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Mrs Birling’s refusal to take responsibility. suggests she is insincere and callous. The purpose of her charity is to be an organisation “to which women in distress can appeal for help,” (Act 2, pg 42), but Mrs Birling refuses to help Eva, and this leads in part to her death.
Why is there a class system? Priestley argues that the upper classes maintain the class system because it benefits them, allowing them to live in ignorance of how the working classes struggle. We also see how the capitalist system increases the gap between the rich and the poor .
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Mrs Birling not only adheres to strict gender conventions but she also actively works to suppress other women and keep them within the constraints of societal gender norms. She tries to pass down her traditional values about women to her daughter.
An Inspector Calls was first performed in the UK just after the end of World War Two, in 1946. It was a time of great change in Britain and many writers were concerned with the welfare of the...
- EXTRA CREDIT
- PLOT SUMMARY
- CHARACTERS
- WEALTH, POWER, AND INFLUENCE
- BLAME AND RESPONSIBILITY
- PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE
- CLASS POLITICS
- MORALITY AND LEGALITY
- EVA SMITH
- ACT 1 QUOTES
- ACT 2 QUOTES
- ACT 3 QUOTES
- ACT 1
- ACT 2
- ACT 3
Ghoulish Goole. Many interpretations of the text consider the Inspector’s ghostly name to be symbolic of the mystery that surrounds his character.
The play begins in a nice dining room, with the prosperous Birling family joyously celebrating the engagement of their daughter, Sheila, to Gerald Croft. Everybody is in good spirits. Mr. Birling gives a toast, and Gerald gives Sheila her engagement ring, which she puts on her finger very excitedly. Mr. Birling encourages Gerald and Sheila to ignor...
Arthur Birling – Arthur Birling is introduced as a “fairly prosperous” manufacturer and a family man with a wife and two children, Sheila and Eric. He is large-bodied and middle aged, with easy manners and provincial speech. Birling is identified by the Inspector as the initiator of Eva Smith’s downfall: he refused her request for a raise in his fa...
The Birlings are a family of wealth and power, who take pride in their high social position. Mr. Birling is a successful businessman, and the family inhabits a nice home with a maid (and likely other servants). The play begins with the and their however, and influence family celebrating and feeling generally pleased with themselves fortunate circum...
The question asked throughout the play is: who is responsible for the suicide of Eva Smith? Who is to blame? The arc of the play follows the gradual spreading of responsibility, from Mr. Birling, to Mr. Birling and Sheila, to Mr. Birling and Sheila and Gerald, and so on and so forth. Each of the characters has different opinions about which of them...
The Inspector, and the play at large, challenges the “privacy” of the private sphere, by revealing that actions that the family may have conceived of as private and personal really have an effect beyond themselves and their family. For example, Sheila’s revelation that Eric drinks more than his parents had thought—“he’s been steadily drinking too m...
Mr. Birling describes the politics of the day as revolving around “Capital versus Labor agitations.” Mr. Birling is a representative Capitalist, who cares only about his company’s profit. He speaks of himself as “a hard-headed, practical man of business,” and looks forward to the prospect of being knighted. The girls who lead a worker’s strike in h...
The play interrogates the way that people construct, construe, and apply their moral values, especially in relation to legality and illegality. Do actions have moral consequence in themselves, or in relation to their effects on other people; or can we only measure morality in relation to legal rulings? When the Symbols legal consequences of the tru...
The symbol of Eva Smith is the character that the Inspector constructs by explaining that she has changed her name multiple times, was injured by each of the Birlings in turn, and consequently commits suicide. In fact, the Inspector seems to have created her as an amalgam of several women, each of them separately harmed by the different Birlings. A...
There’s a good deal of silly talk about these days—but—and I speak as a hard-headed business man, who has to take risks and know what he’s about—I say, you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk. When you marry, you’ll be marrying at a very good time. —Mr. Birling tell you, by that time you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all the...
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. —Inspector Goole If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt. —Inspector Goole You know, of course, that my...
There’ll be plenty of time, when I’ve gone, for you all to adjust your family relationships. —Inspector Goole 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. —Inspector Goole There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths sti...
The scene is set in the dining- room of a house that belongs to a fairly wealthy manufacturer. The house is described as nice, solid, with good furniture, and an ornate floor lamp. It is “comfortable” but not “cozy.” The appearance and quality of the Birlings’ dining- room suggests that they are a family of wealth and class. The curtain lifts to re...
The scene and situation remains the same as at the end of Act 1, except that the main table is slightly more upstage. The Inspector remains at the door, and then enters the room and looks expectantly to Gerald. Gerald suggests that Sheila should be excused from the proceedings, but she insists on staying for the rest of the interrogation. The Inspe...
The scene is the same as at the end of Act 2. Eric is standing near the entrance of the room and asks if they know. The Inspector confirms that they do, and Sheila reveals that their mother placed blame on whichever young man got the girl into trouble. Eric bitterly accuses his mother of making it dificult for him, and Mrs. Birling defends that she...
The Inspector asks Mrs. Birling why the girl wanted help, and Mrs. Birling initially refuses to answer, determined not to cave under his pressure as the other three did, and convinced that she is not ashamed of anything she’s done. She explains simply that she wasn’t satisfied with the girl’s claim and so used her influence to deny her ...
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Carl: The inspector reveals that Mrs Birling used her influence to stop Eva from getting the help that she needed. This is all because Eva didn't act in a way that Mrs...
