characters

• Mr Birling

  • Has a successful business
  • Hoping for knighthood
  • Arrogant, materialistic and selfish
  • Doesn’t change by the end of the play
  • Represents a capitalist attitude and criticises socialism
• Mrs Birling

  • Mr Birling’s social superior
  • Cold-hearted and snobbish, despite being a prominent member of a local women’s charity
• Eric Birling

  • Is in his early twenties and has a drinking problem
  • Tension between him and his parents
  • Forces his way into Eva/Daisy’s flat and takes advantage of her, impregnating her
• Gerald Croft

  • Engaged to Sheila Birling and comes from a high status family
  • Confident and charming- impresses the audience with his honesty, but by the end doesn’t learn from his mistakes
  • Priestley suggests men like Gerald see themselves as above the problems of the working classes
• Sheila Birling

  • In her early twenties
  • Engaged to Gerald Croft
  • Giddy, naïve and childish
  • Regretful of her involvement in Eva Smith’s suicide
  • Matures- admiring Gerald‘s honesty, even though he cheated on her
  • Shows an assertive side and stands up to her parents- proves to be insightful and intelligent
  • At the end of the play she grows up and realises her actions can have grave consequences
• Eva Smith/Daisy Renton

  • Eva’s death is the cause of the inspector’s investigation
  • Eva Smith is a symbol of all working-class women
• Inspector Goole

  • The inspector drives forward the drama and delivers Priestley’s message
  • Assertive, all-knowing and imposing
  • At the end of the play it is revealed he isn’t actually an inspector
  • The name ‘Goole’ suggests a supernatural or ghost-like element (ghoul)
  • Could be seen as the conscience of the audience