1) The Inspector questions the Birling family and their guest Gerald about their interactions with a woman named Eva Smith who recently committed suicide. 2) Through his questioning, it is revealed that each family member contributed to Eva's downward spiral - Arthur fired her, Sheila got her fired from a department store, Gerald had an affair with her and cut her off, Sybil denied her charity assistance when she was pregnant and destitute, and Eric had gotten her pregnant. 3) The Inspector's questioning is meant to show the family that their individual actions have wider consequences and that they are responsible for one another in society.

1. An Inspector Calls
By J. B. Priestley
Kaushal Desai
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Prof. Kaushal Desai 1

2. John Boynton Priestley
• He was an English novelist, playwright,
scriptwriter, social commentator,
and broadcaster.
oOther plays
 Dangerous Corner (1932)
 Laburnum Grove (1933)
 Eden End (1934)
 Cornelius (1935)
 Time and the Conways (1937)
 I Have Been Here Before (1937)
 When We Are Married (1938)
Prof. Kaushal Desai 2

3. Themes of The Play
Themes
Class
Youth & Age
Responsibility
and Avoiding
It
Cause &
Effect
Time
The
Supernatural
Social Duty
Prof. Kaushal Desai 3

4. Theme: Social Responsibility
• J.B Priestley was a socialist and one of the
big questions he is asking his audience is
‘How should society be organised?’
• He is offering us a choice between
socialism in which the rich are compelled
to share their wealth, or through capitalism
where you are allowed to keep more of
your money.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 4

5. Theme: Social Responsibility
• The two different views of society are represented by
Birling and the Inspector.
• The Inspector tells Birling that: “We are responsible
for each other. And I tell you that the time will
soon come when, if men will not learn that
lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood
and anguish.”
• Birling tells his family that everyone is on their own,
“A man has to make his own way – has to look
after himself.” p.9
• The relationship between the working class and the
rich is the way that Priestley explores the struggle
between socialism and capitalism.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 5

6. Theme: Social Responsibility
• Eva Smith is symbolic of the way that all workers
are treated. The Inspector tells Eric that he used
Eva like “an animal, a thing, not a person.” p.56
• The idea of the play is what happens to Eva
Smith represents what happens to all poor
workers.
• In his final speech the Inspector makes that
obvious (p.56) “One Eva Smith has gone - but
there are millions and millions and millions of Eva
Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their
lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and
chance of happiness, all intertwined with our
lives, and what we think and say and do.”
Prof. Kaushal Desai 6

7. Theme: Time
Remember the play has two time
frames that you have to
remember.
1. It is set in 1912 – a time
before the horror of World
War One.
2. BUT it was written in the
Second World War in 1945.
Priestley is contrasting a very
innocent time with a time of
horror, bombing and mass
killing.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 7

8. Theme: Time
• Priestley was really interested in different theories about time and
was very interested in a thinker called J.W Dunne. Dunne wrote a
book suggesting that the same things might be happening
simultaneously all the time.
• He believed that people who were specially trained could see
backwards and forwards in time. Priestley thought that this might
mean you could be warned by visitors from the future about how to
behave.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 8

9. Theme: Time
• However that wasn’t the only odd belief that
Priestley had.
• He also liked the ideas of a mystic called
Ouspensky who pioneered a theory called
‘eternal recurrence’.
• His idea was that you’d live your life over and
over until you’d made all of the right choices.
This means that you’d get the chance to avoid
mistakes you’d made before.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 9

10. Theme: Responsibility and Avoiding It
• This play also give highlights on how you are living in the
world of determination and how will your risk are.
• Each of the characters here have their responsibly but to
avoiding the task and situation they are making excuses
and throwing their decisions on others.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 10

11. Characters
Prof. Kaushal Desai 11
Arthur
Birling
Sybil
Birling
Sheila
Birling
Eric
Birling
Birling Family

12. Other Characters
Inspector
Goole
Gerald
Croft
Edna
Eva
Smith
Daisy
Renton
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13. Details about Characters
 Arthur Birling
• Husband of Sybil, father of Sheila and Eric.
Priestley describes him as a "heavy-looking man"
in his mid-fifties, with easy manners but "rather
provincial in his speech.
• Former Lord-Mayor of Brumley and as such he is
full of his own self-importance “I was an alderman
for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago.”
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14. Arthur Birling
• As a local magistrate he sees himself as being
above the law. He thinks he can get away with
things.
• In Act One he says he know the Chief Constable
– “we play golf together sometimes” p.16
• Look at his reaction when he thinks they’ve
rumbled the Inspector…
• At the end of the play he is glad to have avoided
a public scandal.
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15. Arthur Birling
• He is totally unaware of the effects of his actions
on other people.
• He doesn’t care that there are low wages for
workers. He celebrates ripping off his workers
and customers “lower costs and higher prices”
p.4
• He is totally unrealistic about the future.
• His speech about the Titanic calls it “unsinkable,
absolutely unsinkable”. P.7
• He wrongly doesn’t think there will be a war –
“There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid
progress everywhere.” p.7
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16. Sybil Birling
• Married to Arthur. Mother of Sheila and Eric. Priestley has
her "about fifty, a rather cold woman," and significantly her
husband's "social superior." Sybil is, like her husband, a
woman of some public influence, sitting on charity
organizations and having been married two years ago to
the Lord Mayor.
• She is an icily impressive woman, arguably the only one
of all the Birlings to almost completely resist the
Inspector's attempts to make her realize her
responsibilities.
• She is also a hypocrite and judges lower classes more
harshly than her own family.
• She calls (in a moment of dramatic irony) her own son a
‘drunken young idler’.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 16

