Mr Birling's Responsibility In The Inspector Calls

Responsibility is explored in JB Priestley’s play ‘The Inspector Calls’ by showing the contrasting opinions of the younger and older generations. The older and younger generations in the story take the Inspector’s messages differently. Mr Birling and Mrs Birling both choose to protect themselves, where Mr Birling tries to hide from his responsibility by saying if he were to be responsible for something that happened due to a choice made two years ago, it would be a very awkward world. Mrs Birling shrugs off responsibility by telling the inspector that the father of the unborn child is responsible for looking after Eva, not her charity organisation. Eric and Sheila are the young members of the family, and both are honest and admit their roles in the

death of Eva Smith.

When Mr Birling and Sheila learn about the role they played in the suicide of Eva Smith, their responses are juxtaposed.

Midway through act one, Mr Birling is interrogated by the inspector. The inspector proclaims in front Eric and Gerald that due to Mr Birling’s decision to fire Eva after going on strike (pg 172) “I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?”. Mr Birling’s response to the inspector’s accusation shows that he couldn’t see that he had any responsibility for what happened to Eva afterwards. This notion is contrasted to Sheila's response (page 179) “I felt rotten about it at the time and now i feel a lot worse. Did it make much difference to her?”. Sheila showed elements of responsibility, although belatedly, eventually realising that her actions in Milwards had a devastating impact on Eva Smith’s life. JB Priestley’s use of contrasting responses shows Mr. Birling’s outdated opinion that he doesn’t hold any responsibility for an event that occurred two years before his confession. Sheila's response is far more responsible towards her actions of which she is extremely guilty

of.

Mrs Birling’s response to the death of Eva Smith is directly contrasted to her son Eric. Priestley makes it known to the audience that the father of the child is Eric, whilst Mrs Birling condemns the unborn child and forcefully indicating that it is to blame. Before Eric’s reappearance in act two, Mrs Birling states that (page 198) “I’ll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”, this statement shows that Mrs Birling, the older generation, are trying to shift the blame to protect themselves. This view is contrasted with Eric’s confession that (page 214) “the fact remains that I did what I did”, this shows the younger generation's ability to admit their faults where the older generations try to cover up any information that could negatively affect their social status.

Gerald spends most of his time during the end of the play trying to protect himself by trying to prove that the inspector is fake, he is more concerned about saving his social appearance rather than changing it, unlike Sheila who accepts her role in this ordeal. We see during the finale of the play Gerald trying to save face by proclaiming that (page 215) “Did we? Who says so? Because I say - there’s no more real evidence we did than there was that that chap was a police inspector.”. Sheila rebuttals “Of course there is”, this contrasting opinion of responsibility for Eva Smith’s death outlines Gerald’s inability to accept the role he played in Eva’s death. This is continued when Gerald tries to dispute the legitimacy of the inspectors photograph (page 216) “But how do you know it’s the same girl?”. Sheila points out that it doesn’t matter if the photograph is legitimate or not, (page 219) “Everything we said had happened, really had happened. If it didn’t end tragically, then that’s lucky for us. But it might have done”. Sheila’s statements contrast Gerald's to show that she is prepared to accept her wrongdoings and are capable of changing her behaviour to greater benefit society, but Gerald still remains suborn and chooses to dis-prove the Inspectors existence although it wouldn’t change his actions.

The play ‘Inspector Calls’ explores the idea that society must accept responsibility for each other by contrasting the younger and older generations, and how they each respond to the Inspector’s accusations. We see in the play, the older generation (including Gerald) hide from their responsibilities while the younger generation, Eric and Sheila both choose to accept their roles in Eva Smith’s death and change their perspectives to better help one another.