Key Themes

Key Moments:

• Eva Smith dies because no one takes responsibility for their actions against her.
• Eric and Sheila develop a sense of responsibility for their actions against her. They encourage their family to accept responsibility and change their treatment of others.
• Mr and Mrs Birling do not take any responsibility for their actions and are made to look more foolish by the end.
• Gerald feels guilty briefly in Act Two but quickly reverts back to his old ways in Act Three.

 Key Context

• After the second world war, people starting taking more notice for the conditions of the poor.
• The Labour party, which Priestley co-founded, came to power immediately after the war.
• The NHS was created to help improve the conditions for the poor.
• Both the upper classes and lower classes started becoming more socially responsible because of schemes such as rationing. This created a sense of sharing and co-operation.
• During the war, the upper, middle and lower classes with at equal risk of being bombed.

Key Quotes:

• Act 1: “I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?” - Mr Birling
• Act 1: "as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense". - Mr Birling
• Act 1: "You couldn't have done anything else" - Gerald 
• Act 1: "But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people" - Sheila
• Act 2: "I did nothing I'm ashamed of" - Mrs Birling
• Act 2: "You mustn't try to build up a wall between us and that girl" - Sheila 
• Act 2: "(massively) Public men [...] have responsibilities as well as privileges" - Inspector 
• Act 3: "You killed her [...] and your own grandchild" and "You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all" - Eric
• Act 3: "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish" - Inspector
• Act 3: "Everything's all right now Sheila" - Gerald 

Eva Smith

Eva Smith went through different experiences in the last stages of her life as a lower and middle class woman. Priestley does this to show the audience the treatment that the lower classes received from the upper classes before the Great War and WW2.

Each character's treatment of her deteriorated her position further and lead to her eventual death.

• Mr Birling: sacked an undeserving factory worker for demanding fair wages.
• Sheila: influenced her loss of job at Milward's for looking happy. A shop worker is underserving of happiness and beauty.
• Gerald: seduced an effectively homeless woman to become his mistress and then abandoned her when he no longer wanted her. She was undeserving of association with him.
• Eric: ***** a helpless woman and abandoned her as a pregnant woman. She was undeserving of a respected family role.
• Mrs Birling: showed no sympathy for a lonely pregnant woman because children out of wedlock was against her beliefs. She was not a "deserving case" for sympathy or charity.

Key Quotes

• Act 1:  (rising. The others rise)- Mrs Birling is a social superior to everyone except Gerald who rises out of respect.
• Act 1: "I refused of course" - Mr Birling
• Act 1: “Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices.” - Eric
• Act 1: "But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people" - Sheila 
• Act 1: "It didn't seem to be anything very terrible at the time" - Sheila
• Act  2: “Girls of that class –“ - Mrs Birling
• Act 2: "I used my influence to have it refused" - Mrs Birling
• Act 2:"As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!"- Mrs Birling
• Act 2: “I hate those hard-eyed dough-faced women” - Gerald
• Act 2: “All she wanted was to talk – a little friendliness – and I gathered that Joe Meggarty’s advances had left her rather shaken”. - Gerald
• Act 2: “I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty and warm-hearted – and intensely grateful” - Gerald
• Act 3: “I threatened to make a row.” - Eric
• Act 3: "After all, it is better to ask for the earth than to take it" - Inspector
• Act 3: "Few friends, lonely, half-starved"- Inspector

Key Points:

• Sheila and Eric's response to Eva's death was compassionnate and sympathetic. Later, they also feel guilty and accept responsibility as well as show a resolution to change their ways.
• Mr and Mrs Birling respond with apathy and are unrepentant. They relax to realise that Inspector Goole was not a real inspector and revert back to their previous contentment.

Older Generation

• They are stubbornly fixed to their beliefs.
• Mr Birling refuses to learn and accept responsibility and Mrs Birling fails to see the obvious about herself and her children.
• The older generation perceives the younger generation as foolish due to their easily "impressionable" minds and openness to change.

Younger Generation

• Accept their mistakes and show ability to change, offering the chance of a brighter future.

Priestley's Intention: he shows his hope in the youth's ability to change for the better.

Key Quotes:

• Act 1: “You’ve a lot to learn yet” - Mr Birling
• Act 1: “You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.” - Mrs Birling 
• Act 1:“What about war?” - Eric
• Act 1:“Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices” - Eric
• Act 2: "I know I'm to blame" - Sheila 
• Act 2: "They're more impressionable" - Inspector
• Act 2: "You seem to have made a great impression on this child, Inspector" - Mrs Birling
• Act 2: "Over excited", "over-tired" and "he's only a boy"- Mrs Birling
• Act 2: "I don't think so" - Gerald to Mrs Birling when she suggests they are nearly finished. 
• Act 3:"Just remember your position young man" - Mr Birling
• Act 3: "The famous younger generation who know it all" - Mr Birling
• Act 3: "Just be quiet so your father can decide what we ought to do" - Mrs Birling
• Act 3: "The way you children talk" - Mrs Birling
• Act 3: "You don't seem to have learnt anything" - Sheila
• Act 3: "It's you two who are childish- trying not to face the facts" - Sheila
• Act 3: "You're just beginning to pretend all over again" - Sheila

Character Perceptions

• Mr Birling and Gerald: have stereotypical views of women as sensitive and in need of protection. They suggest that all women think in the same way.
• Gerald: has a superficial view of women. Thinks of them as ornaments.
• Mrs Birling is as cruel as the men due to her old fashioned beliefs about the role of women. She acts against Eva Smith as a single mother and is seen as apathetic to her own gender.
• Mrs Birling teaches Sheila that women have to support their husbands unconditionally.
• Eva Smith represents post-war women who were independent and fought for their own rights and those of others. e.g. protesting for fair wages.

Context

• During the war, many women had to step into men's jobs and roles to keep the country running after they left to fight. Men were forced to acknowledge that women were just as capable as them.
• Women found independence through working and earning money.
• However, some men (represented by Mr Birling) chose to stick to the past and refused to believe in women's roles and capabilities.

Key Quotes:

• Act 1: (Sheila) very pleased with life and rather excited. - Stage Directions
• Act 1: “clothes mean something quite different to a woman...a sort of sign or token of their self-respect” - Mr Birling
• Act 1: “You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.” - Mrs Birling
• Act 1: "Sheila and I had better go to the drawing room and leave you men-" - Mrs Birling
• Act 1: "But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people" - Sheila
• Act 1: "It would do us all a bit of good it we [...] put ourselves in the place of these young women" - Inspector 
• Act 2: "He means that I'm getting hysterical now" - Sheila to Inspector about Gerald
• Act 2:"As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!"  - Mrs Birling
• Act 2: "It's bound to be unpleasant and disturbing" - Gerald
• Act 2: "And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?" - Inspector
• Act 2: "Got him out of the way" - Gerald being heroic for Daisy Renton
• Act 2: She was young and pretty and warm-hearted – and intensely grateful”. - Gerald
• Act 3: “You refused her even the pitiable little bit of organised charity you had in your power to grant her.”- Inspector
• Act 3: "Everything's all right now Sheila" - Gerald