Analysis of Act Three - Eric Confesses

• Analysis of Act Three - Eric Confesses

  The Inspector just had to open the cracks in the Birling family, and it's broken apart. Priestley carefully engineers the plot so that once the ball gets rolling, the family starts to self-destruct
• KEY EVENT


  Eric confesses all - and it's a bit of a mess
• Eric's confession


  1. Eric's ready to confess

  2. Eric explains that he forced Eva/Daisy to have sex with him, and got her pregnant

  3. Eric regrets his actions, but his language shows his immaturity

  4. Eric doesn't understand how middle-class men are supposed to behave

  5. Eric's parents think he's acted worse than Gerald
• The Inspector's helped everyone realise

  Eric is the father of Eva/Daisy's child
• Eric: '"You know, don't you?"'
• Eric's actions


  He was so drunk he threatened to cause a "row" if she didn't let him in to her flat
• Eric: '"a good sport" and "pretty"'
• Eric's language sounds insensitive given how badly he treated Eva/Daisy
• Eric says that Eva/Daisy treated him as a "kid"
• Eric's parents think


  He's acted worse than Gerald, who knew how to have an affair without creating a scandal
• It makes the audience start blaming Eric's parents for his upbringing
• Birling's appalled - not by suicide, but by theft and shame

  1. Arthur Birling starts to take the situation seriously for the first time. His son's stolen money from the company to help support Eva/Daisy, and Birling decides that he needs to "cover this up" as soon as he can

  2. In the middle of Eric's story, Arthur orders the women to leave

  3. Eric's involvement has gone too far for the Birling family. He'd have had an illegitimate child with a prostitute. This would have brought shame on the family
• Sybil returns


  Brings Eric bad news
• Sybil and Sheila return to the dining room


  1. Sybil "had to know what's happening"

  2. Sybil disobeys her husband now she realises how involved she is in the story
• Eric's been outside


  He hasn't heard that Sybil was involved in Eva/Daisy's and his child's death
• Eric finds out Sybil was involved

  He's furious, and links her failure to "understand" to his own childhood
• Eric: '"You don't understand anything. You never did"'