An Inspector Calls
Eric Birling
Act 1:
‘half shy, half assertive’ & ‘not quite at ease’
- characterised as being volatile (lack of consistency)
- alienated by his family — trying to fit into his class bubble, as he doesn’t align with any
typical stereotypes of men/women
- juxtaposition; his ambiguous characterisation makes him a character of interest to the
audience
- from the offset of the play, isn’t presented as immediately dislikable - possibly due to him no
having any extreme ideals
‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?’
- interrogative + unaware/uneducated tone; due to his sheltered upbringing he is not aware of
the plight of the poor
- gives insight into the dysfunctional nature of the Birling household as he is oblivious to the
conditions within the Birling factory
- collective pronoun ‘they’, groups the working class — deindividuation, which is reflective of
capitalist views
- Eric has been brought up with these classist and capitalist ideologies ingrained from
childhood — he is a product of capitalism
- Eric isn’t just blindly supporting capitalism (via his father) but he has the ability to question
authority figures and try to understand society — foreshadows his change
Act 3:
‘She was pretty and a good sport,’
- sexual innuendo of ‘good sport’ — dehumanises Eva Smith as he only saw her for sex
- adjective ‘pretty’ suggests that he acts upon lust and sexual gratification rather than
connection / love
‘I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty,’
- determiner ‘that’ — distance himself from situation and remove blame and the third person of
‘a chap’ — absolves himself of guilt and responsibility, while the adverb ‘easily’ — removes
blame from his decision making and rather shifts it to his alcoholism
- question credibility as Eric is recounting his experience — no input from Eva and mirrors the
lack of a voice of many working class women
- euphemism ‘turns nasty’ trivialises his rape of Eva, perhaps raises the question of how many
girls Eric has sexually exploited
- may indicate how his overpowering of the lower class is normalised within the upper class,
due to the sense of familiarity associated with ‘that state’
‘You killed her… you killed her… you killed them both — damn you, damn you!’
- direct address: blaming Sybil but could also express his rage towards his mother
(manifestation of his own guilt) + could show his beginning of a character change — as he is
now confident to talk back to his mother
- repetition of ‘you killed’ removes himself from the situation, and solely blames his mother for
it, which could show he has not changed
, - repetition of violent verb , accentuates the magnitude of Eva’s suicide; Eric may be
understanding the severity of Eva’s death and the Birlings’ link to it
- exclamatory reinforces internal conflict + anger toward his mother
‘You don’t understand anything, you never did, you never even tried.’
- priestly encourages the audience to sympathise with Eric as he has been consistently excluded
from his family which harshly represents the dichotomy between the older and younger
generation, possibly a direct cause of his drinking addiction which has led him to rape Eva
- The emotive language evokes a sense of sympathy as it depicts his desperation for his parents
attention and love possibly pushing him to frequent prostitution bars as he cannot feel love
anywhere else
- The hyperbolic repetition of you never emphasises his anger and disdain towards his parents.
This could potentially be a reflection of the anger he feels about his own actions.
- Did the direct address conveys a confrontational tone, highlighting that he inadvertently
passes his blame onto his parents
‘We all helped to kill her’
- The declarative shows a level of understanding and learning that’s taken place for Eric,
showing that Eric‘s development is due to a strong message from the inspector as opposed to
learning that he himself is guilty
- Collective noun ‘we’ depicts how the blame isn’t only individual but due to collaboration and
several instances done by several people
- Juxtaposition between ‘helped’ and ‘kill’ shows how convoluted the situation is and how the
younger generation’s response to the Inspector contrast that of the older generation + Gerald,
this provides hope for social reformation in the contemporary, younger audience
- Violent verb ‘kill’ indicates how painful it was for Eva to die, but death isn’t as painful as the
suffering she’s endured due to the Birlings and Gerald
Sheila Birling
‘Look Mummy, isn’t it pretty?’
- imperative + childish tone highlights her naivety due to her sheltered upbringing
- rhetorical question emphasises childish tone + indicates a level of dependence that Sheila has
in her mother to influence her decisions
- Adjective ‘pretty’ reveals how value was based on appearance, which can reflect the values
that she might have been raised with so may have been indoctrinated into materialism
- the ring she references is symbolic of an economic relationship — the foundation of an
economic connection between the croft and the birlings and how she’s being used as a
bargaining chip between the families
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people.’
- It was unusual for a girl to speak back to her parents during the Edwardian era + portrays the
generational divide as Sheila is able to adopt socialist ideals while Mr and Mrs Birling remain
stuck in a rigid & exploitative capitalist mindset. / but the hyphenated language could reflect
her lack of confidence to speak back to her father as it subverts stereotypes
- The contrast of ‘cheap’ which has connotations of economic value and ‘people’ which has
connotations of humanity reveals that they aren’t able to coincide together as a belief, i.e.
people shouldn’t be associated with monetary value.
