The Inspectors Calls Essay Example for Free

The Inspectors Calls Essay Explore how effectively Priestly delivers his moral message by analysing the roles of the inspector and Mr Birling An Egalitarian would believe that everyone should be equal, either financially or socially. An Egalitarian would want the treatment of everybody to be positive, fair and the same hence we are members of one body they believe there should be no segregation for who they are. These are views of the inspector. He cares about the working middle class of society because of the way he feels theyre being treated in life. A perfect example of this is Eva Smith. Shes a working class woman that struggles and work, to try and get a decent lifestyle compared to the upper class capitalists. Capitalist views are basically about money, business, profit, their financial needs and themselves. They are very self-cantered arrogant. Just like Mr Birling. The Capitalist views are obviously put into practise in him and his family. For one, Mr Birling cares very much about his business and money. This is shown by the situation with Eva Smith and his employers. He refuses to give a small pay rise. They wanted the rates raised so that they could average about twenty-five shillings a week. I refused, of course. This results to Mr Birling taking the first sinful act towards Eva smith. Unlike Mr Birling his old fashioned views, the inspector shows that he cares about the working class by investing Eva Smiths case and making everyone of the Birling family feel bad to see what they did wrong. He keeps on implying what they did wrong how they affected Eva but youre partly to blame. just as your father is, (harshly) Yes. But you cant. its too late. This represents what their beliefs are and how it affects the working class. Because of Mr Billings selfishness profiting thoughts, he sacks Eva. Id agreed to this demand for a new rate wed have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs So I refused. and if they didnt like those rates, they could go work somewhere else He affects her by putting her out of a job, earning no money while he doesnt think twice about her after that and goes about his business, She had a lot to say far too much -so she had to go unlike the inspector and his views. He wants to achieve recognition of the way the working class are being treated. When the word Goole comes to mind, it can mean different function and meanings. Goole sounds as if it was mysterious ghostly characteristics, sound to the word. It can also sound as if it was said with authority. That could represent a judge, a truthful person and it actually comes into play with the inspector. He tells makes the truth come out, as if he serves justice to Eva Smith and the working class. He makes retribution to Eva and slightly revengeful towards the Birling family on the behalf of Eva Smith. With the inspector as well, he can be shown as a fantasy character. He is there with the family, asking questions about something that hasnt even happened yet, but when Gerald goes out and asks about him outside. I met a police sergeantthere wasnt any Inspector Goole or anybody like him on the force. They havent even heard of the inspector. He doesnt exist. This could represent an illusion. The Inspector is shown in the play to be final, significant, decisive and strong minded. He knows what hes doing. Hes intelligent, he speaks when its necessary and in addition he is in control, for instance, he shows the photograph of Eva Smith to the person he is referring to. Not anybody else (INSPECTOR takes a photograph, about postcard size, out of his pocket and goes to BIRLING. Both GERALD and ERIC rise to have a look at the photograph, but the INSPECTOR interposes himself between them and the photograph.) Hes not the head of the house hold or an upper class figure, but he stays in control unlike Mr Birling. Mr Birling is narrow minded nonsensical, Gibberish within form of lectures. He talks about historical periods/ events which happened the titanic said that it will be unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable but in fact, what he said was incorrect. The Titanic actually did sink. Priestly presents these two characters to reflect whats happening in his society in that time. Mr Birling is obviously portrayed to be the higher class (with little things such as having a butler, being friends with people with a higher social status and playing golf) Priestly makes them come across as a self centered, cold hearted, nonsensical man. This portrays what he thinks about the upper class where as The Inspector is caring but stern, purposeful as well, he represents the middle working class. Priestly portrays The Inspector as if he was a messenger, to deliver his ward to the upper class society. He wanted to make the audience see what was happening and the effect/consequences of the strong class divisions and to give his opinion of what he thought of the divisions. Mr Birling is revealed to be inconsiderate, stuck up character. You can see this by what he says Nothing to do with you run alongto Sheila and to the inspectorI dont like your tone (rather angrily impatiently and sharply). All of these show his emotions personality because hes a capitalist, he is used to luxury and hes grown up to look down on the lower class. The stage directions gives us, the readers a visual image of what Mr Birlings doing whether its the way he talks, walks, facial expression, body language or style. Mr Birling body language seems to be stiff, enclosed just by how he is described in the text by the use of language for his character. She looks attentive just after Mr Birling mentions this concerns you too compared to him, The Inspector is a purposeful, stern observing. He looks at everybody and judges everyone by looking hard at each person, as if he was scanning the persons database of personality history. He is purposeful Creates at once an impression of a m assiveness, solidity purposefulness. Priestly wants us to feel different emotions towards them. He wants us to make us see where they are coming from, what their problems are to feel how other people reacts with them e.g. Sheila. Sheila is Mr Birlings daughter even though she added another situation/sin on top of all thats been happening to Eva, unlike the others, she shows remorse when she says: no, not really, it was my own fault. she looks at it closely, recognises