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Edexcel GCSE English Literature · Paper 1, Section B
The entire play takes place in one evening, in the Birlings' dining room. This unity of time, place, and action intensifies the dramatic tension.
The Birling family are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft. Arthur Birling delivers a speech about self-reliance and dismisses community responsibility. Inspector Goole arrives and announces that a young woman, Eva Smith, has died after swallowing disinfectant. Birling is revealed to have sacked Eva from his factory for leading a strike for higher wages. Sheila discovers she had Eva fired from her next job at Milwards out of jealousy.
Gerald confesses to having an affair with Eva (now calling herself Daisy Renton). He kept her as his mistress before ending the relationship. Mrs Birling is confronted - as chair of the Brumley Women's Charity, she refused Eva's appeal for help when she was pregnant and destitute. Mrs Birling insists the father of Eva's child should bear full responsibility, unknowingly condemning her own son.
Eric is revealed as the father of Eva's child. He had forced himself on her while drunk, got her pregnant, and stolen money from his father's firm to support her. The Inspector delivers his final speech about social responsibility - 'We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.' After he leaves, Gerald and Birling discover that no girl has died at the Infirmary and suspect the Inspector was a hoax. The older generation are relieved, but Sheila and Eric remain changed. The phone rings: a girl has just died, and a police inspector is coming to question them.
A mysterious figure who may be supernatural, a time-traveller, or Priestley's mouthpiece. He systematically exposes each Birling's responsibility for Eva's death. He is authoritative, moral, and unsettling. His name - 'Goole' - sounds like 'ghoul,' suggesting he may not be a real inspector at all. He represents Priestley's socialist message.
A wealthy factory owner, magistrate, and aspiring knight. He is pompous, self-important, and obsessed with status. His dramatic irony-laden speeches (dismissing the possibility of war, calling the Titanic 'unsinkable') expose his foolishness. He represents the capitalist class that Priestley criticises. He refuses to accept responsibility and is mainly concerned about a public scandal.
Birling's daughter. Initially presented as naive and materialistic, she undergoes the greatest transformation. She accepts responsibility for having Eva fired, shows genuine remorse, and becomes increasingly critical of her parents' attitudes. She represents hope - the younger generation who can learn and change. By the end, she has adopted the Inspector's moral position.
Arthur's wife. Cold, snobbish, and prejudiced. She is the most resistant to accepting responsibility. As chair of a charity, she refused to help Eva, judging her for using the Birling name and for being an unmarried pregnant woman. She represents the upper-class hypocrisy and moral failure that Priestley attacks. She condemns the father of Eva's child - not realising it is her own son Eric.
The Birlings' son. He is an alcoholic who forced himself on Eva, got her pregnant, and stole money to support her. Despite his serious flaws, Eric shows genuine remorse and sides with Sheila against their parents. Like Sheila, he represents the capacity of the younger generation to learn. His drinking problem hints at underlying unhappiness beneath the family's prosperous surface.
Sheila's fiance, son of Sir George Croft (a rival manufacturer). He had an affair with Eva/Daisy, rescuing her from another man at the Palace Bar, but ultimately abandoned her when it suited him. Gerald occupies a middle position - he shows some compassion but is ultimately willing to dismiss the Inspector's visit and return to normal. He represents the entitled upper-middle class.
The victim. She never appears on stage but is central to the play. She may represent one woman or many - Priestley uses her as a symbol of all exploited working-class people. She is sacked, exploited, rejected, and ultimately driven to suicide. Her invisibility on stage reflects how the working class were invisible to the upper classes.
The central message of the play. Priestley argues that we have a duty to care for one another, not just ourselves. The Inspector's final speech - 'We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other' - is Priestley's direct challenge to the audience. Each Birling's failure of responsibility contributes to Eva's death.
Priestley exposes the vast gap between rich and poor in Edwardian England and how the upper classes exploit workers. Eva is treated as disposable - sacked for asking for fair wages, dismissed as 'a girl of that sort.' Mrs Birling's charity exists to help the poor but rejects Eva out of snobbery. The play argues that class divisions cause real human suffering.
Sheila and Eric accept responsibility and change, while Birling and Mrs Birling refuse to learn. Priestley suggests the younger generation offers hope for a fairer society. The older Birlings represent the establishment - rigid, selfish, and incapable of change. The play's ending implies that if the older generation will not learn, consequences ('fire and blood and anguish') will follow.
Eva is exploited by men (Eric's assault, Gerald's affair) and judged by women of higher class (Mrs Birling, Sheila). Women in 1912 had no vote and limited rights. Eva's vulnerability is directly linked to her gender and class - she has no power, no protection, and no voice. Priestley highlights how patriarchal society fails women.
Each character responds differently to guilt. Sheila is devastated; Eric is remorseful; Gerald is practical; Birling is defensive; Mrs Birling is in denial. The play explores whether guilt leads to genuine change or is simply an inconvenience to be overcome. The ending - a real inspector is coming - suggests accountability cannot be avoided.
Birling represents capitalism: 'a man has to mind his own business.' The Inspector represents socialism: 'We are members of one body.' Priestley, a committed socialist, wrote the play in 1945 as Britain was electing a Labour government. He wanted the audience to reject Birling's selfish capitalism and embrace collective responsibility.
