An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls


Possibly one of the most amazing dramas ever written. We are lucky too, J.B. Priestley, was born and bred in Bradford. He went to Belle Vue Boys School in Heaton, then went on to Trinity Hall College, Cambridge, after a stint as a journalist at the Yorkshire Observer.

"Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write."





What's the play about?

The Birling family are celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of Lord and Lady Croft. Arthur Birling is a former Mayor of the fake city of Brumley and a prominent local business man. He owns woollen mills and employs a large workforce. His wife, Sibyll, is a society lady, well known for her charity work. He has a son, Eric who is learning the business from his father. After dinner, a police inspector calls to tell them of the tragic suicide of one of Arthur's former employees, Eva Smith, who drank disinfectant and died very painfully in hospital. She was also pregnant. As the inspector begins questioning the Birlings, and Gerald, it transpires that each one of them knew her at different stages in her life, and contributed to her decline, Eric being the father of her child. In the end, it turns out that the Inspector was not real, possibly a ghost, or a representation of conscience. Eric and Sheila are filled with remorse and want to make amends, but the elder Birlings and Gerald are relieved. At the very end of the play, the real police phone the Birlings to tell them that a young woman has committed suicide and that an Inspector is on his way to question them.

What is the background to the play?

J B Priestley set up his own political party, with other socially conscious notables. The Common Wealth Party, begun in 1932 advocated the sharing of resources, public ownership, better morality and help for the poor. A bit like Jeremy Corbyn's 'new kind of politics'.  In An Inspector Calls, there is a battle going on between two political viewpoints, Capitalism and Socialism. Arthur and Gerald are owner capitalists, Arthur is a 'class traitor' a working class man who has moved into the middle class through his business concerns and marriage to an upper class woman, Sibyll. Gerald is an aristocrat, son of a Lord. Eric and Sheila have benefitted from an upper class education, and Sheila is now about to marry into an aristocratic family.

Eva Smith was a mill worker, who agitated for better wages, and was sacked for leading a strike.  The play shows how the capitalist characters exploit and use their power and privilege to subject Eva, the worker, to a series of humiliations until she decides to end her own life, and the life of her unborn child.

• Arthur sacks her. (POWER)
• Sheila has her sacked from Millwards for 'impertinence'. (PRIVILEGE)
• Becomes Gerald's mistress in return for rescuing her from prostitution, but he gets bored and ends it. (PRIVILEGE)
• Eric drunkenly rapes her, then hangs around, when he finds out she is pregnant, stealing money from the business to help her (POWER)
• Sybill refuses to give her charity because she's not humble enough (POWER)

 J B Priestley's message is embodied by the Inspector and is in direct contrast to Arthur Birling's philosophy. Arthur represents the voice of Capitalism:

"If you don't come down hard on these people they'd soon be asking for the earth."

The Inspector, representing Priestley' ideals, replies,

"Better to ask for the earth, than to take it."

These two quotes aptly sum up the message of the play as a whole.

CHARACTERS

Arthur Birling:

Bombastic, pompous, working class "made good". He is highly opinionated, narrow minded and hugely insecure about his social position. He has moved up the social ladder, by means of his entrepreneurial skill at first, and then by his marriage to Sybill. 

Notable Quotes:

• ‘The Germans don’t want war’
•  (Referring to theTitanic)‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’
•  ‘community and all that nonsense’ 
• ‘a man has to mind his own business and look out for himself and his own.’
• ‘she’d had  a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go of course.’ 
• (Eric) 'You're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble. That's why.'
• ‘I must say Sybil, that when this comes out at the inquest, it isn’t going to do us much good.'

Sheila Birling:

Of all the characters, Sheila is the one who develops the most over the course of the play. At first, she appears superficial and frivolous, and her role in Eva's decline is petty and pathetic. However, she realises very quickly how wrong she was, and feels the strongest remorse. She actively encourages her family not to hold back with the inspector, having realised early on that he will not let them get away with anything. She becomes the 'good cop' to his 'bad cop', and is the character most likely to learn from her mistakes and go on to be a better person. She is very emotional and does a lot of crying. But ultimately she is also, very brave, taking on the chin, the criticisms of the inspector.

Notable Quotes:

• 'But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.’ 
• ‘I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.’ 
• ‘She was very pretty and looked like she could take care of herself.’ 
• ‘I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet.’ 
• ‘I know I’m to blame and I’m desperately sorry.’ 
• ‘he’s giving us rope so that we’ll hang ourselves.’ 
• ‘You were the wonderful fairy prince. You must have enjoyed it, Gerald.'

Gerald Croft:

Gerald's role in the play is in contrast to the others, in that he actually does not get accused of hurting Eva Smith, but actually helping her. His biggest 'crime' is having an affair with her, and neglecting the tacit understanding he had with Sheila at the time. However, the Inspector does not really hold him to account to this, he seems, in fact, to give him credit for being kind to Eva (now called Daisy Renton), and giving her some respite. It is left to Sheila to 'punish' him for his involvement with Daisy Renton by breaking off the engagement, though by the time this happens, both of them have changed and are no longer compatible. Also, Gerald is neither one of the younger generation, like Eric and Sheila, in whom Priestley wants to place our hope, but equally, he's not one of the older generation either. He is the only one allowed to leave the house during the interrogation, and when he comes back he is the first to have doubts about the Inspector. He feels genuine sorrow at the realisation of Eva's/Daisy's death, which puts him on the side of Sheila and Eric, but he later sides with Arthur and Sybill in their relief when they discover the Inspector is not real. Maybe, Priestley sets him apart as the aristocracy have always been in power, siding with the 'new' middle class when they need to (Gerald needs Arthur's money in the form of a dowry for Sheila), but generally going their own way.

