AN INSPECTOR CALLS
J.B. PRIESTLEY
Contents
1.The beginning
2. A key scene
3.The end
The Beginning: p1-10
The mood is very different before the
Inspector arrives:
 All the characters are comfortable and
“pleased with themselves.”
 The Inspector enters just as Birling is
launching into another lengthy speech about
a man having to look after himself and “his
own” rather than thinking about others. Very
timely…..
Sets the scene
 See notes on setting
 “…substantial and heavily comfortable; but
not cosy and homelike.”
Introduces the main characters
 Arthur Birling: “heavy-looking;” self
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important; in his 50s
Sybil Birling: about 50; “a rather cold
woman;” “her husband’s social superior”
Sheila: pretty; early 20s; “very pleased with
life and rather excited”
Gerald: attractive, about 30; “easy well-bred
young man-about-town”
Eric: early 20s; “half shy, half assertive”
Shows the importance of social
status to Mr and Mrs B.
 Mrs B disapproves of Mr B asking her to
compliment the cook on dinner. “You’re not
supposed to say such things”
 Mr B: “I was Lord Mayor here two years ago
when Royalty visited us.” This helped with his
chance of a knighthood.
Shows Mr B’s capitalist
views
 “I’m talking as a hard-headed practical man
of business.”
 “We’re in for a time of steadily increasing
prosperity.”
 “I say there isn’t a chance of war. The world’s
developing so fast that it’ll make war
impossible.” He speaks of developments such
as the unsinkable Titanic. Shows us he does
not know as much as he thinks he does.
Key Scene: The Inspector’s Exit
p50-56
 Beginning of Act 3: Eric is standing just inside
the door after entering the room at the very
end of Act 2.
 The others are staring at him after finding out
he got Eva pregnant . He realises they have
worked it out.
 It is revealed soon after that Eric’s
relationship with Eva was shameful and that
he has been stealing from his father
Conflict between Eric and
Mrs B
 (bitterly) “You haven’t made it any easier for
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me, have you, Mother?”
Mrs B is “blind” to Eric’s drinking.
Mrs B is assisted out of the room by Sheila
when she hears of Eric’s first night with Eva.
She re-enters when we find out Eric is a thief.
Eric finds out Mrs B denied Eva charity and
almost physically attacks her: “Then - you
killed her.”
Collective responsibilty
 Inspector (views of Priestley himself): “But just
remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but
there are millions and millions and millions of
Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us…all
intertwined with our lives…We don’t live alone.
We are members of one body. We are
responsible for each other.”
 With a final comment that “if men will not learn
that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and
blood and anguish. Good night.” He is speaking
of the two upcoming world wars.
The End p62-72
 The Birlings and Gerald doubt whether the
Inspector was a “real” police officer and this
affects how some of them feel about their
responsibility in the girl’s death
 Mr and Mrs B and Gerald feel that if he wasn’t
real, they have escaped a public scandal and this
is the most important thing to them.
 Sheila and Eric still believe they must take
responsibility for their actions because a girl has
died and that is the most important thing.
Gerald
 First announces the Inspector is not real as
told by a policeman he knows down the
street.
 Suggests the photographs the Inspector
showed each of them were of different girls.
 Rings the Infirmary to see if a girl has
committed suicide by drinking disinfectant
and “they haven’t had a suicide for months.”
Another twist…
 The older generation are completely relieved.
 Sheila and Eric ashamed for the others who
“began to learn something” (Sheila). Sheila
also mentions the “fire and blood and
anguish” the Inspector talked about.
 THE TELEPHONE RINGS AND “A GIRL HAS
JUST DIED…A POLICE INSPECTOR IS ON HIS
WAY HERE – TO ASK – SOME QUESTIONS-”