Analysis of key quotes in relation to themes - INSPECTOR CALLS

Arthur Birling presents himself as the antithesis of social responsibility with the words “ community and all that nonsense… A man has to mind his own business and look after himself”. The term “mind his own business” can be interpretted in two equally significant ways. In one way it could be taken literally, making sense in Mr Birling’s case as he owns a business and factories which he cares about more than anything else apart from perhaps social status, and will do anthing to ensure it thrives, even at the detrement of his workers. The phrase can also be taken to mean staying out of matters that don’t concern you and purely focusing on your own needs and no one elses. The word “himself “ shows Mr Birling to represent the worst of Capitalism as he thinks purely of his own comforts, social and financial gains and position in the hierachal society he lives in. Mr Birling has already discredited himself just before this quote when he announces surely that the titanic is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” and saying “ no one wants war”. This creates dramatic irony as any audience watching or reading this play would be well aware that both of his self - assure comments are actually false as the titanic did sink and there was a World War. This causes the audience/readers to doubt Mr Birlings credibility and knowledge of the World and the quote about “ community and all that nonsence..” portrays Mr Birling as a fool who is actually the one talking nonsense. Birling presents an image of someone who is greedy for and obsessed with money and social status, and doesn’t think the problems of the lower working classes are any concern of his; a view that the inspector proves to be wrong.

One of the only descriptions we get of Inspector Goole is that of a stage direction which describes him as someone who “ creates at once and impression of massiveness”. The stage direction states that he does not need to be physically large, but must make a large impression right away. This tells us alot about his charcater and role in the play as this quote presents him as a person of authority who will no be swayed by the Birlings higher social class or disaproving attitude. Despite the power that the upper class held over the lower classes at that time in history, the inspector remains the dominant figure throughout the play. This would be unusual for a working class man of 1912 and it tells the audience that he is no odinary man and possibly represents a higher supernatural power. This supernatural idea can also be linked to the inspector’s name itself; Goole, which sounds like Ghoul, bringing to mind ghosts and supernatural beings.

As a representation of the ultimate capitalist, Mr Birling’s sense of duty lies only with his profits and business at the expense of his workers and their wellbeing. We see this in the quote “ It’s my duty to keep labour costs down”. Here, Priestly shows the audience how the working classes suffer at the hands of capitalist and classist government, and therefore they should embrace socialism and the labour party if they want their needs to be put first. This quote also links nicely to Sheila’s outburst shortly after when she says “ These girls are not cheap labour, they’re people”. She emphasizes how her father Mr Birling doesn’t see his employees as humans, he sees them only in terms of business and profit. This links to the theme of exploitation and Birling clearly has never taken the time to consider how his actions have an effect on the people that work for him as by “keeping costs down” he is essentially keeping his workers wages low too. When the Inspector links his firing of Eva to her suicide saying “ what happened to her then, may have determined what happened to her afterwards… a chain of events”, Birling completely dismisses it, again reffering to his duty once again saying “ Still I can’t accept any responsibility”. Mr Birling doesn’t learn anything from his experience with Inspector Goole and therfore represents not only the upper class but the older generation too who Priestly views as stubborn, resistant to change and stuck in their ways. So much so that they are responsible for leading the world into war and chaos.

“We’re respectable citizens not criminals”. Gerald Croft says this in Act 1 to the Inspector which highlights the problem with having a class system in society. The upper class represented by the Birling’s and Gerald Croft believe that criminals can only come from the lower, poorer classes and because they are considered respectable in societies eyes, they are above reproach and therefore not accountable for any of their actions. It is ironic that Gerald believes the whole group of people to still be considered respectable citizens when each of them has comitted a moral crime. The Inspector is a figure of moral authority who represents virtue in this play. Although most of the wrongs commmited by the Birlings and Gerald would not get them convicted in court, in terms of the Bible, they are all guilty of biblical sins such as greed, pride, envy, lust and infidelity.