Notable quotes:

• 'I've suddenly realized – taken it in properly – that she’s dead!’ 
• ‘I didn’t install her there so I could make love to her.’ 
• ‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me.’ 

Sybill Birling:

Very few people have any sympathy at all for Sybill. She is a very difficult character to like, even her obnoxious husband Arthur thinks she's gone too far, which is a little unfair. Sybill is a typical middle class woman of her time, devoted to her family (controlling of her children), heavily involved in the community and on the boards of several charities. She sees it her duty to tell others how to behave, and she uses her power and influence to force the recipients of her charity (in this play, single mothers and poor families). She expects everyone to know their place, and she very much knows hers. She has a very high opinion of herself, and defers only to Gerald in his higher aristocratic status. She is tough, narrow minded and ultimately a hypocrite.

She is the last link in the chain of events that cause Eva Smith's death, but she is also intrinsic in destroying the life of her only grandchild, Eva and Eric's unborn baby. Of course she does not know this, but this lack of knowledge doesn't let her off. Her remorse in the end is directed at herself, not Eva, Eric or the baby. And, like Arthur, it is short lived when there is a chance that the Inspector is not real. 

Notable Quotes:

• (To Sheila) ‘when you’re married, you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.’
• ‘Girls of that class.’ 
• (On Eric’s drinking) ‘he’s only a boy.’ 
•  ‘We’ve done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving causes.’ 
• ‘I didn’t like her manner. She impertinently made use of our name.’ 
• ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’ 
• ‘She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl of her position.’
• ‘I blame the young man. He ought to be dealt with very severely.'

Eric Birling:

Eric's behaviour at the dinner and also towards Eva (Daisy), does not make us like him very much. However, when we see how he is treated by his father (offhand, not important, childish), and his mother (overbearing, clingy, controlling), we feel more sympathy for him. Like Sheila, he develops towards the end of the play, and finally grows up. His remorse and his realisation, like Sheila, that it doesn't matter if the Inspector isn't real, they still all did those things, give us some hope that he will make a better life for himself.

Notable Quotes:

• ‘You’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble. That’s why.’ 
• ‘You killed her – and the child she’d have had too – my child’ 
• ‘You’re beginning to pretend as if nothing’s really happened at all. And I can’t see it like that. The girl’s still dead, isn’t she?’ 
• ‘we helped to kill her.’

The Inspector:

Inspector Goole (note the homophone for Ghoul, it is deliberate!) is of course the most interesting character and the most enigmatic. No one knows where he came from, and no one knows where he went. Forget the films and the TV series, he literally appears at the Birlings' door, then disappears at the end of it. He is like Clarence in the film 'It's a Wonderful Life', but unlike Clarence who comes to help a good man recognise his goodness, Goole comes like an avenging angel, to force the Birlings and Gerald to face up to their moral responsibilities towards their fellow creatures, symbolised very graphically by Eva Smith. He is also comparable to the ghosts of Christmas, who visit Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But there is no happy ending of redemption for any of the characters, least of all Eva. Goole's job is to bring remorse and repentance but no opportunity to make amends. They can only hope to do better next time.
The Inspector is often portrayed as Priestley's voice, making his very political point of social  and collective responsibility.

Notable Quotes:

•  It’s the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of inquiry at a time. Otherwise, there’s a muddle.
• Miss Birling has just been made to understand what she did to this girl. She feels responsible. And if she leaves us now, and doesn’t hear any more, then she’ll feel she’s entirely to blame, she’ll be alone with her responsibility.
• If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt.
• You’ve had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face.
• There’ll be plenty of time, when I’ve gone, for you all to adjust your family relationships.
• This girl killed herself—and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. But then I don’t think you ever will.
• There are 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, with what we think 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 in fire and blood and anguish.

Eva Smith/Daisy Renton

Eva, of course, never appears in the play (remember that, inspite of the 1954 and 2015 films); she is only talked about, but of course she is the most important character in the play. It is on her behalf that the Inspector calls in the first place, and her role is to symbolise the millions of  'ordinary people' who are called upon to make Capitalism work. They are also the people called upon to fight wars, when armies are needed, and are most often the casualties and victims of those wars. To paraphrase Nietzsche, via Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, Eva and her kind are "the bungled and the botched... the expendable masses. We get pushed in front of trains, take poisoned aspirin and get gunned down in Dairy Queens."

THEMES
I've mentioned some of these already, but here they are again:

• Responsibility:
• for Eva's death
• for each other as a family
• Duty to be honest and truthful
• Positions of power such as Mayor, magistrate, Alderman, Charity director
• Mill ownership
• Age:
• The elder characters resist change, set in their ways
• The younger characters want to change and see a better future
• Eric and Sheila both treated like children
• Gender Identity:
• Eva is the victim of Patriarchy (as well as Capitalism)
• Sheila is expected to be decorative and passive, marrying whom she is told to.
• Eric is infantilised, but also expected to behave like a man
• Eva is judged as immoral, not Eric, not Gerald and not Alderman Meggity
• Sybill is judgemental of her own gender, not supportive
• Class: 
• Gerald represents inherited wealth, Sybill, Sheila and Eric, the middle classes, Arthur the social climber, and the Inspector and Eva, the working classes (police officers are typically, but not only, working class in origin).
• Everyone is expected to know their place and stick to it.
• Ruling class has been defeated by Capitalism (Gerald needs Arthur's money), Capitalists have to be challenged by workers (Eva tries to get better wages). These are the stages outlined by Marx in the push for communism. 
• Society:
• Workers' Rights
• Universal Suffrage (When the play is set neither Sybill nor Sheila have the vote)
• Charity instead of Benefits/Welfare
• Positions of power given based on influence (Arthur is a magistrate even though he has no legal training).