An Inspector Calls - Megan Hare

Front 1

Act one

Back 1

- Setting the scene and opening the play

- Me Birling makes a speech(Knighthood, Titanic, Gerald’s parents are wealthy)

- The Inspector arrives

- Eva was sacked from the Birling factory(Higher pay, Birling in denial, starts a chain of events)

Front 2

Act two

Back 2

- Sheila and Eva(Sheila’s deeply affected by the suicide, fired from Milwards, Sheila is ashamed)

- Gerald And Eva(Daisy Renton, affair, Sheila returns her wedding ring)

- Mrs Birling(Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation, Daisy called herself Mrs Birling, Mrs Birling blames the Father)

Front 3

Part three

Back 3

- Eric’s confession(Eric is the father, possible drunk rape, gave her stolen money)

- The Inspector leaves(Family are arguing, Inspector’s responsibility speech, “four or five different girls” theory, Birling and Gerald happy to get rid of the blame, Eric and Sheila are aware of their blame)

- The phone rings(Phone rings as they’re celebrating, it’s the police and a girl has just died at the infirmary after drinking disinfectant, the play ends with a police officer coming around to the house)

Front 4

Mr. Birling//Arthur Birling

Back 4

The patriarch of the Birling family. Arthur is a “rather portentous” man “in his fifties” who owns a profitable manufacturing company. His business success allows the Birlings to live in upper-middle-class comfort. Birling believes that capitalist principles of individual willpower and the protection of company profits are good for business and good for society. On the night the play takes place, he is hosting a dinner at which Gerald Croft and his daughter Sheila are guests of honor.

Front 5

Mrs. Birling // Sybil Birling

Back 5

The matriarch of the Birling family. Sybil is described in the play’s performance notes as “cold.” Though she is pleased her daughter Sheila is engaged to be married, she tends to ignore any potential discord in the family. Sybil serves on a charitable committee in the town, and busies herself with social events befitting a woman whose husband is a business success. She protects what she perceives to be the family’s good image and standing in the community.

Front 6

Sheila Birling

Back 6

Daughter of Arthur and Sybil. Sheila, “in her early twenties,” is engaged to Gerald and believes, at the start of the play, that her future lies bright before her. But knowledge of her role, and the family’s role, in Eva/Daisy’s death devastates Sheila, who wonders how her family can go on afterward, pretending simply that nothing has happened.

Front 7

Eric Birling

Back 7

Son of Arthur and Sybil, and older brother of Sheila. Eric works part-time at the family business and has a drinking problem that he hides, with some success, from his parents and sister. When it is revealed that Eric had a romantic relationship with a woman, resulting in a child born out of wedlock, the family must confront facts about Eric’s life, and about their own, which they had sought previously to ignore.

Front 8

Gerald Croft

Back 8

Fiancé to Sheila, and son of another prominent manufacturing family. Gerald is from a more socially-elevated family, and Arthur worries that Gerald’s parents believe he is making a “poor match” in marrying Sheila. Although the Inspector criticizes Gerald’s affair with Daisy, the Inspector notes that Gerald is perhaps the least culpable, and most morally upright, of all the characters.

Front 9

Inspector Goole I

Back 9

A representative, supposedly, of the local police force, sent to investigate Eva Smith/Daisy Renton’s suicide. The Inspector asks all the Birlings, and Gerald, questions about Eva/Daisy. It seems that the Inspector knows the answer to everything he asks, but wants the family to admit to various instances of wrongdoing. At the close of the play, the characters wonder aloud whether the Inspector is actually a policeman, and the constabulary confirms that no such man serves on the force. But this does not explain why the Inspector, who seems to have socialist sympathies, would have come to the house, or how he could have known so much about Eva/Daisy and the Birlings.

Front 10

Generational Differences

Back 10

The younger generations are more accepting of socialist ideologies, Sheila and Eric accept their part in Eva’s death and feel guilty and responsible. The older generation, Mr Birling and Mrs Birling, and in many ways Gerald Croft, strongly believe in capitalism and caring only for themselves. The parents are unable to admit responsibility.

Front 11

Responsibility//justice

Back 11

In An Inspector Calls, the central theme is responsibility. Priestley is interested in our personal responsibility for our own actions and our collective responsibility to society, to take care of one another. Throughout the play, Priestley explores the effect of class, age and sex on people's attitudes to responsibility, and shows how prejudice can prevent people from acting responsibly.

Front 12

Gender inequality

Back 12

In the play, all the women are portrayed as delicate characters- particularly Sheila who the men protect from many things including that Eva Smith committed suicide. Set in 1912, the woman in the play were seen as possessions to their husband and did not work or have careers due to the patriarchal society. Mrs Birling was also protected from outside affairs, such as the knowledge that many upper class men attended prostitute bars (the ‘stalls bar’) and that her son drank excessively. These leads to conflict within the family.

Front 13

Which characters are socialists?

Back 13

Sheila. Eric.

Front 14

Which characters are capitalists?

Back 14

Mrs Birling. Mr Birling. Gerald.

Front 15

What’s the definition of capitalism?

Back 15

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Front 16

What is the definition of socialism?

Back 16

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.