An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls

Although the play an "Inspector Calls" by J.B. Priestley, takes the form of a

"Whodunit", it gradually becomes clear that there is an underlying serious issue. The play examines social responsibility, with the Birling family and Gerald Croft being questioned about the suicide of Eva Smith.

When the inspector arrives at the Birling estate uninvited he suspects the family of being some way involved in the events leading up to the death of Eva Smith. The Inspector describes Eva Smith as "A young womanÐ'.... A bit out of the ordinaryÐ'..." As the story unfolded my feelings of sympathy for Eva grew stronger and stronger. This is surprising as she does not appear in the play and is in fact dead before the play begins.

The Inspector starts his inquiry by questioning Mr. Birling who is the owner of a large company, which employs several hundred young girls. Mr. Birling describes Eva who was one of his employees as "a lively good-looking girl-country bred" he continues to say that she had been working for the company for over a year and that she was an excellent worker. Mr. Birling describes Eva and some of her work colleagues as being "rather restless" after the summer vacation; this resulted in them demanding a pay rise of an increase from twenty-two and six to twenty five shillings a week. Mr. Birling dismissed this completely, which resulted in the workers going on strike. Mr. Birling took action and sacked the ringleaders, Eva Smith being one of them. At this point I did not feel any sympathy for Eva as I felt she had brought these problems on herself. Mr. Birling was right to take the action, which he did. This was the start of a down ward spiral for Eva Smith.

Eva's fortunes changed, however, as in a couple of months she found herself a new job at the large department store, Milwards. Eva was delighted with her new job which made her the happiest she had been in a long time. "She was among pretty clothes." The Inspectors line of inquiry turned to Mr. Birling's daughter, Sheila. He wanted to try and establish her involvement in the death of Eva Smith. Sheila used Milwards store regularly. Sheila was out shopping for the perfect dress. After many fruitless visits to other stores Sheila finally decided to try Milwards. She demanded to try a particular dress on, against her mother's advice. After trying it on she realized to her horror that it looked terrible on her. Eva innocently held the dress up against herself to show the dress to the other assistant. Sheila saw out of the corner of her eye that it suited her perfectly. Sheila became terribly jealous and shouted at the assistant, getting herself into a "furious temper" "Sheila went straight to the manager and complained," this selfish gesture resulted in Eva losing her second job in about as many months. Sheila felt terribly guilty on reflection that her own personal shortcomings had resulted in Eva's dismissal. I felt sorry for Eva, as she loved this job which she was well suited to.

After suffering a short spell of depression, Eva Smith decided to put her past troubles behind her by changing her name to Daisy Renton. Gerald Croft (Sheila's fiancÐ"©) sits up and begins to take an interest when the Inspector asks Gerald to tell him the story of his meetings with Daisy. Gerald explains uneasily that he met Daisy at the Stalls bar in the Palace Variety Theatre, which is a meeting place for the "hard-eyed dough-faced women' as Gerald put it. Across the room he spotted someone who was not like the rest "she was very pretty-soft brown hair and big dark eyes." He continues his story; he introduced himself to her and before long they were on their way to the County Hotel, a more respectable bar. They had a few drinks and got talked. Before long he knew that she was out of work, penniless and homeless. Gerald took pity on her after hearing her tale of woe. He offered her a nice little set of rooms in a nice area of the