“ If she’d been some miserable plain little creature I don’t suppose I’d have done it.” Sheila Birling’s jealous response to Eva looking better than her in a dress is definately spiteful and petty, however she is one of the characters who it’s easiest to feel sympathy for as she takes full responsibility for her part in the girls death and truly feels remorse for what she has done. Her reasoning in this quote however reveals another problem with the class system, that the rich have too much power over the lives of the poor and can ruin their lives with just a snap of their fingers over the smallest offence. Deep down Sheila feels entitled to be superior to Eva in every way. In money, looks and happiness, but because she isn’t, she lashes out at Eva and weilds her power over her to have her fired. She probably did this to feel better about herself but never considered the effect it would have on Eva’s life afterwards, assuming that because she was pretty she would be able to take care of herself. If she had know the consequences it would lead to she would never have done it, but Priestly’s pont is it’s important to think about how your actions could affect others in ways you’d never dream of.

Throughout the play Inspector Goole introduces the idea of shared guilt or shared responsibility as apposed to a single party taking all the blame. We see this in his words “ We have to share something. If there’s nothing else we’ll have to share our guilt. Unlike a traditional murder mystery with a list of suspects which gets narrowed down to one murderer, the Inspector widens the pool of blame and reveals each of them is partly responsable for Eva’s death. This ties in with the theme of social responsibilty, as Priestly is showing we are all responsible for creating a better society, not just the government or people in positions of authority. However, Mr and Mrs Birling reject this idea and constantly look for a scapegoat to take the blame for their wrong - doing. In the case of Mrs Birling this comes back to bite her later on saying “ first the girl herself…. secondly I blame the young man who was the father of the child”. The father of course turns out to be her own son Eric, which exposes her hypocrisy to everyone in the room. On the other hand Sheila and Eric are mush more open to shared responsibility as Eric says at the end, “ we all helped to kill her”. Although the older generation are closed off to these new ideas, Priestly sees hope in the younger generation who he believed would take on his ideas and vote for socialism. Just like many small bad actions led to the death of Eva Smith, many small good actions could lead to the betterment of society as a whole. This was particularly neccessary after the world wars as the devastated families and communities had to come together to rebuild what had been lost.

Mrs Briling says “ girls of that class” in reference to Eva’s death, saying that she couldn’t possibly imagine what would have driven her to suicide as she exists in a different social sphere to her. Mrs Birling thinks she has nothing in common with working class women and has no sympathy for them. Her and her husband don’t see the poor as human beings but as generalised stereotypes, lazy,criminals and cheap labour. She shows no empathy for the fact that a girl has died and simply assumes she and her family would have no connection to it as they are rich and respectable citizens who would never be associated with anything scandalous. Again Priestly is showing the dangers of a class based society, which prevents people from seeing each other as equal human beings with the same wants needs and feelings as everybody else.

“ She called herself Mrs Birling, and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case”. Mrs Birling is immediately prejudiced against Eva for being an unmarried pregnant woman, and the fact that she dares to use the name Birling despite being from a lower social class. Her prejudice stems from her cosy upper class bubble where she is oblivious to the struggles of other women and the misfortunes that might lead them to ending up in that position. Not only does she feel a certain type of way about Eva, but she is willing to voice her snobbery aswell, freely admitting that she is prejudiced towards her. Mrs Birling feels entitled to look down on Eva due to having a higher social ranking. She uses the word ‘naturally’ as if anyone in her position would have turned away a desperate pregnant woman who needed help. These outdated biases held by the upper classes meant that often the people that needed help the most or were most vulnerable were unable to get it because it was the rich who decided who was deserving or not. Priestly is encouraging the audience to consider how unfair it was that certain people were allowed to decide the fate of others, simply because they were born into a family with a higher social status.

