An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

An Inspector Calls Productions seen BBC Television Production (1981) Film Production (1954)Part IJ.B.Priestlys play is set in the spring of 1912 in the household ofan upper-middle class family in the north of England. The plot of thisdramatic play is based around the Birling familys involvement in ayoung girls suicide. The Birling family consists of the two parents,Arthur and Sybil Birling and their two children Eric and Sheila.Gerald Croft is soon to become a member of the family as he hasrecently announced his engagement to Sheila.As the story unfolds we find that each of the family members is partlyto fault. Which member however carries the most blame? It is importantto realise that J.B.Priestly has made it deliberately difficult toplace the blame solely on one person. Having read the play and seentwo productions of it, I have come to the conclusion that Mrs Birlingis the most to blame.This conclusion was founded for many reasons. unmatchable such reason was dueto the process of elimination. Each Character, although guilty, hasdifferent responsibilities and different degrees of blame due to theirinvolvement with the girl, their reaction to the news of her death,how they compare to the other characters and how the audience would orshould perceive them.If we first off take Mr Birling, who is questioned by the Inspector first.Mr Birling is described by Priestly as heavy looking, ratherportentous...in his middle fifties with jolly easy manners....ratherprovincial in his speech. Birling is fairly successful in his line ofwork and is always striving to become better. He is self-importance-important and more or less pompous. He could even be described as old fashioned. Howeverhe is a warm character and the audience should perceive him as such.Examples of this self importance can be found a lot in the text. Forexample, on page seven of the text, Mr Birling rambles on about such bunk bed like The unsinkable Titanic, very little chance of aWorld War and of Russia being technically and socially behindMr Birling first became acquainted with Eva Smith when she came towork in his factory two years previously. Mr Birling started off thechain of events which lead to Evas death by firing her from her pipelinefor asking for a pay-rise and ( when the rise was refused) fororganising a strike.Although Mr Birling shows relatively little guilt or remorse for Evasdeath, I do not feel that he is entirely responsible as at the end ofthe play he does in fact feel very guilty when the Inspector delivers