A full revision booklet on An Inspector Calls- covering plot, key characters, quotations & analysis, contextual points, exam skills, and dramatic devices. Everything you'll need to score top marks in those essays!
YEAR AND MONTH WHAT HAPPENS PERSON INVOLVED
September 1910 Eva sacked by Birling & Co. MR BIRLING
December 1910 Eva employed by Milwards.
Late January 1911 Eva sacked by Milwards. SHEILA BIRLING
March 1911 Eva [calling herself Daisy Renton] becomes GERALD CROFT
Gerald's mistress.
Early September 1911 Gerald breaks off the affair. GERALD CROFT
Eva leaves Brumley for two months.
November 1911 Eric meets Eva. ERIC BIRLING
December 1911/January 1912 Eva finds she is pregnant. ERIC BIRLING
Late March 1912 Mrs. Birling turns down Eva's application for MRS BIRLING
help.
Early April 1912 Eva's suicide/the Inspector calls ALL
SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Although An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 it was written in 1944/45 and produced in London for the first time in 1946; it is as much
about post-war Britain as it is about the Edwardian period. Audiences at the end of the war would have appreciated the irony of
Birling’s predictions for the future. Setting the play before the First World War enabled Priestley to make the most of class division
and social hierarchy. There are many references to social position: Birling’s compared to his wife’s, the Birlings compared to
Gerald’s family, the workers at Birling’s factory and the destitute women who go to the Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation for
help. Birling constantly name drops, talking of Alderman Meggarty and the Chief Constable as well as his own time as Lord Mayor.
He tries to impress Gerald with talk of the possibility of his being knighted. Social position is clearly important to him and Priestley
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,uses Birling to represent the capitalist viewpoint. Birling is concerned about money and what other people think; the possibility of
scandal horrifies him.
You may also notice the different attitudes to women in the play. Sheila is seen as someone who needs protecting from the harsh
realities of life; both Gerald and Birling try to get her out of the room when Gerald is being questioned. They have a different
attitude to women of the town, and to Eva Smith. Mrs Birling adds to this by implying that Eva Smith had ideas above her station.
Although both Gerald and Eric see that Eva was different from the usual women in the Palace bar, they are still both prepared to
use her in a way which would be unthinkable in a girl of their own social standing.
SUMMARY
ACT 1
The Birling family is celebrating the engagement of Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of Lord and Lady Croft, who comes from ‘an old
country family – landed people’. Arthur Birling is in a good mood and makes a number of speeches giving his views about the
state of the world, technology and industrial relations. One of his main themes is about everyone being responsible for
themselves; he doesn’t believe that anyone has a responsibility to others apart from his family.
When Inspector Goole is announced, Birling and Gerald make a joke about Eric who shows his guilty conscience by reacting
strongly to this.
The inspector informs Birling about the death of a young woman who has committed suicide by drinking disinfectant. It emerges
that Birling had sacked the girl, Eva Smith, two years earlier after she had been one of the ring-leaders in a strike and demanding
higher wages.
Sheila Birling is also connected to the girl, having had her sacked from her new job at Milwards. She is horrified by what she did
and is genuinely remorseful.
The inspector seems to know details of the family’s involvement before they speak and when he tells them that the girl changed
her name to Daisy Renton, Gerald’s reaction tells us that he, too, knew the girl. When they are temporarily left alone, Sheila warns
Gerald not to try to hide anything from the inspector.
By the end of the first act, the audience is expecting the inspector to reveal further connections with members of the Birling family.
ACT 2
Although Gerald tries to get Sheila to leave the room, she insists on staying; Gerald admits to having had an affair with Eva Smith,
the girl he knew as Daisy Renton, the previous summer. Sheila is hurt and disappointed in Gerald who had told her he was busy at
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,the works at that time. After Gerald broke off the affair, Eva/Daisy had left Brumley for a few months. After Sheila has returned her
engagement ring to him, Gerald goes out, seemingly genuinely affected by the news of the girl’s death.
Despite Sheila’s warnings Mrs Birling tries to intimidate the inspector, believing that she could have no possible connection to the
girl. When the inspector reminds her of the pregnant girl she turned away from the charity organisation she chaired, Mrs Birling
concedes but felt herself to be justified because the girl had lied to her about her name [calling herself Mrs Birling]. She also
disbelieved the girl’s claim that she had refused the offer of help from the father of her baby because she believed that he had
stolen the money. Mrs Birling digs herself deeper into a hole by insisting that the father of the baby should be made to pay.
