Characters =

Sybil Birling : Lyuba

Eric Birling : Jackie
Arthur Birling : Stefano
Gerald Croft : Nadia
Sheila Birling : Carlotta
Inspector Goole: Andre
Edna and narrator: Lu
• • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • •
Arthur Birling
He’s a prosperous factory owner (businessman), his first
priority is to make money & get power! He strongly
believes that “a man has to make his own way”. He’s
looking forward to receiving a knighthood.
He refuses to accept any responsibility for Eva’s death.
Sybil Birling
Wants to stick to the rules, concerned about manners (tells
what the others shall do or not). She is only interested in
the family-reputation.
She’s very conservative, old-fashioned, selfish, cold-
hearted, snobbish& egoistic.
Sheila
at the begin she’s snobbish, egoistic& self-confident, but in
the end she thinks more clearly, critical, accepts criticism,
nice, honest& responsible: she likes to change herself and
feels sorry for what she had done. Her readiness to learn
from experience is in a great contrast to her parents.
Eric
Start: makes jokes, behaves silly, lives an easy-going live,
and doesn’t care about anything. He behaves half shy and
half assertive (anmassend).
End: starts thinking, accepts his guilt, might stop drinking
that much.
Gerald Croft
Is good-looking, rich& clever: man about town! He’s
engaged to Sheila and also son of an industrial.
He doesn’t change lot during the story; stays a capitalist
(just interested in money& profit). He seems to agree
completely with Mr. Birling, quite the same attitude of live.
Inspector Goole
(Goole= Geist; spirit in death) isn’t a real inspector; more
something like god because he makes them all fell guilty.
His manners are quite extraordinary, rude& assertive. One
of the main reasons to visit the Birling family is to make
them realise, what responsibilities they have& that their
behaviour has an influence on others (opposite to Mr.
Birling’s moral).
Eva Smith
sprechender Name als Hinweis auf die Vertreterin der
Mitmenschen schlechthin..

