Character analysis

• Mr Birling


  An upper class business man who owns a factory, is wealthy and has a lot of power and influence in the town of Brumley
• How Birling is presented


  • Sees his priorities as looking after his money, his status and his reputation
  • Accepts no responsibility for anyone else in society and certainly not Eva Smith
  • Hates socialists and their ideas of equality and community
  • Completely naïve and ignorant in his views
  • Used to being in control but thrown off guard by the inspector
  • Refuses to accept any real responsibility, just tries to stop the Inspector
  • Becomes smug and overconfident after the inspector leaves, believing his reputation will be protected
• Arthur Birling: ''Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.''
• Birling: ''There's a good deal of silly talk about these days – but – and I speak as a hard-headed business man… I say, you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk''
• Birling: ''We employers at last are coming together to see that our interests – and the interests of Capital – are properly protected.''
• Birling: ''And to that I say – fiddlesticks! The Germans don't want war.''
• Birling: ''Just let me finish Eric. You've a lot to learn yet. And I'm talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn't a chance of war.''
• Birling: ''This new liner… the Titanic… unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable. That's what you've got to keep your eye on, facts like that''
• Birling: ''let's say 1940… there'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere''
• Birling: ''a man has to make his own way… But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else… community and all that nonsense.''
• Birling: ''Yes, yes. Horrible business.''
• Birling: ''…Still, I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?''
• Birling: ''She was a lively good-looking girl – country bred, I fancy… A good worker too''
• Birling: ''Well, it's my duty to keep labour costs down''
• Birling: ''She'd had a lot to say – far too much – she had to go.''
• Birling: ''There's every excuse for what both your mother and I did – it turned out unfortunately, that's all -''
• Birling: ''Now look at the pair ofthem – the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can't even take a joke -''
• Birling: ''That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here-''
• Mrs Birling


  Birling's wife, her husband's social superior but lacks the same status and power due to gender inequality in society
• How Mrs Birling is presented

  • Encourages Sheila to just put up with the sexism they have to deal with in 1912, with no thought to change things for the better
  • Expects her status and Mr Birling's authority and wealth to solve all problems
  • Completely refuses to take any responsibility for what happened to Eva and judges her for being poor, unmarried and getting into a difficult situation
  • Lacks awareness of issues of social class and gender inequalities in society
  • Falls into the Inspector's trap and suggests that whoever got Eva Smith pregnant is really responsible for her death
  • Shows no change in attitude once the Inspector leaves, happy with Gerald's theory that it was all a scam and thinks their reputation will remain intact
• Mrs Birling: ''His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior.''
• Mrs Birling: ''Now, Sheila… When you're married you'll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You'll have to get used to that, just as I had.''
• Mrs Birling: ''You seem to have made a great impression on this child, inspector.''
• Mrs Birling: ''I don't suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class -''
• Mrs Birling: ''Yes. I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate – and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.''
• Mrs Birling: ''I'm very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame.''
• Mrs Birling: ''so I used my influence to have it refused.And in spite of what's happened to the girl since, I consider I did my duty.''
• Mrs Birling: ''I'll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility.''
• Mrs Birling: ''I'm sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all.''
• Mrs Birling: ''Then he'd be entirely responsible – because the girl wouldn't have come to us, and have been refused assistance, if it hadn't been for him -''
• Mrs Birling: ''You're behaving like an hysterical child tonight.''
• Mrs Birling: ''Really, from the way you children talk, you might be wanting to help him instead of us.''
• Mrs Birling: ''But, feeling so worried, when he suddenly turned on me with those questions, I answered more or less as he wanted me to answer.''
• Mrs Birling: ''And I must say, Gerald, you've argued this very cleverly, and I'm most grateful.''
• Sheila


  Naïve and childish initially, but displays potential to drive change, accepts responsibility for her actions, challenges gender inequalities, and represents the positive younger generation that Priestley believes will drive change and progress
• Sheila: 'Priestley's description – 'Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.''
• Sheila: ''Except for all last summer, when you never came near me, and I wondered what had happened to you.''
• Sheila: ''I'm sorry, Daddy. Actually I was listening''
• Sheila: ''Oh – how horrible! Was it an accident?''
• Sheila: ''[rather distressed] 'Sorry! It's just that I can't help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I've been so happy tonight.''