He tells the Inspector how he was Lord Mayor for two years and how he is very soon waiting to receive his Knighthood. This is no importance to the Inspector, but Mr Birling thinks it will knock him down a peg or two. When Birling finds out about Eva Smith he doesn’t seem to care at all that much. He’s just bothered about being disturbed while “the joining of two families”, so he wants to get him in and out of his house as quick as he can. However the Inspector is not having this and makes Mr Birling very irritated. When the Inspector goes further into the investigation.
Birling again realises that the more truth that comes out the more his reputation is in danger. So he tries to get the Inspector to leave again by bragging about his social status, to try and win the Inspector, however, this again, fails. At the end of they play I think that Mr. Birling will be feeling just a little embarrassed and feeling a bit of a fool. This is because he knows he has been duped, and nobody has ever done or would ever dream of doing anything like this to him and obviously he is not amused because he has found out for the first time that he was not in charge of events that happen around him and his family.
He doesn’t like the thought of a stranger coming into his house and telling him what to do and telling him things he doesn’t agree with. The reason he doesn’t like this is because everything that the Inspector is saying to him is making him look like a fool because Birling was saying exactly the opposite. So I don’t think he will change his attitude as such, and if he does it will be for short period only because I don’t think a man like him could ever change, as he sees no reason to. Sheila Birling at the beginning comes over as a bit of a snobby little rich girl, who relies on her daddy for everything.
I don’t think at the first she comes across as very nice person, just like her father, you might say, but as the play gets deeper and deeper into the investigation, we realise she, unlike the others (apart from Eric) is likely to change. Sheila is mortified when she finds out what each person has done to Eva. I think she changes her attitude towards the end of the play because of what has happened. She knows that she is to blame or has some part in this girl’s death and cannot escape from what she has done. We can find out she is nothing like her mother and father after all. Eric, I think is the same as Sheila in one way.
The way he cared for her and is upset she is dead. He is also upset that he has lost what would have been his first child. He feels really guilty for what he did to her and knows he used her. He also feels in some way responsible for her death just like Sheila, and cannot get over that this has actually happened. Gerald Croft was the one I thought lead her along the most. He was the one who cared for her the most but was the one who used her the most at the same time. I don’t think he felt so much guilty but shocked and horrified at what had happened to this girl as he had real feelings for her.
He asks to be excused from his questioning as he can not face up to the news any longer and needs to think back when they were together. Mrs. Birling, I think is just the same as her husband but a female version. She doesn’t feel any responsibility of guilt for this girl. She is not even sorry now that she’s dead, or does she feel any remorse for turning her away from the organisation. She also tries to do what Mr. Birling does by constantly telling the Inspector of her husband’s importance. Arthur Birling is a man who cares about his importance in the world.
It doesn’t matter who he has to hurt to get there, as long as he’s there. This is all he goes on about throughout the whole play, how people should look after themselves and their own. He manages to bring business in to every conversation he has, including in the announcement of his daughter’s engagement; he talks about bringing his company and Gerald’s father’s together. He is always “name dropping” people that are important and he knows them. He make sure he let’s the Inspector know where he is in society and that he is obviously higher than him by telling him where he’s been and what he’s done.
The Inspector only has one key speech in the play, which is at the very end. In this he says everything that he feels about the situation and doesn’t hold back. He tells all the Birling’s and Gerald how if they don’t come together and join and learn to help one another, more matter what status in society you are, the world will never become a better place, and he tells them if they refuse to do this, the world will end up in chaos. He tells them that everyone is “members of the same body and there are millions of Eva and John Smith’s having to suffer every day”.
He finishes off his speech by telling them if they do not wish to change, then they will be “taught in fire, blood and anguish” (World War One and Two). While he is talking and telling them all this Mr. Birling will I think not be paying that much attention because what he was saying at the beginning of the play is the opposite of what the Inspector has just said, so everything that he believes in has just been slap back in his face and I think that is why at the beginning he is cut off by the door bell to tell us that something has to disagree with him.
The audience I think will react badly to the characters of Birling partly because even though it was set in 1912 it was not written until `945 and the people watching have had to live through wars, strike, the sinking of the Titanic and the Russian Revolution, which Birling said would never happen. People might have had the same attitude as Birling before all these things had happened but not anymore because they has to come together and help each other cope.
They probably still care about where there are in society but I think they will be more aware of the poorer people around them and maybe watching the play made them realise what they used to be like and how much they’ve changed, for the better. I think that the play was very interesting. I enjoyed trying to work out who was responsible for each thing that happened to Eva during her life, and I enjoyed trying to unravel mysteries. I think Priestly did do what he set out to do and did it successfully.
I think this is because I think he set out to teach everyone of how people are, or were, and people should learn to live together and get on. I think he does this the best in the Inspector’s speech. He wants people to know bad things can get for some people and when they do, there should always be someone there who cares, not matter what class you are. I also think he concentrated on his own life. I think that is what the play is about, they way he talks about all the different events.
Priestly will be writing about what he has been through and how he has had to work together with others and not just think about himself, and wants people to realise this and to do something about it. I really enjoyed the play because I love mysteries and I enjoyed reading the part of Sheila. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE J. B.