Eric Birling
Act 1:
‘half shy, half assertive’ & ‘not quite at ease’
- characterised as being volatile (lack of consistency)
- alienated by his family — trying to fit into his class bubble, as he doesn’t align with any
typical stereotypes of men/women
- juxtaposition; his ambiguous characterisation makes him a character of interest to the
audience
- from the offset of the play, isn’t presented as immediately dislikable - possibly due to him no
having any extreme ideals
‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?’
- interrogative + unaware/uneducated tone; due to his sheltered upbringing he is not aware of
the plight of the poor
- gives insight into the dysfunctional nature of the Birling household as he is oblivious to the
conditions within the Birling factory
- collective pronoun ‘they’, groups the working class — deindividuation, which is reflective of
capitalist views
- Eric has been brought up with these classist and capitalist ideologies ingrained from
childhood — he is a product of capitalism
- Eric isn’t just blindly supporting capitalism (via his father) but he has the ability to question
authority figures and try to understand society — foreshadows his change
Act 3:
‘She was pretty and a good sport,’
- sexual innuendo of ‘good sport’ — dehumanises Eva Smith as he only saw her for sex
- adjective ‘pretty’ suggests that he acts upon lust and sexual gratification rather than
connection / love
‘I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty,’
- determiner ‘that’ — distance himself from situation and remove blame and the third person of
‘a chap’ — absolves himself of guilt and responsibility, while the adverb ‘easily’ — removes
blame from his decision making and rather shifts it to his alcoholism
- question credibility as Eric is recounting his experience — no input from Eva and mirrors the
lack of a voice of many working class women
- euphemism ‘turns nasty’ trivialises his rape of Eva, perhaps raises the question of how many
girls Eric has sexually exploited
- may indicate how his overpowering of the lower class is normalised within the upper class,
due to the sense of familiarity associated with ‘that state’
‘You killed her… you killed her… you killed them both — damn you, damn you!’
- direct address: blaming Sybil but could also express his rage towards his mother
(manifestation of his own guilt) + could show his beginning of a character change — as he is
now confident to talk back to his mother
- repetition of ‘you killed’ removes himself from the situation, and solely blames his mother for
it, which could show he has not changed
, - repetition of violent verb , accentuates the magnitude of Eva’s suicide; Eric may be
understanding the severity of Eva’s death and the Birlings’ link to it
- exclamatory reinforces internal conflict + anger toward his mother
‘You don’t understand anything, you never did, you never even tried.’
- priestly encourages the audience to sympathise with Eric as he has been consistently excluded
from his family which harshly represents the dichotomy between the older and younger
generation, possibly a direct cause of his drinking addiction which has led him to rape Eva
- The emotive language evokes a sense of sympathy as it depicts his desperation for his parents
attention and love possibly pushing him to frequent prostitution bars as he cannot feel love
anywhere else
- The hyperbolic repetition of you never emphasises his anger and disdain towards his parents.
This could potentially be a reflection of the anger he feels about his own actions.
- Did the direct address conveys a confrontational tone, highlighting that he inadvertently
passes his blame onto his parents
‘We all helped to kill her’
- The declarative shows a level of understanding and learning that’s taken place for Eric,
showing that Eric‘s development is due to a strong message from the inspector as opposed to
learning that he himself is guilty
- Collective noun ‘we’ depicts how the blame isn’t only individual but due to collaboration and
several instances done by several people
- Juxtaposition between ‘helped’ and ‘kill’ shows how convoluted the situation is and how the
younger generation’s response to the Inspector contrast that of the older generation + Gerald,
this provides hope for social reformation in the contemporary, younger audience
- Violent verb ‘kill’ indicates how painful it was for Eva to die, but death isn’t as painful as the
suffering she’s endured due to the Birlings and Gerald
Sheila Birling
‘Look Mummy, isn’t it pretty?’
- imperative + childish tone highlights her naivety due to her sheltered upbringing
- rhetorical question emphasises childish tone + indicates a level of dependence that Sheila has
in her mother to influence her decisions
- Adjective ‘pretty’ reveals how value was based on appearance, which can reflect the values
that she might have been raised with so may have been indoctrinated into materialism
- the ring she references is symbolic of an economic relationship — the foundation of an
economic connection between the croft and the birlings and how she’s being used as a
bargaining chip between the families
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people.’
- It was unusual for a girl to speak back to her parents during the Edwardian era + portrays the
generational divide as Sheila is able to adopt socialist ideals while Mr and Mrs Birling remain
stuck in a rigid & exploitative capitalist mindset. / but the hyphenated language could reflect
her lack of confidence to speak back to her father as it subverts stereotypes
- The contrast of ‘cheap’ which has connotations of economic value and ‘people’ which has
connotations of humanity reveals that they aren’t able to coincide together as a belief, i.e.
people shouldn’t be associated with monetary value.
