An Inspector Calls: Plot, Characters, and Themes

• These notes cover the play "An Inspector Calls" including plot, characters, context, themes, and key quotations.

Plot Summary

• The Birling family and Gerald Croft celebrate Sheila and Gerald's engagement, in a happy light-hearted atmosphere.
• Mr. Birling makes arrogant speeches.
• He stresses the importance of self-reliance.
• Inspector Goole arrives and investigates the suicide of Eva Smith.
• Mr. Birling admits to firing Eva Smith for demanding higher wages.
• Sheila had Eva Smith fired from her job as a shop assistant out of jealousy.
• Eva Smith changed her name to Daisy Renton.
• Gerald is revealed to have known Daisy Renton.
• Many people share responsibility for Eva Smith/Daisy Renton's misery.
• Gerald admits to having an affair with Daisy Renton.
• Sheila appreciates Gerald's honesty.
• Mrs. Birling attempts to control the Inspector and the situation.
• Mrs. Birling refuses Eva/Daisy help from her charity because she was offended that Eva Smith called herself "Mrs. Birling".
• The girl was pregnant.
• Mrs. Birling blames the father of the unborn child for the girl's death.
• Eric confesses he got Eva Smith pregnant and stole money to support her.
• Eric blames his mother for Eva's death, because she refused to help.
• The Birling try to blame each other.
• The Inspector emphasizes the importance of social responsibility.
• Gerald and Mr. Birling suspect the Inspector is a fake.
• There has been no recent suicide according to a telephone call to the Infirmary.
• Eric and Sheila still feel guilty, but the others do not.
• A young women has just died and an inspector is on his way to make enquires.
• The audience is left to wonder who the Inspector was and why history is repeating itself.

Character Analysis: Mr. Birling

• Mr. Birling is a successful businessman and Lord Mayor of Brumley.
• He is the father of Sheila and Eric.
• He hosts the dinner to celebrate Sheila's engagement.
• He believes a man is only responsible for himself and his family.
• He fired Eva Smith from his factory two years prior.
• He is concerned with protecting his reputation and avoiding scandal.
• The play opens with Birling trying to impress Gerald by choosing the same port as Gerald's father.
• Birling is materialistic, and cares about his status, using choosing the same port as Gerald's father as a symbol.
• Before the Inspector arrives, Mr. Birling dismisses socialist views of community.
• By the end of the play, Mr. Birling has not changed, and is delighted to find out the Inspector is fake.
• Mr. Birling is a capitalist.
• He values business and profit above all else.
• Mr. Birling is a symbol of the selfishness and arrogance of capitalists.
• The audience is encouraged to dislike Mr. Birling.

Character Analysis: Mrs. Birling

• Mrs. Birling is an important member of the Brumley Women's Charity Organisation.
• She is the mother of Sheila and Eric.
• She treats the Inspector as an inferior.
• She is disgusted to learn that Eva/Daisy was Gerald's mistress.
• She persuaded the charity not to help the pregnant girl.
• She blames the girl's death on the father of the child, who turns out to be her son.
• She claims she was the only one not to 'give in' to the Inspector.
• Mrs. Birling shows her narrow-mindedness in her early lines.
• Mrs Birling implies that a woman in Eva's position is not capable of the same level of emotion or morality as somebody in the upper or middle class.
• Mrs. Birling is the most resistant to the Inspector's message by the end of the play.
• Mrs Birling is a capitalist
• A snob who values social class above all else.
• Mrs. Birling is a symbol to represent the wealthier, privileged classes and their selfish attitudes.
• She sees the working class as morally inferior.

Character Analysis: Sheila Birling

• Sheila is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Birling.
• She is engaged to Gerald Croft at the start of the play.
• Sheila shows real emotion when she hears that a young woman has died.
• Sheila was responsible for getting Eva Smith fired.
• She realizes the Inspector is important and should not be ignored/lied to.
• Sheila breaks off her engagement with Gerald.
• She understands the family needs to take responsibility and change their treatment of working class people.
• Sheila is playful and self-centered at the start, then seems superficial and materialistic.
• Sheila responds to Eva Smith as a person and criticizes her father.
• She realizes her jealousy caused Eva to lose her job and feels genuinely sorry.
• Sheila has changed the most by the end of the play.
• Priestley uses Sheila as a symbol to represent the younger generation and socialism.

Character Analysis: Eric Birling

• Eric is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Birling.
• He is employed at his father's business.
• He drinks more than is good for him.
• He is the father of Eva/Daisy's child.
• Eric drinks too much at the family dinner.
• Eric met Eva/Daisy in the bar of the Palace Theatre.
• Eric forced his way into Eva/Daisy's rooms and made her pregnant.
• Eric stole money to give to Eva/Daisy.
• He accuses his mother of killing her own unborn grandchild.
• He accepts his guilt, whether the Inspector is a real police officer or not.
• Eric has clearly had too much to drink at the start of the play.
• He attempts to challenge his father's predictions about the future.
• Eric responds with real emotion when hearing of Eva's death.
• Eric is aware of his responsibilities.
• Eric is used by Priestley as a symbol to represent the younger generation and socialism.