“ I wasn’t in love with her or anything… She was pretty and a good sport”. In Act 3 Eric admits to raping Eva and getting her pregnant, not because he was in love with her but because she was pretty and a good sport. This shows how women in that time period were exploited by men because they literally had no power in society. In 1912 when the play is set, women did not have the right to vote and were certainly not considered as equals to men. Therefore their prospects in life were often extremely limited and often dependent on who they married and what type of family they were born into. Although Eric clearly abuses her, Eva clearly has no choice but to stay with him because he is her ownly option at this point and she cannot turn him down because of his power over him as a wealthy upper class man. The same is true of Gerald who keeps her as his mistress although he never intended to leave Sheila for her. The word ‘pretty’ is used by practically all the characters to describe Eva Smith as they judge her on her looks more than anything else. This shows how women of that time and even today were jusged on their looks alone rather than their intelligence or individual circumstances. Through Eva, Priestly is showing that women who are taken advantage of by men are a result of an inbalance of society and that they should not be judged or blamed for it.

“ We are members of one body, if men will not learn that lesson then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”. This quote is from the Inspector’s final speech to the Birlings which directly contradicts Mr Birling’s initial speech at the beginning of the play about the importance of looking out for yourself. After everything that has been revealed so far, the Inspector has proven that it is impossible to live in isolation without affecting the lives of others and therefore it is neccessary to consider others and the community before your own selfish gains. He ends this speech with an ominous warning about learning this lesson in fire and blood and anguish which is definately a reference to the horrors of the World Wars, which Priestly believed were brought about by Capitalist ideologies. If Capitalism was a problem then Socialism was the solution, and Priestly belived communities needed to come together to rebuild after all the destruction and create a better society. This quote also sounds distinctly sermon like which was no mistake on Priestly’s part as most of the audience would have been Christian, and therefore by alligning Socialiast views with religious ones, he is implying that socialist views are also Christian ones, particularly ones about considering the needs of your fellow man.

“It’s still the same rotten story whether it’s been told to a police inspector or to somebody else”. Once the Inspector leaves we soon find out he is not really an Inspector at all. Whats more, Eva Smith may not have been one girl but several and also it seemed she never even died. The ending is meant to challenge the audience and get them to question whether the Birlings still need to take responsibility for their actions when no one actually died and there is no one to hold them accountable. Mr and Mrs Birling are more than happy to pretend as if nothing ever happened and go on with their lives as normal, but Sheila and Eric are not too quick to agree. They argue that whether or not they are all guilty of Eva’s death, they are all still guilty of moral wrongs to people who have affected their lives in negative ways. As Sheila says later on, “ if it didn’t end tragically then thats lucky for us. But it might have done.” What Priestly is trying to get across is that the same stories happen to millions of working class women and people daily and no one is held accountable for it.

“Everythings alright now Sheila. What about this ring?” -

“ No not yet. It’s too soon. I must think.”

This is an exchange that takes place between Gerald and Sheila after he has uncovered the fact that Inspector Goole was not a reaal police inspector , and that there was no young woman that had commited suicide. As a result he feels that he no longer needs to take responsibility for any of his actions once the Inspector leaves and seems to have forgotten that even if the rest isn’t true, he still cheated on Sheila, and not just once, for several months. However, he boldy assumes that he is off the hook for that and that she’ll take him back without question. Up until this point Sheila has been the Inspector’s biggest allie and has really taken in the lessons he was trying to teach about socialism and responsibility, even challenging her parents when they try to excuse their way out of takng any blame. Unfortunately even she seems to show some slight wavering saying “ not yet. It’s too soon”. This does not totally close the door on Geralds proposal and implies that if enough time passes, she will be swayed back into getting married to him. We have to remember that in that time period it was not uncommon for men to have affairs or keep mistresses, again showing how Men abused and took for granted the loyalty women were expected to have towards their husbands no matter what.

Even Mrs Birling says “ When you’re married you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that just as I had.”This implies that she too had to put up with a similar situation with Mr Birling, but had chosen to ignore it so they could continue to present a respectable front of a happily married couple. Without any power in society Sheila does not really have any better option than to marry Gerald ( who knows this ) and who comes from a family even wealthier than her own and has highe social status. The sad truth is even though she realises things need to change, there is nothing she can do about it as women did not have the vote. In the time this play was published women had got the vote and Priestly’s message to women was that if you want change to come about, you must vote for a government that would treat them as equals, not as subordinates.