Theme Essay

• "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?"


  Arthur Birling is selfish and he believes that looking after himself and his family is all that matters. Other people should be left to fend for themselves no matter what the consequences.
• "Cranks". "Nonsense."


  Arthur Birling is also selfish in that he believes that money and power being shared equally are ridiculous ideas that could never work.
• "But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people."


  Sheila feels guilty about getting Eva Smith sacked and she realises that those who work for her father or serve her are human beings and should be treated with dignity.
• "At least I'm trying to tell the truth."


  Sheila feels she is the only one who realises how badly people like Eva Smith are treated by society. She feels her parents are in denial as they want an unequal and unfair society to stay the way it has always been.
• Act One ends with the Inspector asking Gerald, "Well?"


  The inspector appears to know everything already. He already knows that Gerald has something to confess and this suggests he is not there to find out information but to prize it from unwilling witnesses.
• "Why - you fool - he knows - of course he knows and I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet. You'll see. You'll see."


  Sheila understands the Inspector's true purpose. He is not there to investigate anything. Instead, his purpose is to force each character to face up to their role in Eva Smith's demise.
• "One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.... We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other."


  Repetition of 'Millions and millions' shows that Eva Smith represents all poor, disadvantaged people. The repetition of the word "we" and the use of the word choice 'responsible' show that, in a good society, it is our collective duty to make sure we provide enough for everyone.
• "Fire and blood and anguish."


  The inspector is saying that if we do not provide for the poor and sick we are storing up trouble for ourselves.