Character Analysis: Gerald Croft

• Gerald is the son of a wealthy industrialist.
• Engaged to Sheila Birling at the start of the play.
• Gerald is slightly socially superior to the Birlings.
• Gerald agrees with Mr. Birling about how a business should be run.
• He had an affair with Eva/Daisy for six months.
• He finds out a police sergeant has never heard of Inspector Goole.
• He learns that no girl died that day when he telephones the Infirmary.
• Gerald echoes many of Mr. Birling's opinions at the opening of the play.
• By the end of the play, Gerald is more like Mr. and Mrs. Birling.
• Gerald is a symbol representing the selfish attitudes of the upper class.

Character Analysis: The Inspector

• He introduces himself as Inspector Goole.
• A police officer is investigating the background of a young woman's suicide.
• The Inspector interrupts the Birling family gathering.
• He establishes they each did something cruel or unkind to the dead girl.
• He takes control of the situation and refuses to acknowledge that any of the others is superior to himself.
• He leaves after making a passionate speech about social justice.
• The lighting becomes brighter, and harder once the Inspector arrives.
• The stage directions describe his 'impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness'.
• He speaks 'carefully, weightily'.
• He cuts through the Birlings 'massively'.
• The Inspector controls who sees the photograph to control play structure.
• The Inspector represents Priestley's voice.

Character Analysis: Eva Smith/Daisy Renton

• Eva Smith and Daisy Renton are the two names by which the girl who suffered at the hands of the Birling family and Gerald was known.
• Mr. Birling sacked her from his factory for leading a strike.
• After Sheila complained about her, she was sacked from a dress shop.
• She became Gerald Croft's mistress.
• Eric Birling made her pregnant.
• Mrs Birling refused to help her.
• She committed suicide.
• Eva Smith forms a contrast with the Birling family: She worked hard, supported her fellow workers and was kind.
• Priestley uses her as a symbol to represent the working class women that are exploited by the capitalists.

Context

• The play is set in the fictional industrial town of Brumley in 1912.
• Priestley wrote the play in 1944.
• The setting deliberately represented the opposite of what people were hoping for in 1945.
• Priestley was a socialist.
• Socialists believe capitalists benefit the rich over the poor.
• The play is set just before the Titanic sinks and two years before the start of World War One.
• Social position was far more important in 1912 than it is today.
• The rights of workers like Eva Smith were not taken too seriously.
• There was little protection for people like Eva Smith.
• The Inspector warns the Birlings of the 'fire and blood and anguish' that everyone will experience if they do not learn to take responsibility.
• At the time the play was set, women had fewer rights and were subservient to men.
• Sheila begins to fight for equality.
• Priestley was interested in theories of time.

Themes

• Priestley shares a powerful social message.
• The play presents a contrast between the rich Birling family and the dismal life, Eva lived as a result of their actions.
• The Inspector champions the cause of the poor.
• The Inspector provides a stronger message about social responsibility.
• The play presents many different interpretations of love.
• Both the older and younger generation take the Inspector's message in different ways.

Key Quotations

• Mr. Birling*
• States they are in the "large surburban house contrasted with Eva's 'dingy little back bedroom' (described by the Inspector).
• "Giving us the port, Edna? That's right.'"
• "It's one of the happiest nights of my life".
• "nobody wants war"
• "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” (about the Titanic)
• "a hard-headed practical man of business".
• "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself".
• "It's my duty to keep labor costs down".
• He sees Eva's death like a business transaction - "horrid business".
• "I was quite justified" in sacking Eva Smith
• He cares more about escaping a "public scandal".
• "Look, Inspector - I'd give thousands - yes, thousands -"
• After the Inspector leaves: 'You allowed yourself to be bluffed. Yes - bluffed.'.
• Sheila*
• At the start of the play, when Gerald gives her the ring: Oh – it’s wonderful! Look Mummy - isn’t it a beauty?
• "But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people"
• When she had Eva Smith fired, she uses the power she has as a good customer of the store: "I'd persuade mother to close our account with them"
• "So I'm really responsible?"
• "I'll never, never do it again to anybody."
• "You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl."
• When Mrs Birling is unknowingly blaming her own son: Mother - stop - stop!'
• She repeats the Inspector's message: 'Fire and blood and anguish.
• Gerald*
• About Eva Smith: She was young and pretty and warm-hearted – and intensely grateful'
• About Eva: 'I asked her questions about herself.'
• About Eva / Daisy: 'I insisted on Daisy moving into those rooms... because I was sorry for her.'
• About his affair, to Mrs Birling, when she calls it disgusting: 'It wasn't disgusting.'
• When asked if he loved Eva Smith / Daisy, 'I didn't feel about her as she felt about me.'
• "I'm rather more upset by this business than I probably appear to be"
• Mrs. Birling*
• To Arthur, about his comments about the cook: 'Arthur you're not supposed to say such things'
• To Sheila, on her slang: Sheila! What an expression!'
• To Sheila, about Gerald: 'Now Sheila don't tease him.
• To Gerald, about his affair with Eva: 'I don't think we want any more details of this disgusting affair.'
• "I didn't like her manner"
• "a girl of that sort"
• Eric*
• He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out.
• "I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty"
• "I wasn't in love with her or anything"
• What you did to her. You don’t seem to care about.
• We all helped to kill her.
• The Inspector*
• "she was in great agony"
• she'd swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course.
• "Young women counting their pennies in their dingy little back rooms."
• "each of you helped to kill her"
• "Public men, Mr. Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges"
• millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths
• "we are responsible for each other"
• "Will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"