This sounds a little like 'ghoul', which suggests that the Inspector is other-worldlly and ghostly, and no one ever finds out who he really is.
Eva's body does not actually arrive in hospital until he has left the Birling house, which makes him almost seem as if he may be a time traveller.
All the way through the play the Inspector seems to already know many things, which further reinforces the idea that he is other-wordly, with seemingly other-worldly knowledge.
In a film adaptation of this play, the Inspector just mysteriously disappears from a chair-his identity evidently isn't all that important if Priestley chose not to reveal it-it is his role in the play that was more important.
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He influences the next generation
"They're more impressionable."
This may have negative connotations:
Eric and Sheila could be getting described as naive, gullible and ignorant, which reflects their parents' attitudes towards them:
Birling to Eric: "You've a lot to learn yet." This is ironic, and foreshadows the meaning of the Inspector's arrival-he is here to teach them.
Positve connotations:
The younger generations are not blinded by opportunities of 'knighthood'-they can face their mistakes and accept blame. They can also change, unlike the stubborn, older generation.
Mrs Birling remains the most stubborn; not once hesitating, and unflinchingly shoves the blame for Eva's death onto Eric.
This links back to the beginning; Birling "Silly little war scares."-dramatic irony, thinking he is right, when just two years after the time the play is set, world war one erupts.
Birling and his wife represent the cold, harsh society of pre-world war, where self-preservation is their first priority.
The Inspector is teaching the audience not to return to the harsh society with sharp divisions between classes, that the Birlings represent.
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