The Edexcel exam is closed-book. Learn these quotes and practise embedding them into your paragraphs.
"a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own"
- Birling (Act 1)
Birling's capitalist philosophy - rejected by the play as selfish and harmful.
"The Titanic... unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
- Birling (Act 1)
Dramatic irony - the Titanic sank in 1912. Undermines everything Birling says and makes the audience distrust him.
"We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other"
- Inspector (Act 3)
The play's central message. 'One body' alludes to the Christian idea of the body of Christ - society as a single organism.
"They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"
- Inspector (Act 3)
Prophetic warning - refers to both World Wars. Written in 1945, set in 1912, the audience knows these wars happened because society failed to learn.
"But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people"
- Sheila (Act 1)
Sheila begins to see the humanity in workers. Marks the start of her transformation.
"I know I'm to blame - and I'm desperately sorry"
- Sheila (Act 1)
Genuine remorse - contrasts with her parents' refusal to accept guilt.
"You're pretending everything's just as it was before"
- Sheila (Act 3)
Sheila recognises that the evening has changed everything. She will not go back to ignorance.
"a girl of that sort"
- Mrs Birling (Act 2)
Class snobbery - Eva is dismissed as inferior because of her social class. Dehumanising language.
"I accept no blame for it at all"
- Mrs Birling (Act 2)
Complete refusal of responsibility. Mrs Birling is the most morally rigid character.
"Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility"
- Mrs Birling (Act 2)
Dramatic irony - she is unwittingly condemning her own son Eric. The audience realises before she does.
"I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty"
- Eric (Act 3)
Eric's euphemistic confession of assault. 'That state' refers to drunkenness - his alcoholism enabled his violence.
"You're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble"
- Eric (Act 3)
Eric exposes the dysfunction beneath the Birlings' respectable surface. Birling has failed as a father.
"We did her in all right"
- Eric (Act 3)
Collective guilt - 'we' acknowledges shared responsibility. Eric includes himself honestly.
"I was quite justified"
- Birling (Act 1)
Birling's refusal to accept wrongdoing. He sees sacking workers as a business decision, not a moral one.
"She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful"
- Gerald (Act 2)
'Intensely grateful' suggests a power imbalance. Gerald rescued Eva but also exploited her vulnerability.
"It's better to ask for the earth than to take it"
- Inspector (Act 1)
Workers have a right to demand fair treatment rather than having their labour exploited by the wealthy.
"One person and one line of inquiry at a time"
- Inspector (Act 1)
The Inspector controls the pace. His methodical approach ensures each person faces their guilt individually.
"The famous younger generation who know it all"
- Birling (Act 3)
Birling dismisses Sheila and Eric's moral growth as youthful arrogance. Priestley inverts this - the young are wiser.
"Everything's all right now, Sheila. What about this ring?"
- Gerald (Act 3)
Gerald wants to return to normal. The ring symbolises the superficial values Sheila now rejects.
"a hard-headed, practical man of business"
- Birling (Act 1)
Self-aggrandising description. 'Hard-headed' suggests stubbornness rather than wisdom.
"No, he's giving us the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves"
- Sheila (Act 2)
Sheila perceives the Inspector's strategy. She is intelligent and self-aware - more perceptive than her parents.
"You don't understand anything. You never did"
- Eric (Act 3)
Eric's final condemnation of his parents. The generational split is complete.
Priestley deliberately sets the play in 1912 - before two World Wars - but writes it in 1945 as WWII ends. The 1945 audience knows that Birling's confident predictions ('no war') were catastrophically wrong. This dramatic irony discredits Birling and the capitalist worldview he represents.
J.B. Priestley was a committed socialist who believed in collective responsibility, the welfare state, and workers' rights. He made popular radio broadcasts during WWII advocating for social reform. An Inspector Calls is a vehicle for his political message - urging the post-war audience to build a fairer society.
The play premiered in 1945, the year the Labour Party won a landslide election, promising the NHS, welfare state, and nationalised industries. Priestley's play aligned with the national mood - a desire for social change and collective responsibility after the shared sacrifice of WWII.
In 1912, Britain had a rigid class system. The wealthy elite like the Birlings held enormous power over workers who had no minimum wage, limited rights, and no welfare safety net. Women could not vote. Priestley uses the Birlings to expose the cruelty and hypocrisy of this system.
Women in 1912 had no vote (suffragettes were actively campaigning), limited job opportunities, and were expected to be dependent on men. Eva Smith's vulnerability is a product of this inequality - she has no safety net when men exploit and abandon her.
Birling's reference to the 'unsinkable' Titanic (which sank in April 1912) and his dismissal of war (WWI began in 1914) are examples of dramatic irony. They show that the comfortable certainties of the Edwardian upper classes were built on delusion.
You will typically have a choice of two questions. There is no extract - you must recall your own evidence from the play.
Example Question 1
How does Priestley present the theme of social responsibility in An Inspector Calls?
Example Question 2
How does Priestley use the character of Sheila to convey his message in An Inspector Calls?
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An Inspector Calls © The Estate of J.B. Priestley. Short quotations reproduced under the fair dealing provision of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 for the purpose of criticism and review.