it [the picture of Eva] with a little cry and then runs out. Sheila is different to the others because she is the only one that shows remorse guilt and confesses that it was her own fault. Overall he wants the audience to feel each characters personality, attitude, and their way of seeing thing. if the reader gets that, they will see his message. At first the mood of the house is calm, formal, subtle joyful because they are celebrating the engagement. Everything is going according to plan; they have all had a good dinner, are celebrating a special occasion are quite pleased with themselves. The room is bright and nothing rude has been said but, when the inspector comes in, the whole atmosphere and mood changes goes the opposite. Its starts quite dark, dull, definitely serious. He creates a heavy impression by just being himself. Someone with authority or someone to be with the law is always not good, so when that someone visits, people will start to feel uncomfortable and slightly distressed. The topics changes to Eva. The inspector jumps right to the point saying (two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmaryshed swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, that girl being Eva. He tells the truth and he says it how it is. Because the family are upper class, they would not expect this behaviour, they are not used to anybody speaking to them in that manner, so the react shocked and offended. Eventually the celebration party turns into a confession meeting. After everything has happened in act one, all the family sins come out and all are dreading about whats going to happen next. Mr Birling has the control of the household at the start. You would expect this because hes the man/head of the family (father husband), he earns the highest salary in the family, hes a man he is an honourable man (seen by his family and friends) because of his wealth, business social status. Everyone pays attention to him. Hes also respected by his family, but when the inspector comes in, the authority instantly flips over to the inspector because he is a representative of the police and the law ( the Inspector needs not to be a big man bit he creates at once on impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness ). When people sees this they will always set the person below the authority figure, in this case, Mr Birling is the underdog and the inspector comes out on top. They would want to know why he is there, what does he want to know and try to get him away as soon as possible. Even Mr Birling abides and obeys him as any other person in the room. This brings down his control level. The inspector also holds control by little thing he does for example: He only shows the photograph between himself and Mr Birling. Everybody else wants to see it but he refuses and does this for a reason, To show an act of authority. Another act is when he lets each character admit their sins towards Eva Smith, but not at once. He controls them by asking questions they unravel themselves, there story they realize they are wrong, to a certain extent he has the ability to make Sheila breakdown (she almost breaks down, but just controls herself)and so he has a play of their emotions Just towards the end of act 1. Mr and Mrs Birling contribute to Evas death by having a large negative impact on the reasons why. Mr Birling sacked Eva for going on strike and standing up for her opinions for a little pay rise. Mr Birling escalates the situation into a bigger thing then it is. It makes him do drastic things. This is the same with Mrs Birling. Both of them refuse anything to do with Eva her death. They define responsibility whatsoever with her. They are more cold-hearted, uncaring than Eric and Sheila. Eric and Sheila show sympathy and remorse, for instance, Sheila and Eric show remorse devastation when they recognise her from the picture or her name/s (Eva Smith/Daisy Renton) ,(QUOTE). They totally understand and take responsibility for what they did wrong. Eric Confesses on what happened with him and Eva he turns out to be the most honest he has the most positive impact then others (quote). Mr Mrs Birling thinks that the investigation that the inspector carries out is inappropriate (quote). Theyre not used to being questioned, let alone with an inspector. Sheila doesnt really act shocked but because shes so isolated and protected she has become young, naive, innocent, vulnerable and blind to the real society and she doesnt see the consequences of the actions that she does, she doesnt see the affects, therefore she is not used to being involved in theses conversations, let alone an investigation. Eric, however, takes it as a shock when he realises the situation and how Eva felt about him in their relationship that they had. Sheila and Eric feel some sort of indication of remorse regret by being worried and not refusing the blame compared to Mr and Mrs Birling who doesnt show any respect or guilt. They are absolutely fixed on theyre not responsible for it. They do not show any signs of that. The audience are expected to feel negative emotions and thoughts towards Mr Mrs Birling because by them not caring about their contributions towards others. Mr Birling has a snobbish personality and feels like he has got the right to look down on everybody and disrespect them. towards Mrs Birling, I think a negative feeling to her would be expected. She too, is as bad as Mr Birling, because she chose not to help Eva smith because of her pride and shame. Both of them represent the upper class and they are represented as bad. For Sheila, Eric and Gerald, the audience will have a feeling of sympathy because they realised what they did wrong and they took responsibility. I think the audience feel changed by the ending result because everything is unravelled and they all eventually realise what they have done. The hint of mystery i.e. the inspector and the actual situation with Eva themselves gives a mysterious edge to it As a reader I feel towards Eva, a sad, sympathetic feeling towards her because if back in time, women were being treated like that, its not pleasant although towards Eric and Gerald I feel that there is hope, hope that they dont become like Mr Birling. They actually show a caring side to Eva. Sheila, I thought she was a spoilt young woman and overprotected by her parents but now she has had reality check. I like her better than I did before.