Short summary
This story takes place in 1912, right before the 1st World
War in Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands
(fictive town-> associations to other real industrial towns,
like e.g. Bradford, Birmingham or Burnley). The B. family
is celebrating Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft, when
inspector Goole arrives and tells about a girl’s (Eva Smith)
suicide. After lots of questions, it turns out that they are
all, more or less responsible for this tragically death.
After the inspector left they find out that he wasn’t a real
inspector and that no girl died on the way to the Infirmary,
after swallowing some disinfectant!
1st Act
The family and Gerald are celebrating Gerald and Sheila’s
engagement in the dining-room. Sheila and Eric are
arguing in a not really serious way, while Gerald& Mr.
Birling are talking about business, politic (titanic), Mr.
Birling’s way into the next honour list by getting an
knighthood and about Lady Croft’s (Gerald’s mother)
attitude of social classes (it looks like she isn’t too happy
about the fact, that her son is engaged to a girl of a lower
class). Just before the ring bells& the inspector arrives, Mr.
Birling shows his outlook on life, what he had learnt in the
good hard school of experience to Gerald& Eric (important
sentence for the rest of the story!): “...a man has to make
his own way, has to look after himself and his family..”.
The inspector enters and tells about the suicide. He shows
a photograph to Mr.B. and starts questioning him. It turns
out that Eva Smith had been one of Mr.B. employees and
later on was discharged because she asked for more
money, had been refused& went on a strike (as one of the
ringleaders).
Sheila enters into the dining-room and gets the next to be
questioned. Her fault: she had been jealous of Eva because
she looked better in a specific dress. She went to the
manager and told him that this girl had been very
impertinent (unverschämt)…so, indirectly she made Eva
lost her job.
The inspector goes on& tells that Eva Smith had changed
her name into Daisy Renton. Now Gerald’s faults get
cleared up. He has had an affair with her the previous
summer.
Important questions& points about this act
Why is Mr.B happy about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald?
Because Gerald’s father had always been his rival.
Birlings outlook of live -> the author thinks B. is wrong and
will prove him wrong later in the play.
Why might the inspector investigate a suicide?Because
there seems to be a lot of reasons, which have driven
 the victim into suicide. He might think there’s a crime
behind and also because he wants to made the
B.family realise that they’re responsible for others. A
further aspect is the author intention to show, that the
whole story isn’t real.
Eric’s attitude to the strike? He would have given the
employees the money; to him strikes are something
good.
Relationship Sheila - Eric: typically brother-sister
relationship, behave rude& unfriendly to each other
but in principle like each other very much.
What have Sheila and the inspector in common?Both of
them want to know the truth, both think in a social
way and also that Eva’s death had been unnecessary.
Relationship Sheila- Gerald: Sheila loves him; to her he’s a
‘good catch’. On the other hand Gerald; sees mostly
the business aspect of the connection-> no deep
feelings!
Why did Eva Smith change her name into Daisy Renton?
She might had to hide something or might has wanted
to start a new, better live.
2nd Act
Mrs Birling came along and was told that Eric often drinks.
Gerald talks about his relationship towards Daisy Renton
(alias Eva Smith). After that, he went out for a walk…and
the inspector turns towards Mrs B., her crime: she failed
her “job” as a member of the Brumley Women’s Charity
Organisation by not helping deserving cases. She refused
Eva’s ask for help (she was pregnant and had no money),
because she don’t like her.
Important questions& points
The state of the engagement after Gerald confessed his
affair: Sheila solved the engagement, she broke up,
but actually she isn’t very angry anymore but she
needs some time to think.
The inspector’s behaviour, Sheila stares at him
‘wonderingly and dubiously: because he seems to
 know all answers in advance.
3rd Act
Eric comes back and became the next victim of Inspector
Goole: he is more or less forced to confess his relationship
towards Eva. He met her first in the Palace bar (as Gerald
did) and stood her a few drinks, later on he was quite
drunk and they went to her lodgings. After a few more
dates, Eva was going to have a baby. She didn’t want Eric
to marry, so he gave her enough money to keep her going,
but finally she refuses even this (because she had found
out that it has been stolen). The problem about the money
(about fifty pounds): Eric got it from his father’s office,
without asking in advance! The inspector left- the family is
arguing (parents- children) and discussing until Gerald
returns and exposes the inspector as not real. And after a
call to the local Infirmary (no girl has been brought in this
afternoon who had committed suicide by drinking
disinfectant) it’s seems clear that the whole thing had been
a bluff. The family is relieved… but right then the phone
rings: it’s the police, a girl had committed suicide& a
inspector is on the way to ask some questions…
Important questions and points
Mood in the dining-room: feeling of guilt, wish to learn
something.
The growing feeling effect of the evening’s events on the
Birling family as a whole: they start to feel involved,
start arguing amongst themselves, and feel bitter.
They make each other responsible for what has
happened.
For Sheila it doesn’t matter whether the inspector is real or
not because what’s important to her is that she now
knows the truth. But to her parents it’s seems to
make a big difference because the confession to a real
police man would have meant a public scandal.
Sheila& Eric: they learnt form their mistakes, they become
more mature and ‘real grown-ups’.
Mr. & Mrs. Birling as well as Gerald gets on the point of
 accepting some responsibility not for very long, all in
one they haven’t learn anything! They want to forget
everything, pretend nothing had happened. They
become self-confident again and that’s why the
second phone call takes place: the author wants to
prove them wrong!
The 2nd call: shows the audience clearly the moral of the
play, should make think about the play in general.
Autobiography
John Boynton Priestley was born in 1894 in Bradford, a
industrial city in the north of England (refers to
Brumley) and died in 1984.
He was an ‘all-round writer’ what means he wrote all
different sorts of literature.
He’s childhood was all in one a peaceful time in a moderate
socialistically atmosphere.
Mostly all of his stories were influenced by the 1st World
War, where he had been a frond- soldier. He often
describes the live of simple people by turning it
dramatically into an ethical and political position.
After this experience, he went to Cambridge studying
history, politic and literature.
1929 he broke through because of his novel ‘the Good
Companions’.
In ‘an inspector calls’ (written right after the 2nd World
War; 1945) he shows his attitude towards a human
socialism.
Typically for his work is the criticism towards all antisocial
attitudes, e.g. greed (Habgier) and inconsiderate
power struggle (rücksichtsloses Machtstreben).
General Things
Who is the inspector? No real person of interest, more
something like a personified bad conscience of guilt
and internal voice.
Moral of the play: refute (wiederlegen) mr.B’s confession
of faith / philosophy of live: ‘…community and all that
nonsense....’, ‘...A man has to mind his own business
&look after himself and his own....’ by his moral
demand for: ‘...One Eva Smith has gone - but there
are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John
Smith still left with us…We don’t live alone. We are
members of one body. We are responsible for each
other.