17. Sheila Birling
• Engaged to be married to Gerald. Daughter of
Arthur Birling and Sybil Birling, and sister of Eric.
Priestley describes her as "a pretty girl in her
early twenties, very pleased with life and rather
excited," which is precisely how she comes
across in the first act of the play.
• Sheila is the character who works out the tragedy
of Eva Smith most quickly.
• When she admits that she was at fault for having
Eva fired from Milwards. She asks the Inspector
if “I’m really responsible?” p.23
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18. Sheila Birling
• She also works out that Gerald has been up to no
good. “I expect you’ve done things you’re
ashamed of too.” p.23
• Sheila is sometimes called ‘the conscience’ of the
play, as she is one most troubled by Eva’s story.
• She appeals for the others to help the inspector.
P.30
• At the end of the play she doesn’t seem ready to
take Gerald back. “No. Not yet. It’s too soon. I
must think.”
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19. Eric Birling
• Son of Arthur and Sybil Birling. Brother of Sheila
Birling. Eric is in his "early twenties, not quite at
ease, half shy, half assertive" and, we discover
very early in the play, has a drinking problem.
• He has been drinking steadily for almost two
years. He works at Birling and Company, and his
father, we presume, is his boss. He is quite naive,
in no way as worldly or as cunning as Gerald
Croft.
• By the end of the play, like his sister, Eric
becomes aware of his own responsibilities.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 19

20. Inspector Goole
• The Inspector "need not be a big man, but he creates at
once an impression of massiveness, solidity and
purposefulness." He is in his fifties, and he is dressed in a
plain dark suit.
• Priestley describes him as speaking "carefully, weightily ...
and he has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the
person he addresses before he speaks."
• He initially seems to be an ordinary Brumley police
inspector, but (as his name might suggest) comes to
seem something more ominous--perhaps even a
supernatural being.
• The precise nature of his character is left ambiguous by
Priestley, and it can be interpreted in various ways.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 20

21. Inspector Goole
• Goole always tells it like it is and advances the
political philosophy of the play.
• Look at dialogue in Act Two when he puts forward the
idea that the rich should care for the poor. “Public
men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as
privileges.” p.41
• The mystery of the Inspector is heightened by his
name – ‘Goole’. This technique is called
nomenclature.
• When he disappears we are left with the question of
who he was.
• Is he a vision from the past or future?
• In he representative of all of our consciences?
Prof. Kaushal Desai 21

22. Gerald Croft
• Engaged to be married to Sheila. His parents, Sir
George and Lady Croft, are above the Birlings
socially, and it seems his mother disapproves of
his engagement to Sheila. He is, Priestley says,
"an attractive chap about thirty... very much the
easy well-bred young-man-about-town."
• He works for his father's company, Crofts Limited,
which seems to be both bigger and older than
Birling and Company.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 22

23. Gerald Croft
• He is also quite weak and willing to do the easy thing.
Look at how he sucks up to Birling – “I believe you’re right
Sir’ p.6, but also on page 15 and 17.
• He is also a liar, he tells Sheila that he has been very
busy at work when he has been having an affair.
• In the end he is very much concerned with his reputation
above everything else.
• Look at his relief when he finds out the hospital has not
got the body of a suicide victim.
• He believes that the most important thing is if the
Inspector is a fake as “that makes all the difference.” p.63
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24. Edna
• "The parlour maid." Her name is very
similar to "Eva," and her presence onstage
is a timely reminder of the presence of the
lower classes, whom families like the
Birlings unthinkingly keep in thrall.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 24

25. Eva Smith
• A girl who the Inspector claims worked for Birling and was
fired, before working for Milwards and then being
dismissed.
• She subsequently had relationships with Gerald Croft and
then Eric Birling (by whom she became pregnant).
• Finally she turned to Mrs. Birling's charitable committeee
for help, but she committed suicide two hours before the
time of the beginning of the play; she drank strong
disinfectant.
• It is possible, though, that the story is not quite true and
that she never really existed as one person. Gerald Croft's
suggestion that there wasmore than one girl involved in
the Inspector's narrative could be more accurate.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 25

26. Daisy Renton
• A name that Eva Smith assumes.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 26

27. Plot
• An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J.
B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union
and in 1946 in the UK. It is one of Priestley's best known
works for the stage, and is considered to be one of the
classics of mid20th century English theatre.
• The play is a three act drama, which takes place on a
single night in April 1912, focusing on the prosperous
upper middleclass Birling family, who live in a comfortable
home in the fictional town of Brumley, "an industrial city
in the north Midlands".
(wiki)
Prof. Kaushal Desai 27

