Birling Family Character Analysis in An Inspector Calls

The representation of guilt in An Inspector calls wasn’t shown by any of the characters until Inspector Goole arrives along with the news of Eva Smiths death, from that point the guilt from each of the characters is shown in different ways. Each of the characters starts learning that they had different parts to play in Eva smiths’ suicide. Mr. Birling had known Eva from one of the machine shops that he had employed her to work in, but it quickly came to an end when Eva had asked for a very small rise in pay but Mr. Birling refused and warned “if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work elsewhere”, Eva was then thrown out of the workplace. Mr birling thought he was just looking after business, but this was the begging of Eva’s suicide Mr birling didn’t show very much guilt as he thought he didn’t need to because it was his business and he could do as he pleased.

Mr birling was represented as a very unattractive person at the start of the play but as the play went on her got more understanding but still had the thought that money could get rid of his problems “look inspector – I’d give thousands’. Mrs. Birling is portrayed as a snob, she’s very aware of the difference in social class an example of this is when Mrs. Birling say’s “girls of that class”. Mrs. Birling makes it very obvious that she has the least respect for the inspector as she tries to deny that she has ever seen Eva or even heard of her, but as the story starts to unfold we find out that Eva went to Mrs. Birling for re at her charity but Mrs. Birling sent her back, she also didn’t show any guilt when she realized that Eva was pregnant it was the fact that she was in a lower class or lower status that she decided not to do anything. Towards the end of Mrs. Birling’s scene, she admits that she was “prejudice” against the girl who applied for her committee or help and saw It was her “duty” to refuse to help her as she thought it should be the father of the child to be responsible for its welfare. Shelia Birling is the daughter of the Birling family. In the book, the family has gathered to celebrate Shelia getting engaged to Eric the writer describes Shelia as “a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited’.

In the first act of the play Shelia denies that she had no role in the death of Eva Smiths death, but later admits that she did, in fact, play a part, Eva tells the inspector that she got Eva fired because she felt jealous of Eva beauty and the way she looked in a certain dress. After Shelia realized what she did she turned her emotions into guilt. She tried hard to get her parents to speak the truth as she started realizing what the inspector's point was. Shelia also didn’t try to explain herself as Mrs. and Mr. Birling tried to do, Shelia simply realized what she had done was wrong. Eric Birling is the son of the Birling family, at the start of the play Eric is always facing the audience, this can make people think that he is the most to blame for the suicide of Eva Smith, this can be portrayed as Eric sits with his back to the audience because he wants to hide his guilt, he doesn’t want people to know how much he’s let his family down by getting a lower class girl pregnant and then leaving it to her to figure out. Eric covers his guilt by drinking with his father, this shows that Eric can’t be happy thinking about what he's done so he needs something strong to take his mind elsewhere, he does this by getting drunk. Eric does also have a sense of responsibility even though he got Eva pregnant he still gave her money, he doesn't try and lie to cover up what he's done either when the inspector.

Throughout the story we see a change in the way the Birling family portray themselves out to be from the beginning. At the start of the play the Birlings seemed like a very hard-working family but as the inspector starts asking question each one of the characters has their own hidden identy that the audience wouldn’t have guessed they had before. At the end of the play we see that Shelia and Eric act more mature then Mr and Mrs Birling, this is shown by the way they react to the situation. Both Eric and Shelia feel very guilty and deserve any punishment that comes their way, this is shows that both young adults have better morals and understanding to a person life. Another way Eric and Shelia have shown that they have more guilt in Eva’s death is the way they respond to the inspector. Shelia from the very begging told the truth even that meant her family would hate her for it, however Shelia showed more concern about Eva’s death then what her family would think of her.

This shows the audience that Shelia was a very indepented person and would always chose the right thing to do even If that meant she might have ruined relationships with her own family. This is also shown when Shelia is trying to get both her parents to just tell the truth. Eric showed that he felt guilty from the very start of the play even if we as the audience couldn’t see that. The way he portrayed this as we later find out in the play is by drinking. Even though some might say drinking doesn’t show that someone feels guilt but in my option it does even if it’s to the littlest of extent.

The reason why Eric started drinking was because he felt so terrible to what he had done to Eva, by drinking this made the feeling of guilt and depression go away. As we learn more about Eric, we see that ever since he turned Eva away, he’s been shyer, this shows the audience that because he’s become shy, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone this is because if he does, he’s scared that his family are going to disapprove of his actions and abandon him. Mr and Mrs Birling throughout the play are consistent with the fact that they haven’t done anything to lead up to Eva Smiths death, they believe that this was all down to her making her own decision and they shouldn’t be the ones to blame.

The reason why Mr and MRs Birling act this way is because they don’t want their repetition or status to fall because of their actions towards Eva especially because their roles in their community are highly looked upon. This tells the audience that both paraments care too much about what other people might think about them to even feel any guilt or remorse for what they have done.