An inspector calls

• An Inspector Calls is a three-act play with one setting: the dining room of the Birling family.
• The play is set in 1912 in the fictional city of Brumley, in the north of England.
• Arthur and Sybil Birling, their two children, Sheila and Eric, and their visitor, Gerald Croft, have just finished a celebratory dinner following Sheila’s engagement to Gerald.
• A police inspector arrives at the Birlings’ house and informs them that a young girl, Eva Smith, has committed suicide after having swallowed disinfectant.
• Eva used to work in Arthur Birling’s factory and had subsequently been dismissed for her participation in a pay strike.
• Sheila was also responsible for having Eva dismissed from her next job as an assistant in a dress shop, after making a complaint about Eva’s conduct towards her.
• When the Inspector reveals that Eva had changed her name to Daisy Renton, Gerald confesses to having had an affair with her.
• Sheila returns her engagement ring to him.
• Sybil Birling is also forced to confess to having known Eva.
• Sybil had refused Eva’s application for aid from her charitable organisation after she discovered the girl was pregnant.
• Eva had refused to marry the father of the child, who is revealed to have been Eric.
• Eric admits to having got Eva pregnant and having stolen money from his father in order to help her.
• Eric initially offers marriage to Eva, showing some attempt at responsibility, but ultimately fails in his duty to protect both of them.
• Sheila is the first character in the play to accept responsibility for her actions, demonstrating her courage and empathy.
• Only Eric and Sheila have grasped Inspector’s message; Arthur, Sybil and Gerald are blind to it.
• Responsibility is a prevalent theme in the play, with the Inspector demanding accountability and personal responsibility for the chain of events leading to Eva's death.
• Arthur and Sybil hold prominent positions within society, and the Inspector suggests they have an even greater duty of care towards others.
• A pivotal part of Act III is when the Inspector leaves, providing an opportunity for the characters to reveal if they have learned anything from his message.
• Priestley presents Eva as having a greater sense of moral responsibility than all of the other characters.
• The Inspector urges the characters (and the audience) to consider their social responsibility, arguing individuals have a civic duty to ensure their actions must benefit the whole of society.
• While the Inspector alludes to ideas of responsibility and duty, Arthur and Sybil also repeatedly use these words though they interpret them in very different ways.
• Priestley argues that the economic system of Capitalism prevents equality and social justice and that another system, Socialism, which aims to share out wealth, would be fairer for all.
• Priestley emphasises the importance of both personal and social responsibility, insisting this extends beyond the confines of a family unit and spreads to society as a whole.
• Priestley argues that members of a society have duties and obligations towards the welfare of others and suggests they have a collective and social responsibility to take care of each other.
• The Inspector rebukes the Birling family and Gerald for their involvement with Eva and how their actions have led to her death.
• The Inspector leaves.
• Priestley depicts Sybil as a symbol of the privileges of the upper classes and their selfish conduct.
• Sybil's appalling behaviour and cold detachment would be incomprehensible to an audience, particularly as she is both a woman and a mother.
• Sybil Birling is first presented as a "rather cold woman and her husband's superior", with a demeanour that remains unchanged and dismissive of others.
• Sybil refuses to use Eva's name and refers to her only as a "girl", as though Eva is not worthy of being recognised as an individual.
• In Act III, Sybil's callousness is further revealed when she realises her son is the father of the child, she still maintains that the charity ought to deny assistance to people it considers undeserving of aid.
• Sybil initially refuses to believe Eric could be the father of Eva's child and refuses to acknowledge he has a problem with alcohol.
• By the end of the play, Sybil remains deeply entrenched in her prejudiced ways and unchanged, and could be perceived to be the most resistant to the Inspector's message.
• Sybil and her husband are concerned with preserving a respectable façade.
• Due to her elevated social position, Sybil views the working class as morally inferior and refuses to believe that Eva would turn down stolen money as she is not capable of the same level of morality as the upper classes.
• Sybil is portrayed as one of the least compassionate characters in the play, being a prominent member of a local women's charity but her role is not due to a concern for others less fortunate than herself, but as a symbol of status.
• Sybil is indifferent to the fact that she refused assistance to Eva and her grandchild and is devoid of any empathy for them.
• Sybil treats the Inspector as socially inferior.
• Sybil could be perceived as someone who fails fully to perceive those around her, or alternatively, she may be deliberately turning a blind eye to any reality which contradicts her reassuring image of both herself and her family.
• An Inspector Calls carries a mark of its time, but the text's themes about people, human nature, societal structures are universal and relevant today.