28. Plot
• Arthur Birling a wealthy mill owner and local politician and
his family are celebrating the engagement of daughter
Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of one of Birling's
competitors, Croft Limited. In attendance are Arthur's wife
Sybil and their adult children Sheila and Eric.
• Eric, the younger, has a drinking problem that is discreetly
ignored. After dinner, Arthur speaks about the importance
of self-reliance. He talks about his impending knighthood
and about how "a man has to look after himself and his
own."
Prof. Kaushal Desai 28

29. Plot
• Inspector Goole arrives immediately, interrupting the
evening and explaining that a woman called Eva Smith
has killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant. He
implies that she has left a diary naming names, including
members of the Birling family.
• Goole produces a photograph of Eva and shows it to
Arthur, who acknowledges that she worked in one of his
mills. He admits that he dismissed her from Birling & Co.
18 months ago for her involvement in an abortive workers'
strike. He denies responsibility for her death.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 29

30. Plot
• Sheila enters the room and is drawn into the discussion.
After prompting from Goole, she admits to recognising
Eva as well. She confesses that Eva served her in a
department store, Milwards, and Sheila contrived to have
her fired for an imagined slight. She admits that Eva's
behaviour had been blameless and that the firing was
motivated solely by Sheila's jealousy and spite towards a
pretty workingclass woman.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 30

31. Plot
• Sybil enters the room and Goole continues his
interrogation, revealing that Eva was also known as Daisy
Renton. Gerald starts at the mention of the name and
Sheila becomes suspicious.
• Gerald admits that he met a woman by that name in the
Palace Bar. He gave her money and arranged to see her
again. Goole reveals that Gerald had installed Eva as his
mistress, and gave her money and promises of continued
support before ending the relationship. Arthur and Sybil
are horrified.
• As an ashamed Gerald exits the room, Sheila
acknowledges his nature and credits him for speaking
truthfully but also signals that their engagement is over by
handing the ring, that Gerald had bought for her, back to
him.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 31

32. Plot
• Goole identifies Sybil as the head of a women's charity to which
Eva had turned for help. Despite Sybil's haughty responses, she
eventually admits that Eva, pregnant and destitute, had asked the
committee for financial aid. Sybil had convinced the committee
that the girl was a liar and that her application should be denied.
• Despite vigorous cross-examination from Goole, Sybil denies any
wrongdoing. Sheila begs her mother not to continue, but Goole
plays his final card, making Sybil declare that the "drunken young
man" who had made Eva pregnant should give a "public
confession, accepting all the blame". Eric enters the room, and
after brief questioning from Goole, he breaks down, admitting that
he drunkenly slept with Eva before meeting up with her several
times later and then stole £50 (~ £1570 in December 2016)[5]from
his father's business to help her when she became pregnant.
Arthur and Sybil are upset by this, and the evening dissolves into
angry recriminations.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 32

33. Plot
• The implication resulting from Goole's questioning is that
each of the people there that evening had contributed to
Eva's despondency and suicide.
• He reminds the Birlings that actions have consequences,
and that all people are intertwined in one society, saying,
"If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it
in fire and blood and anguish", alluding to the impending
World War. Goole then leaves.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 33

34. Plot
• Gerald returns, telling the family that there may be no
"Inspector Goole" on the police force. Arthur makes a call to
the Chief Constable, who confirms this. Gerald points out that
as Goole was lying about being a policeman, there may be no
dead girl.
• Placing a second call to the local infirmary, Gerald determines
that no recent cases of suicide have been reported. The elder
Birlings and Gerald celebrate, with Arthur dismissing the
evening's events as "moonshine" and "bluffing". The younger
Birlings, however, still realise the error of their ways and
promise to change. Gerald is keen to resume his engagement
to Sheila, but she is reluctant, since he still admitted to having
had an affair.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 34

35. Plot
• The play ends abruptly with a telephone call, taken by
Arthur, who reports that a young woman has died, a
suspected case of suicide by disinfectant, and that the
local police are on their way to question the Birlings.
• The true identity of Goole is never explained, but it is clear
that the family's confessions over the course of the
evening are true, and that they will be disgraced publicly
when news of their involvement in Eva's demise is
revealed.
Prof. Kaushal Desai 35

36. Questions to think about…
1. What do you understand by this quote, “If man will not
learn that lesson then he will be taught it in fire and
blood and anguish.”
2. Is this the ending of the play?
3. Who is the Inspector Goole really is?
4. Is there any identity about death person who suicide?
5. How the situation is playing the role and how will reader
connect the things were going in the play?
6. How reader’s approach is after reading this play?
Prof. Kaushal Desai 36

37. Work Citation
• Priestley, J B. An Inspector Calls. Moscow, Soviet Union,
1945.
• —. An Inspector Calls-From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. n.d.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Priestley>.
•
Prof. Kaushal Desai 37

38. Thank you….
kaushaldesai123@gmail.com
Prof. Kaushal Desai 38