The effect of the inspector

The effect of the inspector 

Mr Birling

Mrs birling

Shelia

Eric

Gerald

The overall effect on the characters

At the beginning of the play Mr birling seems like a nice guy even though he may have strong opinions however throughout the play the inspector angers him which brings out his true colours

“if you don’t come down hard on some people they’d be asking for the earth”

Mrs birling is intimidated by the inspector because surprisingly the fact she is rich doesn’t intimidate him

“I beg your pardon!”

Shelia is transformed from the inspector’s behaviour. She turns from a materialistic, naïve girl into an opinionated confident young woman

“And I’m not a child don’t forget that”

“oh-Gerald-you’ve got it-is it the one you wanted me to have?”

Just like Shelia Eric transforms from a reckless broken boy into a responsible young man who realises that life isn’t run by how much money a person has

Gerald realises how his actions touch other people and affect their lives however he doesn’t change much.

Attitude towards the inspector 

At the beginning of the play even though Mr birling is friendly towards the inspector their opinions clash at once. And once Mr birling realises he can’t scare the inspector with money he gets angry and scared.

Mrs Birling also tries to scare inspector with her power and money but when that doesn’t work she also gets very intimidated and angry. She doesn’t like being told that her actions were wrong and this makes her not want to take the inspectors advice.

At the beginning Sheila is very fragile after talking with the inspector but after a while she picks herself up and sees the bigger picture and stops feeling sorry for herself. She realises how wrong her parents are and she sees everything especially life in…