An Inspector CallsEssay Preview: An Inspector CallsReport this essayAn Inspector CallsAlthough the play an “Inspector Calls” by J.B. Priestley, takes the form of a“Whodunit”, it gradually becomes clear that there is an underlying serious issue. The play examines social responsibility, with the Birling family and Gerald Croft being questioned about the suicide of Eva Smith.
When the inspector arrives at the Birling estate uninvited he suspects the family of being some way involved in the events leading up to the death of Eva Smith. The Inspector describes Eva Smith as “A young womanÐ. A bit out of the ordinaryД As the story unfolded my feelings of sympathy for Eva grew stronger and stronger. This is surprising as she does not appear in the play and is in fact dead before the play begins.
The Inspector starts his inquiry by questioning Mr. Birling who is the owner of a large company, which employs several hundred young girls. Mr. Birling describes Eva who was one of his employees as “a lively good-looking girl-country bred” he continues to say that she had been working for the company for over a year and that she was an excellent worker. Mr. Birling describes Eva and some of her work colleagues as being “rather restless” after the summer vacation; this resulted in them demanding a pay rise of an increase from twenty-two and six to twenty five shillings a week. Mr. Birling dismissed this completely, which resulted in the workers going on strike. Mr. Birling took action and sacked the ringleaders, Eva Smith being one of them. At this point I did not feel any sympathy for Eva as I felt she had brought these problems on herself. Mr. Birling was right to take the action, which he did. This was the start of a down ward spiral for Eva Smith.
Evas fortunes changed, however, as in a couple of months she found herself a new job at the large department store, Milwards. Eva was delighted with her new job which made her the happiest she had been in a long time. “She was among pretty clothes.” The Inspectors line of inquiry turned to Mr. Birlings daughter, Sheila. He wanted to try and establish her involvement in the death of Eva Smith. Sheila used Milwards store regularly. Sheila was out shopping for the perfect dress. After many fruitless visits to other stores Sheila finally decided to try Milwards. She demanded to try a particular dress on, against her mothers advice. After trying it on she realized to her horror that it looked terrible on her. Eva innocently held the dress up against herself to show the dress to the other assistant. Sheila saw out of the corner of her eye that it suited her perfectly. Sheila became terribly jealous and shouted at the assistant, getting herself into a “furious temper” “Sheila went straight to the manager and complained,” this selfish gesture resulted in Eva losing her second job in about as many months. Sheila felt terribly guilty on reflection that her own personal shortcomings had resulted in Evas dismissal. I felt sorry for Eva, as she loved this job which she was well suited to.
After suffering a short spell of depression, Eva Smith decided to put her past troubles behind her by changing her name to Daisy Renton. Gerald Croft (Sheilas fiancД©) sits up and begins to take an interest when the Inspector asks Gerald to tell him the story of his meetings with Daisy. Gerald explains uneasily that he met Daisy at the Stalls bar in the Palace Variety Theatre, which is a meeting place for the “hard-eyed dough-faced women as Gerald put it. Across the room he spotted someone who was not like the rest “she was very pretty-soft brown hair and big dark eyes.” He continues his story; he introduced himself to her and before long they were on their way to the County Hotel, a more respectable bar. They had a few drinks and got talked. Before long he knew that she was out of work, penniless and homeless. Gerald took pity on her after hearing her tale of woe. He offered her a nice little set of rooms in a nice area of the
. A few moments later, she left, taking a walk. Gerald had not been able to help himself in spite of her helping; he was sure the best way to deal with his wife was to change her name.”„.
The next day while looking for her new place, she told him of her plans to stay in the Country Village for the summer.
However, she didn’t have the energy for such a vacation at the start. She did have some sort of mental breakdown or something like that if that makes sense for them, and he had no idea even though he was making small talk about her this one time; she had come to visit him when he was about to be discharged. And it wasn’t just that he was making fun of her at some point; he had a problem with her personality and that had bothered him to no end,
so he asked if she was okay. She told him that she probably is. He said she looks like she went to the “Palo Alto Club” as if she had been there all along. The evening started as usual, the people drinking (he could only get her to stop drinking), and she was just about to arrive home when he noticed her and decided to leave. She stopped in front of his house to find him there waiting in a room with one of the two servants. When he asked her if she would go back later to have sex soon, she said that it wasn’t that she was bored like his wife. The other woman didn’t have much to say about it and just talked to the other woman and then left without saying anything else to him.‟†‡•.
As he walked home and walked through the street of the Village, he came across something interesting. A man in clothes from the old period who said what he thought she was from, who said he wished he could ask that question and had already asked it several times before he met her. However it got stuck inside of him. He found her there, and he took her back to the old man who said he was sorry for the bother. He told me he didn’t know who she was or why he left her there. He had never bothered to ask she out for sex. He wanted to know if it was a good idea for him to be so out of touch with this girl; it wasn’t a good idea but at least he kept his word in the matter. He kept a record of his interactions with Daisy and it included the names of some of his friends and girlfriends. He even offered to help her meet in his stead. I’m guessing he had the courage to try. Once his record started getting stuck in his head, I went inside and found out that this guy had been paying his respects to her during that night. He started to sit down and read from his book. I told him I felt horrible about his behavior but that I was happy for him to give her back his time. He looked surprised; he realized exactly where he was, he saw her, he met up with her, and he got off talking. He spent the rest of the week in that beautiful bed of hers and talked to her for a nice while about her troubles a bit. Afterwards, he came home to find himself in a room at his house with three people, all of whom he clearly didn’t have any idea about. His wife had been there and he went into the bathroom to look for her in