Character and Theme in An
Inspector Calls
Characters Overview
• Remember that
the characters in
the book are
symbolic.
• Each of them
represents a
particular type
or class.
• The one
exception might
be the Inspector.
Characters Overview 2
• One way of judging the characters is to look
at the way they change, or don’t change by
the end of the play.
• Ask yourself – are they different at the end?
Arthur Birling 1
• He is wealthy and middle-class with aims of
becoming part of the upper class.
• Hopes to be knighted “there’s a fair chance
that I might find my way into the next
Honours List”. P.8
• Former Lord-Mayor of Brumley and as such
he is full of his own self-importance “I was
an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor
two years ago.” p.11
Arthur Birling 2
• As a local magistrate he sees himself as
being above the law. He thinks he can get
away with things.
• In Act One he says he know the Chief
Constable – “we play golf together
sometimes” p.16
• Look at his reaction when he thinks they’ve
rumbled the Inspector…
• At the end of the play he is glad to have
avoided a public scandal.
Arthur Birling 3
• He is totally unaware of the effects of
his actions on other people.
• He doesn’t care that there are low
wages for workers. He celebrates
ripping off his workers and cutomers
“lower costs and higher prices” p.4
Arthur Birling 4
• He is totally unrealistic
about the future.
• His speech about the
Titanic calls it
“unsinkable, absolutely
unsinkable”. P.7
• He wrongly doesn’t
think there will be a
war – “There’ll be peace
and prosperity and
rapid progress
everywhere.” p.7
Sybil Birling
• She is a horrible snob and looks down on
people with less money.
• She refuses Eva Smith money for just
having the cheek to use the same name as
her, calling it “a piece of gross
impertinence” p.43
• She is also a hypocrite and judges lower
classes more harshly than her own family.
• She calls (in a moment of dramatic irony)
her own son a ‘drunken young idler’.
Gerald Croft
• Gerald is a real member of the upper
classes, the son of Sir George Croft and
Lady Croft.
• He is also quite weak and willing to do the
easy thing. Look at how he sucks up to
Birling – “I believe you’re right Sir’ p.6, but
also on page 15 and 17.
• He is also a liar, he tells Sheila that he has
been very busy at work when he has been
having an affair.
Gerald Croft 2
• In the end he is very much concerned
with his reputation above everything
else.
• Look at his relief when he finds out
the hospital has not got the body of a
suicide victim.
• He believes that the most important
thing is if the Inspector is a fake as
“that makes all the difference.” p.63
Eric
• Eric is a party-boy, hard
drinking (perhaps because
he is miserable) and is
portrayed as being the black
sheep of the family.
• He is also a rebel, and tries
to take on Mr Birling’s
selfish views. For example
p.6 “What about the war?”
Eric 2
• Eric is one of the few characters who has
managed to change because of the terrible
experience of Eva Smith.
• He says it was “tough luck” that she was
sacked, and shows sympathy for her tragic
life.
• Later on he realises that the Inspector was
showing them their own faults: “He was our
police inspector all right” p.59
Sheila
• Sheila is the character who works out the
tragedy of Eva Smith most quickly.
• When she admits that she was at fault for
having Eva fired from Milwards. She asks
the Inspector if “I’m really responsible?”
p.23
• She also works out that Gerald has been up
to no good. “I expect you’ve done things
you’re ashamed of too.” p.23
Sheila 2
• Sheila is sometimes called ‘the
conscience’ of the play, as she is one
most troubled by Eva’s story.
• She appeals for the others to help the
inspector. P.30
• At the end of the play she doesn’t
seem ready to take Gerald back. “No.
Not yet. It’s too soon. I must think.”
p.72
Inspector Goole
• He is a character who doesn’t, like others
try to gloss over the truth. Sometimes he
is described as blunt or direct.
• He outwits the family by isolating them,
“one line of inquiry at a time” p.11
• He refuses to be intimidated by Birling.
See the earlier golf scene, and also in Act
Two when he refuses to apologise to
Birling. “Apologize for what – doing my
duty?”
Inspector Goole 2
• Goole always tells it like it is
and advances the political
philosophy of the play.
