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An Inspector Calls: the story, act by act

A police inspector interrupts a family celebration and shows that each of them played a part in a young woman’s death. Read the plot act by act, then Eva Smith’s story in order, the characters and the ideas.

Quick guide for students · 6 minute read

J. B. Priestley set An Inspector Calls in 1912, but the play was first staged in 1945, in Moscow, and reached London in 1946. That gap matters. Priestley’s first audiences knew what happened after 1912, and the characters do not.

In the exam it is Section A of Literature Paper 2. You choose one of two essay questions on the whole play. There is no extract, so every quotation has to come from memory.

The whole play happens in one room, the Birlings’ dining room, on one evening in spring. The three acts run on without a break.

A note before you read on: the play deals with a young woman who takes her own life, and with a young man forcing himself on her while drunk. If anything in it is hard for you, talk to your teacher or another adult you trust. Childline is free and open day and night for anyone under 19, on 0800 1111.

Act 1

It is spring 1912 in Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands. The Birlings are celebrating at dinner, because Sheila Birling is engaged to Gerald Croft, the son of a rival factory owner.

Mr Birling makes confident speeches. The Titanic is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”, there will be no war, and a man must look after himself and his own family. Then the doorbell rings.

Edna, the maid, shows in Inspector Goole. He says that a young woman called Eva Smith has died in the Infirmary, the local hospital, after taking her own life. He shows Mr Birling a photograph. Birling admits that Eva worked in his factory, and that he sacked her in 1910 for her part in a strike over wages. He says, “I can’t accept any responsibility”.

Sheila is shown the photograph. She admits that in 1911, in a jealous temper, she got Eva sacked from Milwards, a shop. She is ashamed at once: “I’ll never, never do it again to anybody”. Then the Inspector says that Eva changed her name to Daisy Renton, and Gerald is startled.

Act 2

Sheila stays to hear the rest. Gerald admits that he met Daisy Renton in March 1911, in the bar of the Palace variety theatre. He rescued her there from Alderman Meggarty. An alderman was a senior member of a town council. He let her live in a friend’s rooms and kept her as his mistress, until he ended it that September. Sheila hands back her engagement ring, and Gerald goes out for a walk.

Mrs Birling is next. Two weeks earlier, Eva asked Mrs Birling’s charity committee for help, using the name Mrs Birling. Mrs Birling was offended and persuaded the committee to turn her away. Eva was pregnant, and Mrs Birling puts the blame on the father: “Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.” Sheila works out who the father is before her mother does. As the act ends, Eric walks in.

Act 3

Eric admits that he met Eva in the Palace bar in November 1911, and that he forced himself on her while he was drunk. She became pregnant. He gave her about fifty pounds, taken from his father’s office, and she refused any more when she found out it was stolen. Eric blames his mother for Eva’s death.

The Inspector tells the family that each of them helped to kill her. Before he leaves, he makes a final speech: “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.” If people will not learn this, he warns, they will be taught it through terrible suffering. Then he goes.

Gerald comes back with news: there is no Inspector Goole on the police force. A telephone call to the Infirmary finds that no girl has died there that day. Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald relax, and decide the whole evening was a hoax. Sheila and Eric refuse to forget what they did. Then the telephone rings. A girl has just died, and a police inspector is on his way. The curtain falls.

Eva Smith’s story, in order

The Inspector shows how one thing led to the next.

  1. September 1910: Mr Birling sacks her after a strike over wages.
  2. January 1911: Sheila complains about her, and Milwards sacks her.
  3. March to September 1911: now calling herself Daisy Renton, she is Gerald’s mistress until he ends it.
  4. November 1911: she meets Eric and becomes pregnant. She refuses his stolen money.
  5. Two weeks before the play: Mrs Birling’s committee refuses to help her.
  6. The evening of the play: the Inspector says she has died.

The main characters

  • Arthur Birling: a rich factory owner and a former Lord Mayor, sure of himself and wrong about almost everything. He sacked Eva.
  • Sybil Birling: his wife, who comes from a higher class than he does. She is cold and proud, and her committee turned Eva away.
  • Sheila Birling: their daughter, in her early twenties. She had Eva sacked from Milwards, and she is the first to accept the Inspector’s lesson.
  • Eric Birling: their son, also in his early twenties, who drinks too much. He forced himself on Eva and stole money to help her.
  • Gerald Croft: Sheila’s fiancé, about thirty. He kept Eva as his mistress, then left her.
  • Inspector Goole: the visitor who questions each of them in turn. He seems to know everything, and he may not be a real police inspector at all.
  • Eva Smith: a working-class young woman who never appears on stage.
  • Edna: the Birlings’ maid, and the only working-class character the audience sees.

The main ideas

Responsibility. Mr Birling believes a man should look after himself and his family and nobody else. The Inspector argues that we are all responsible for each other.

Class. The Birlings judge Eva by her class at every turn, and their class gives them power over her life.

The generations. Mr and Mrs Birling refuse to change. Sheila and Eric, the younger generation, learn from what they have done. Gerald, though young, sides with the parents.

Gender. Men use Eva and women judge her. In 1912 a working-class woman had very little protection.

Guilt. Every character is given the chance to accept what they did. Who accepts it, and who refuses, is the test the play sets.

Two dates: 1912 and 1945

Priestley sets the play before two world wars and shows it to audiences who had lived through them. Birling says the Titanic will sail next week, and the audience knows it sank on 15 April 1912. He says there will be no war, and the audience knows that Britain went to war with Germany on 4 August 1914, and that a second world war ended in 1945.

This is dramatic irony, which means the audience knows something a character does not. Every time Birling predicts the future, he is wrong, so the audience learns to doubt everything else he says, including his ideas about responsibility.

Priestley was born in Bradford in 1894 and fought in the First World War. During the Second World War his BBC radio talks, called Postscripts, argued for a fairer Britain after the war. The Inspector speaks for that view.

What to do next

Learn the quotations on An Inspector Calls: quotations to learn. Because there is no extract in this exam, practise starting each answer with a clear argument: see How to start an essay with a thesis statement.

Sources

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