"An Inspector Calls" by J.B. Priestley

Essay by xxKarliexx April 2006

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 11 times

I am going to compare and contrast the reactions of Arthur Birling and Sheila Birling to the interrogation in which they received by the Inspector. Both of which reacted in completely different ways.

I feel that the inspector makes a bigger impression on the younger characters then he does on the older characters this is shown by looking at the two characters, Mr.Arthur Birling and Sheila Birling. Arthur Birling is the father of the Birling family. 'He is a heavy- looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech'. Sheila, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Birling, 'is a pretty girl in her early twenties, who is very pleased with life' and rather excited about her early engagement to Gerald Croft, who is the son of Lady and Lord Croft, a very wealthy businessman.

At the time of the inspectors entrance Mr Birling is in the room with Gerald and Eric, it is only when the inspector has finished interviewing Mr Birling that Shelia enters.

This shows that the inspector likes to interview people one at a time, 'It's the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of inquiry at a time'. At first Shelia doesn't notice the inspector as she is still excited over her engagement. She is curious to know what her father had been talking about, but when she notices the inspector she changes her character from excited and happy to that of what she would have been taught to behave like in a strangers company. As Shelia is from an upper class family she would have been taught to behave respectfully when in the company of strangers. Shelia had entered to ask her father why he had not...