Eric has been out during this exchange but re-enters right at the end of the scene to expectant faces; we are expecting Eric to be
the father of the baby.
ACT 3
Eric immediately realises that they all know and tells them of how he met Eva and of her subsequent pregnancy. Questioned
closely by the inspector, he also reveals that he had tried to support the girl by giving her money but he had stolen it from his
father’s business. The Birlings seem more horrified by this than his responsibility for the girl’s condition.
Having done his job, the inspector makes a speech about social responsibility and leaves the Birlings to examine their behaviour.
When Gerald re-enters he has news that there is no Inspector Goole is employed by the local police. Birling and Gerald now set
about disproving the inspector’s case although Sheila and Eric feel that that is not the point. When Gerald confirms that no girl has
died of drinking disinfectant by telephoning the infirmary, The Birlings and Gerald are delighted and their mood of jollity and good-
humour of the beginning of Act 1 returns.
Sheila and Eric do not feel the same way, continuing to feel guilt for what they have done and are appalled at the behaviour of
Gerald and their parents. When Birling suggests that Sheila take back her engagement ring from Gerald, Sheila remarks that it is
too soon.
Just at the point where Birling is teasing them for their lack of a sense of humour, the telephone rings and Birling is obviously
stunned by what he hears: a girl has died in the infirmary and a police inspector is on his way to ask them some questions.
CHARACTERS
MR BIRLING
Birling is a snob and a social climber, very aware of his position in society, especially as his wife is higher up the social scale
than him, as are the Crofts, Gerald’s parents. He tries to impress and intimidate the inspector by mentioning having been mayor,
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, emphasising his connections to the Crofts and his friendship with the Chief Constable. Birling is pompous and makes speeches
revealing a selfish and arrogant attitude towards others. His proclamations about the Titanic, the state of the nation and the
impossibility of war are all designed to make him look foolish in the eyes of the audience who would have the benefit of hindsight.
Birling believes that each person is responsible only for himself and his family and denies any collective or social responsibility.
More worried about scandal and his reputation than other people’s feelings, Birling shows a callous and unsympathetic attitude
towards Eva Smith. He is very impressed by Gerald and is indulgent towards his affair with Eva Smith even though it is his own
daughter who has been betrayed.
MRS BIRLING
An even bigger snob than her husband, Mrs Birling is described in the opening stage directions as a ‘cold woman, and her
husband’s social superior’. She is narrow-minded and judgmental about the ‘lower classes’ without really understanding how
other people live. She has no insight and is genuinely unaware that her son is a heavy drinker. Her life is governed by her notion
of correctness and whilst her daughter is behaving in an appropriate way, she seems to get on with her but when Sheila
expresses opinions she doesn’t approve of she reprimands her. Her arrogant and patronising attitude towards the inspector
means that she falls a victim to his questioning despite Sheila’s warnings. Although she chairs the committee of a charitable
organisation, Sybil Birling is not a charitable person; she is smug and self-satisfied and only serves on the committee out of a
sense of duty rather than a genuine desire to help those less fortunate than herself. Because she only hears what she wants to,
she is easily offended. It is because Eva Smith had the impertinence to use the Birling name that Mrs Birling refused to help her.
She is delighted when it seems that the inspector is a fraud because she feels that she was the only one who didn’t give in to him.
She does not change her attitude, has no sense of empathy and shows no remorse for her role in Eva Smith’s death.
SHEILA
At the beginning of the play, Sheila is presented as rather pleased with herself but also rather shallow. She makes
inconsequential remarks and speaks in a rather childish way: she calls her mother ‘mummy’ and uses words like ‘squiffy’ and
‘jolly well’. However, she is the only one to immediately accept responsibility for her role in Eva Smith’s death and she is,
therefore, probably the most sympathetic character in the play. She is genuinely remorseful for her actions and is very
affected by details of the girl’s terrible death. She shows perception in her attitude towards the inspector, realising that he already
knows much of what he is asking them and showing intuition about what his questioning is leading to. She is the first to realise
that Eric is the father of Eva’s baby and tries to stop her mother from making it worse for Eric. This intuition is also evident in the
fact that before information about Gerald’s affair came out, she was suspicious about his behaviour when she speaks to him ‘half
serious, half playfully’ about it. Although she acted out of spite and jealousy in getting Eva sacked, she has more of a conscience
than any of the other characters and we believe her when she says that she will never do anything like it again. She has more
empathy for Eva, recognising her as a person not just as a worker. She is therefore very different from her father and mother and
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