• Look at dialogue in Act Two
when he puts forward the
idea that the rich should care
for the poor. “Public men,
Mr Birling, have
responsibilities as well as
privileges.” p.41
Inspector Goole 3
• The mystery of the
Inspector is heightened by
his name – ‘Goole’. This
technique is called
nomenclature.
• When he disappears we
are left with the question
of who he was.
• Is he a vision from the
past or future?
• In he representative of all
of our consciences?
Themes – Social Responsibility
Social Responsibility
• J.B Priestley was a socialist
and one of the big questions
he is asking his audience is
‘How should society be
organised?’
• He is offering us a choice
between socialism in which
the rich are compelled to
share their wealth, or
through capitalism where
you are allowed to keep
more of your money.
Social Responsibility 2
• The two different views of society are
represented by Birling and the Inspector.
• The Inspector tells Birling that: “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 it in fire and blood and anguish.”
• Birling tells his family that everyone is on
their own, “A man has to make his own
way – has to look after himself.” p.9
Social Responsibility 3
• The relationship between the working
class and the rich is the way that
Priestley explores the struggle
between socialism and capitalism.
• Eva Smith is symbolic of the way that
all workers are treated. The Inspector
tells Eric that he used Eva like “an
animal, a thing, not a person.” p.56
Social Responsibility 4
• The idea of the play is what happens to Eva Smith
represents what happens to all poor workers.
• In his final speech the Inspector makes that obvious
(p.56) “One Eva Smith has gone - but there are
millions and 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, and what
we think and say and do.”
Themes - Time
1.
2.
Remember the play has
two time frames that you
have to remember.
It is set in 1912 – a time
before the horror of
World War One.
BUT it was written in the
Second World World War
in 1945.
Priestley is contrasting a
very innocent time with a
time of horror, bombing
and mass killing.
Time 2
•
•
•
•
•
•
Life in Britain in 1912
Photo of a grocer shop in
Twickenham 1912.
In Britain it was a freezing winter
with many dying from the cold.
Things were made worse by coal,
dock and transport strikes.
March 1st - Window smashing
rampage in Londons West end by
Suffragettes. (Women who wanted
equal rights)
October 1st - First Balkan war Turkey invaded by Bulgaria, Serbia,
Greece and Montenegro.
The class system was still
prominent and the people at the
top of society were massively
wealthy compared to normal
workers, and those workers often
had very poor pay and conditions.
There was also increasing
competition with Germany and the
USA for trade and the first
rumblings of war were in the air.
Time 3
Life in Britain in 1945
• Britain was wrecked by the Second World War. Major cities had been
ravaged by fire after being attacked with incendiary bombs and
London had been hit by the blitz.
• January 27th – Soviet armies discover death camps in Nazi occupied
territory.
• Feb 13th – Allied planes firebomb Dresden killing over 25,000 people
and destroying the city.
• August 6/9th - American attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with
nuclear weapons.
• The men and women who had fought the war had started to feel that
they wanted a fairer society and wanted more rights. After the war
the Welfare State was implemented offering all people the guarantee
to free healthcare, education and a state pension for the first time.
Time 4
• Priestley was really interested in different theories about time
and was very interested in a thinker called J.W Dunne. Dunne
wrote a book suggesting that the same things might be
happening simultaneously all the time.
• He believed that people who were specially trained could see
backwards and forwards in time. Priestley thought that this
might mean you could be warned by visitors from the future
about how to behave.
Time 5
• However that wasn’t the only
odd belief that Priestley had.
• He also liked the ideas of a
mystic called Ouspensky who
pioneered a theory called ‘eternal
recurrence’.
• His idea was that you’d live your
life over and over until you’d
made all of the right choices.
This means that you’d get the
chance to avoid mistakes you’d
made before.
Gender/Age Conflict
Look at the issues in the play:
• Women used as possessions by men.
• Women don’t have the same rights as
their men.
• Youth versus Age is often highlighted,
for example Eric vs Mr Birling.
• These issues highlight social changes
to come in the future.
Character and Theme in An Inspector Calls
by Mr E. Monaghan, December 2011
ewm@cokethorpe.org