In literature class we had to create a post in our blog finding evidence about An Inspector Calls and quotations for our characters descriptions. Here is my work with Sybilla Correa Perkins and Ines Galmarini.
Arthur Birling:
– Tries to impress the inspector with his social status and fails.
– He is proud that he is going to be knighted. He thinks he is “Absolutely First Class”.
– He claims its one of the best nights of his life because the marriage between Gerald and Sheila will improve his business.
– He is extremely selfish, ” A man has to make his own way”, he also thinks that firing Eva Smith wasn’t a bad thing. The only thing he is worried abut is his and his family’s reputation, he doesnt learn the lesson.
Mr Sybill Birling
– Mr Sybil was a very cold woman and a snob, who cared a lot about social classes.
-She really dislikes the inspector and she even lies to him.
– She sees Sheila and Eric as children, and tries to hide their issues, like his drinking and her marriage problems.
– She admits to have judged Eva Smith before even talking to her and she saw it as her duty not to help her. She only sees people as their social class and not how they truly are.
-Mrs Sybil, like her husband still doesn’t see anything wrong in her actions and doesn’t accept the major responsability she has. “then he’d be entirely responsible – because the girl wouldn’t have come to us, an have been refused to assistance, if it hadn’t been for him”. She blames it on other people.
Eric Birling
– Eric is an akward character, with a tense realationship with his father. He is also a hard drinker.
-He supports workers like Sheila he feels that they should have better a lifestyle, “Why shouldnt they try for higher wages” he cares more about the people that their money. When he retells the story of Eva Smith he is very guilty, frustrated and he can’t believe he did such stupid thing, he says ” Oh – My God! How stupid it all is”. He actually has a sense of responsibility and he is appalled that his parents don’t.
Sheila:
– In the beginning of the book she is described as no more than a pretty face but when the inspector arrives we discover that she is not as naive and shallow as we think she is.
– She immediately shows her compassion for Eva Smith, she is full of guilt and she blames herself as “really responsable” and starts to change.
-She catches up on what the inspector is saying very rapidly, she is the first one to know that Eric is the one who got Eva pregnant. She tells her mother to “Stop, Stop! ” just as the inspector starts, so she picks the information quickly. She is also the first one to suspect that the inspector isnt real.
– When Gerald admits that he cheated on her she doesn’t get angry she acts very mature. She is a developing character because she gets smarter and matures by the end of the story.
– She is also surprised with her parents behavior,” If it didn’t end traggically, lucky for us but it might have had” she reminds them that even if it didn’t happen is still thought them a lesson.
Eva Smith
-Her parents were dead, she was in the working class and she came from outside brumley
-The Inspector says she kept a secret diary that made him understand and know about the last two years of her life.
-In act 3 the family starts to wonder if Eva Smith was real. “We’ve no proof it was the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl”. Yet the final phone call, announcing that a police inspector is shortly to arrive at the Birlings’ house to investigate the suicide of a young girl, makes us realise that maybe Eva Smith did exist after all.
-Eva Smith could represent every woman of her class.
Inspector Goole
-He works very systematically; he likes to deal with “one person and one line to enquiry at a time”. His method is to confront a suspect with a piece of information and then make them talk.
-He is a figure of authority. He deals with each member of the family very firmly. He cuts through Mrs Birling’s obstructiveness.
-He seems to know and understand everything.
-He knows the history of Eva Smith and the Birlings’ involvement in it, even though she died only hours ago.
-He knows things are going to happen.
-He is obviously in a great hurry towards the end of the play. Does he knows that the real inspector is shortly going to arrive?
-His final speech is like a sermon or a politician’s. “We are responsible for eachother”, “fire and blood and anguish” that will result if they do not pay attention to what he has taught them.
-All the mystery suggests that the Inspector is not a ‘real’ person.
Gerald:
– He is an aristot his family is not over impressed by Gerald’s engagement to Sheila since the Crofts wanted more money and the Birlings wanted a nobility title
– He is not as willing as Sheila to admit his part in the girl’s death.
– He did have some genuine feeling for Daisy
– He tries to prove that “that man was not a police officer” so that the family can forgive and forget. He seems to throw his energy into “protecting” himself rather than “changing” himself (unlike Sheila)
– At the end of the play, he has not changed. Also, Sheila is unsure whether to take the back of the engagement ring.