An Inspector Calls- Characters

An Inspector Calls- Characters

1. Mr Birling

   • He has made himself very wealthy by being a 'hard-headed' business man
   • At the start of the play he comes across as being arrogant, making long speeches about his predictions for the future
   • He is materialistic and possessive and also has old fashioned views about women.
   • he doesn’t learn any lessons during the course of the play

2. Mrs Birling

   • Throughout dinner she tells Sheila and Eric off for things that she considers impolite whilst ignorantly turning a blind eye to her son drinking too much. It is clear that despite Eric being old enough to drink and Sheila getting married, she sees them both as children, not as a young man and woman.
   • " a rather cold woman," and her husband's "social superior."
   • She does not change at the end of the play – perhaps this is why ‘An Inspector Calls’ again, to try and make her change.
   • Classist Snob because Eva used her name. 'Yes I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence.'

3. Sheila Birling

   • At the start of the play she is celebrating her engagement to Gerald Croft and she is a giddy, naïve and childish young lady
   • The Inspector arrives and she is very shocked by the news of Eva Smith's death, she is also very regretful of her own involvement in the suicide.
   • She learns her lesson. She takes responsibility and changes; she also tries to encourage others to do the same
   • Socialist View 'But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.'

4. Eric Birling

   • 'not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive'. In other words, he lacks confidence.
   • It becomes clear that he is drunk at the dinner table and later it is revealed that he has been drinking too much for quite some time
   • It turns out that Eric had an affair with Eva Smith and that she was pregnant with Eric's baby when she committed suicide. Eric stole money from his father's business to help Eva.

5. Gerald Croft

   • Gerald is described as 'an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town'.
   • At the beginning of the play, Gerald comes across as being confident and charming.
   • His parents, Sir George and Lady Croft, are above the Birlings socially, and it seems his mother disapproves of his engagement to Sheila.
   • The Inspector isn’t as harsh on him as he is on Mr and Mrs Birling – he notes that at least Gerald ‘had some affection for her and made her happy for a time.’

6. Inspector Goole

   • The Inspector arrives whilst the Birling family are celebrating the engagement of Sheila and Gerald. The stage directions state that he 'need not be a big man' but that he must create an 'impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness'
   • By the end of the play it is revealed that he isn’t actually an Inspector. It is not entirely clear who he is, Priestley leaves it up to the audience to decide.
   • His name 'Goole' suggests a supernatural or ghost like element, and he seems to know what the characters will say before they do - is he the conscience of the audience? Is he the voice of Priestley?
   • He is a teacher – to teach each character (and the audience) of the importance of social responsibility. He uses aggressive, shocking language to make the characters feel guilty for the part they played in Eva Smith’s death: ‘she died in misery and agony’