single interpretation of who the Inspector ‘really’ is. The character’s dramatic power lies in this. To have revealed his identity as a hoaxer or as some kind of ‘spirit’ would have spoilt the unresolved tension that is so effective at the end of the play.
“Need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.”
“He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking”
“Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course”
“A chain of events” (may have driven her to suicide) “it’s better to ask for the Earth than to take it” “Goole. G. double O-L-E”
“it would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies in their dingy little back bedroom”
(To Gerald) “And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?”
“A girl died tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony- hating life-”
“If there’s nothing else we have to share our guilt”
(the young ones) “Are the most impressionable”
“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”
“You’ve had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face”
“And be quiet for a moment and listen to me. I don’t need to know any more. Neither do you. This girl killed herself- and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. (He looks from one to the other of them carefully) But then I don’t think you ever will. Remember what you did”
“But remember this. One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.”
Eva Smith
Eva Smith
In many ways she is a counterpoint to the Inspector. Like him, she remains a symbolic figure and one who carries the weight of the plot. Priestley uses Eva as a symbol of the common man or woman and reminds us of our need to take responsibility for our actions and their impact on others. Eva represents ordinary people who can be destroyed by indifference when society fails to grant them the right of basic human dignity. Her connection to the characters in the play is what prompts their confessions. She promotes the idea that we have collective social responsibility, therefore. Despite her lower social class and death, Eva could be said to have the upper hand in the play as she is the one who has shown the others who they really are. The fact that Eva is presented in a highly idealized way which makes her an unrealistic character – could someone who had suffered so much be so gracious and forgiving? The fact that Eva was pregnant suggests that the way we treat people can affect the next generation but also shows how hard it was to escape poverty.
“Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course”
“Now – about this girl, Eva Smith. I remember her quite well now. She was a lively good-looking girl – country-bred, I fancy – and she’d been working in one of our shops for over a year. A good worker too.”
“...and died, after several hours of agony...”
“She was a very pretty girl...that didn’t make it any better.”
“She was young and pretty and warm-hearted- and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in her life- you understand?”
“She was giving herself ridiculous airs...claiming elaborate fine feelings...that were simply absurd in a girl in her position.”
“As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”
“I wasn’t in love with her or anything- but I liked her- she was pretty and a good sport-”
“she didn’t want me to marry her. Said I didn’t love her- and all that. In a way, she treated me- as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was.”
“Just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person.”
“But remember this. One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.”
Edna
Edna
Edna is another example of the invisible working class and she helps to create an impression of the Birling’s wealthy lifestyle. Edna illustrates the themes of inequality, power, responsibility and class.
“Edna the parlour-maid is just clearing the table” “Yes Ma’am”
“Edna’ll answer it”
“Please, sir, an inspector’s called”
“All right, Edna. Show him in here. Give us some more light.”
“Edna’ll go. I asked her to wait up to make us some tea”
Page updated
Report abuse