Inspector Calls Analysis Flashcards
Act 1 Part 1 (The Birlings are having an engagement party)
1) Everyone is content and saying the right things.
2) The Birlings are Priestley’s idea of a ‘perfect’ middle class family:
The father’s a successful businessman.
The mother works hard to keep up the Birling’s reputation in the community.
The son works for the father in the family business.
The daughter’s engaged to the son of their competitor - this should improve the business because the two companies could merge in the future.
Act 1 Part 2 (There are hints of conflict under the surface)
1) Gerald’s family, the Crofts, are more established and socially superior. This makes Arthur Birling anxious.
2) Gerald says he was busy with work last summer. But Shelia’s not really satisfied with this answer - “Yes, that’s what you say.”
3) There are big difference between what’s expected of men and women. In this society, men are supposed to be busy with work and the world of public affairs. Women are supposed to be interested in family, cloths and and social etiquette (‘proper’ behaviour).
Act 1 Part 3 (Birling lectures the young men about war and business)
1) Arthur Birling’s confident about the future for his family and business. He gives a speech with his predictions for the future. But the audience of 1946 knows what’s coming, and it’s not what Birling thinks:
He says conflicts between workers and bosses will come to nothing. But there were many strikes between 1912 and 1945, including the General Strike of 1926, which saw the country grind to a halt for nine days.
He says technological progress will continue, and gives the recently complete Titanic as an example. He says it’s “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”.
Eric asks whether there’ll be a war with Germany. Arthur says no way. But two years later, along comes World War One - war with Germany.
2) Priestley uses dramatic irony to make Mr Birling look overconfident. It makes the audience thing that Mr Birling might be wrong about lots of other things, such as his belief in the motto ‘Every man for himself’.
Writer’s Technique:
When the audience know more about something than the character on stage, it’s called dramatic irony.
Act 1 Part 4 (An inspector calls and says a girl has died)
1) The Inspector gives a blunt account of Eva Smith’s death.
2) The harsh language - “Burnt her inside out” - contrasts violently with the polite and playful atmosphere at the start. The Inspector catches the Birlings off-guard, which helps his investigation.
3) The Inspector shows a photograph to Mr Birling but doesn’t show it to either Gerald or Eric. This is important because Gerald later suspects that each person was shown different photograph, believing it to be the same one.
Theme - Family Life:
The Birlings’ family life is held together by secrets and polite behaviour. The Inspector disrupts everything and lets the secrets out.
Act 1 Part 5 (Mr Birling sacked Eva Smith to protect business)
1) The Inspector gets Mr Birling to tell the story of why he sacked Eva Smith. This give Mr Birling a false sense of being in charge for a bit.
2) The workers at the Birling factory went on strike after Mr Birling refused a pay rise. He wanted to protect his profits and prevent another strike, so he sacked the ‘ring-leaders’, including Eva Smith.
3) This story gives the play a political element. Priestley’s positioning the rights of the workers against the interests of the businessman.
4) Eva’s described as a “lively good-looking girl”. She’s remembered as an attractive hero - this makes Mr Birling look worse.
Theme - Social Responsibility:
Mr Birling sees employees as “cheap labour”. If he can get them to work for less, he will do. He wants the opposite of ‘social responsibility’ - maximum profit for the individual.
Act 1 Part 6 (Then Sheila got her sacked from her next job)
1) Sheila’s shown a photograph - possibly not the same one that Mr Birling saw. She recognises the women she got sacked from Milwards last year.
2) Sheila’s insecurity and jealousy made her think that Eva Smith was laughing at her at Milwards.
3) As a regular customer from a good family she had the power to demand that Eva Smith be sacked from her job. Sheila abused her influence.
4) But Sheila says she “felt rotten about it at the time”, and her reaction to the Inspector’s news shows that she knew she behaved badly and that she’s grown up a bit since then. Priestley portrays Sheila as a forgivable character.
Act 1 Part 7 (Sheila and Eric are sympathetic)
1) Eric points out the hypocrisy of sacking Eva Smith for asking for higher wages because the Birling company “try for the highest possible prices.”
2) Eric and Sheila give emotional responses to the Inspector’s story, while their parents show no sympathy.
3) Sheila’s repeatedly told to leave the room by both her parents - she stays because she feels it’s her duty to stay to hear the whole story and to find out who’s responsible.
Theme - Young and Old:
The Birlings don’t think a young women should hear this grim story. However, Sheila’s a young women who thinks for herself and breaks away from her parents’ traditional views.
Act 1 Part 8 (Eva Smith changes her name to Daisy Renton)
1) The Inspector explains that after being sacked from Milwards Eva Smith decided to change her name.
Perhaps Eva Smith needed a dramatic change to escape her past.
Or maybe this is just the Inspector spinning a tale to link two separate women.
Either way, the name Daisy Renton’s a fresh sounding name for a fresh start. But ‘under the daisies’ was a euphemism for being dead. And ‘renting’ suggests prostitution. Maybe the name isn’t so fresh after all.
