Analysis of Act Three - The Inspector's Speech

• The Inspector


  A character who has his say in the play
• The Inspector sums up how each person at the dinner party played their part in Eva/Daisy's short life


  1. Arthur started it all by sacking Eva Smith

  2. Sheila turned her out of her second job

  3. Gerald kept her as his mistress and made her happy for a while

  4. Eric "used her" because he was drunk

  5. Sybil refused her a "pitiable little bit of organized charity"
• The Inspector has broken through their defences


  They're ready to hear his message
• The Inspector's message


  • He links Eva/Daisy to the "millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths" - the rest of society, or even the rest of humanity
  • He says everyone is "intertwined" and "members of one body" - everyone shares "their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness" because everyone's affected
  • He warns that if people don't learn to be more responsible, they'll be forced to understand their mistakes through "fire blood and anguish" - The Inspector's foreseeing all the suffering that will result from selfishness, including the world wars
• The Inspector has his say - KEY EVENT
• The Birling family structure collapses

  1. The Inspector tells them at the start of Act Three that they'll have plenty of time to "adjust" their family relationships

  2. The first words after the Inspector's exit are Birling blaming Eric for their problems. This signals a decline from the Inspector's moral speech into petty squabbling

  3. Arthur Birling doesn't want anything to change. He's desperate to get things back to how they were - with him in charge
• Passing the word "ashamed"


  1. Sybil tells Eric she's "absolutely ashamed" of his drinking

  2. Eric says he's ashamed of his parents' actions

  3. Sheila says she's ashamed of her own actions
• Sheila shoulders the blame and asks everyone else to do the same
• The parents haven't learnt anything, they're more focused on trying to keep all the revelations in the family
• The only thing they'd feel ashamed of is a scandal
• Birling says he's "learnt plenty"


  But not about how and why he's been wrong
• Birling has learnt how Sheila and Eric really behave and think, and he's not impressed