Inspector Calls

• Mr. Watson


  The presenter giving an overview of the plots of JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls
• Characters in An Inspector Calls

  • The Birling family: Mr. Arthur Birling, Mrs. Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling, Eric Birling
  • Gerald Croft
  • Inspector Goole
  • Eva Smith/Daisy Renton
• Mr. Arthur Birling


  • A self-proclaimed hard-headed businessman
  • Married to Mrs. Sybil Birling, who is rather snobbish and cold-hearted
• Sheila Birling


  • In her twenties
  • Celebrating her engagement to Gerald Croft at the beginning of the play
• Eric Birling


  • In his early 20s
  • Lacks confidence
  • Revealed to have a drinking problem
• Gerald Croft


  • An attractive chap who is about 30 years old
  • Engaged to Sheila Birling
• Inspector Goole


  • A mysterious character who is assertive and very knowledgeable
  • Arrives at the Birling household to investigate the death of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton
• Eva Smith/Daisy Renton


  • A young working-class girl
  • Never actually seen in the play, only referred to by other characters
  • Her death at the beginning leads to the inspector's investigation of the Birling family
• The play's plot


  1. Set in spring 1912 in Bromley, England

  2. Introduced to the Birling family celebrating Sheila's engagement to Gerald

  3. Mr. Birling makes a speech about prosperity and the Titanic

  4. Inspector Goole arrives to investigate Eva Smith's suicide

  5. Reveals the Birling family's connections to Eva/Daisy

  6. Sheila and Eric feel guilty, others fear a public scandal

  7. Suggestion that Inspector Goole may not have been a real police inspector

  8. Another girl dies, police inspector on the way
• The play is about the Birling family and their connections to the death of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton
• 'We were having fun! We weren't doing her any harm!'
• 'It was all right, wasn't it? It was just like any other night out.'
• "I don't think we ought to be too hard on ourselves" - Mrs Birling
• Mr Birling: "It was all right then... But it isn't now."
• 'I'm not going to be bullied by a lot of people who don't know anything about it.'
• Sheila: "But what can we do? It's too late!"
• Mr. Birling: "She had no business to kill herself"
• Mrs. Birling: "There are plenty of girls like her"
• Mr Birling: "There are millions and millions of us... And there aren't enough houses..."
• Mrs Birling: "She had no business to come here bothering us."
• Gerald Croft: "If she hadn't been so stupid as to get herself into trouble with this man, she wouldn't have died!"
• 'The girl is dead. She died last night. And she died because of us.'
• Eric: "We didn't mean any harm"