2) Gerald is “startled” - he recognises the name.
Act 1 Part 9 (Gerald confesses to Sheila)
1) Eric and the Inspector leave to find Mr Birling, giving Sheila the opportunity to question Gerald.
2) Gerald says his affair with Daisy was ‘over and down with last summer”. He suggests that they should keep it secret so that it doesn’t become a scandal.
3) Sheila’s sure that the Inspector knows everything already - she’s worried about “how much he knows that we don’t know yet”. Gerald and Sheila get more anxious and suspicious, which heightens the tension.
4) The Inspector slowly opens the door and look “searchingly” as if he can read their expressions. He says only one word but it confirms that he’s in control and expects something from them: “Well?”
Theme - Men and Women:
It was considered okay for men to have affairs and mistresses. It wouldn’t have been acceptable for Sheila to have a lover.
Act 2 Part 1 (Gerald kept Daisy as his mistress)
1) Gerald ignores the Inspector’s question,”Well?” , and excuses Sheila for being “hysterical”. He’s trying to get Sheila to leave so he doesn’t have to tell her more details about his affair.
2) The Inspector points out Gerald’s hypocrisy in thinking that women should be “protected” when it’s men like him that took advantage of Daisy Renton - “one young woman who wasn’t” protected.
3) Gerald tells the others about his affair with Daisy. He defends the relationship - “You know, it wasn’t disgusting”, but Mrs Birling is shocked. She doesn’t understand the term “woman of the town” (prostitutes) and is upset to learn that Gerald’s been seeing them.
Theme - Men and Women:
If the Palace stalls are well known for being a place to pick up prostitutes, it’s likely Gerald went there to find prostitute himself.
Act 2 Part 2 (Daisy fell in love with Gerald out of gratitude)
1) Sheila suggests that Daisy loved Gerald as her “wonderful Fairy Prince”. Gerald doesn’t say he loved Daisy, but agrees that he “adored” being loved by her.
2) Gerald finished with Eva/Daisy just before he went on a business trip. Although he gave her some money, he effectively made her homeless.
3) Eva/Daisy went to a “seaside place” to remember their time together “just to make it last longer”. For Gerald, it was a summer fling, but for Eva/Daisy “there’d never be anything as good again”.
Act 2 Part 3 (Gerald is shamed and Sheila breaks off the engagement)
1) Gerald should have confessed all this months ago. Less than an hour ago he said he hadn’t seen Sheila much last summer because he was too busy at work. He Lied.
2) Sheila says they’d “have to start all over again, getting to know each other”.
3) Mr Birling defends Gerald, saying “you must understand that a lot of young men -“. He implies that lots of men have mistresses.
4) Gerald doesn’t ask Mr Birling for permission to leave. He asks the Inspector. This shows that the Inspector’s in control now, and not Mr Birling.
Theme - Learning about Life:
Although she’s dazzled by the ring at first, Sheila’s mature enough to realise the consequences of marrying a man who has lied to her.
Act 2 Part 4 (Sybil Birling is a hard not to crack)
1) The Inspector presents Sybil with the photograph. She pretends she doesn’t recognise it.
2) Even when the Inspector manages to press the story out of her, Sybil won’t accept responsibility for her actions.
3) Sybil can’t imagine herself in a similar situation to Eva/Daisy - she can’t empathise. Sybil is so obsessed with the social class and reputation that she can’t recognise connections between her life and anyone else’s.
Theme - Young and Old:
The Inspector increases the tension between the parents and children by using Sheila’s help to get Sybil to tell the whole story.
Act 2 Part 5 (Sybil has the last chance to help but she refused)
1) Mrs Birling persuaded the committee to turn down Eva/Daisy’s request because:
Eva/Daisy said her name was “Birling”. Mrs Birling thought it was a “piece of gross impertinence” (rude) for Eva/Daisy to dare to associate her own scandal with the Birling family name.
She changed her story. At first she said her husband had left her and she was pregnant, but later admitted she wasn’t married.
2) Priestly contrasts Sybil Birling’s attempts to preserve her reputation with Eva/Daisy’s moral standards. Eva/Daisy wouldn’t marry the father of her child and wouldn’t take any more money from him because:
He was a “youngster - silly and wild and drinking too much”.
The money he’d been giving to her was stolen.
He didn’t love her.
Theme - Social Class: Mrs Birling dismissed Eva/Daisy's story as "ridiculous" because she couldn't believe that a girl of "that sort" (working class) would ever refuse money. She based her refusal on class prejudice.
Act 2 Part 6 (Sybil won’t take responsibility)
1) After trying to resist all the Inspector’s questions, Mrs Birling realises that she can blame the father of the child instead of admitting her own guilt.
2) Sybil starts to tell everyone what she thinks should happen to punish this “young man”.
3) Sybil blames the father for getting involved with a girl from a different class. She assumes she wouldn’t know a man who drinks and steals.
4) She says that the Inspector should punish the man “very severely” before making him “confess in public his responsibility”.
