Arthur Birling · husband and wife · Sybil Birling
The opening stage direction makes her her husband’s social superior, and she corrects his manners at dinner. By the end of Act 3 they are united again, in relief and in refusing to change.
Arthur Birling · father and son · Eric Birling
Birling lectures and dismisses Eric all evening. Eric’s answer, that his father is not someone he could go to in trouble, explains why he stole rather than ask for help, and Birling’s first thought is to cover the theft up.
Arthur Birling · future father-in-law and son-in-law · Gerald Croft
Birling sees the marriage as a business alliance with a bigger, older firm. After the Inspector leaves, the two men work together to prove it was a hoax.
Sheila Birling · engaged couple · Gerald Croft
Sheila teases Gerald about his absence last summer in the first scene, and later admits she knew all along there was something wrong about it. She hands back the ring in Act 2, saying the evening has made them different people, and at the end she will not take it again yet.
Sybil Birling · mother and son · Eric Birling
She insists he is only a boy who does not drink, then condemns the father of the child without knowing it is him. Eric turns on her for turning Eva and his child away.
Sheila Birling · sister and brother · Eric Birling
They squabble at dinner and he calls her a sneak for telling their mother about his drinking. By the end they stand together against their parents.
Inspector Goole · questioner and public man · Arthur Birling
Birling reminds the Inspector of his rank and his friendship with the Chief Constable. The Inspector answers that public men have responsibilities as well as privileges, and is never impressed.
Inspector Goole · questioner and pupil · Sheila Birling
Sheila is the first to understand how he works and ends the play repeating his words. She says she does not understand him, and he tells her there is no reason she should.
Arthur Birling · employer and worker · Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
He praised her as a good worker, then sacked her as a ringleader of the strike. The Inspector says it was Birling who started the chain.
Sheila Birling · customer and shop assistant · Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
Sheila used her family’s account at Milwards to have Eva sacked because she was jealous of her. She is the one who later feels it most.
Gerald Croft · rescuer, then kept lover · Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
He rescued her from Alderman Meggarty and kept her in a friend’s rooms, then broke it off in September before going away on business; Sheila says he dropped her when it suited him. The Inspector allows that he at least made her happy for a time.
Eric Birling · father of her unborn child · Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
Their meetings began with Eric drunk and threatening his way into her lodgings. She did not want to marry him and would take no more of his money once she knew it was stolen, arguably showing more principle than the family who judged her.
Sybil Birling · charity chair and applicant · Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
Offended that the girl used the name Mrs Birling, she had the committee refuse her. It was the last help Eva asked for.
Sybil Birling · mistress and servant · Edna
Mrs Birling gives Edna her orders about coffee and tea. Edna is the only servant the audience sees, waiting on the family and answering their door all evening.