Play: An Inspector Calls

Setting and Premise
J.B. Priestley’s 1945 play unfolds in a single evening in 1912, inside the comfortable dining room of the Birling family, prosperous industrialists in the fictional Midlands town of Brumley. The family is celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft, a match that promises to consolidate social status and business interests. Arthur Birling, the bullish patriarch, delivers confident pronouncements about progress, the impossibility of war, and the unsinkable Titanic, establishing a mood of complacency and dramatic irony. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who announces the suicide of a young working-class woman and begins an inquiry that will expose the moral failings behind the Birlings’ respectability.

Plot Summary
Inspector Goole’s interrogation reveals that each person present is implicated in the downfall of the dead woman, known first as Eva Smith and later as Daisy Renton. Arthur Birling admits he sacked her from his factory for leading a strike for higher wages. Sheila confesses she had Eva dismissed from a department store out of jealous pique over a trivial incident. The investigation turns to Gerald, who met Daisy Renton, installed her as his mistress during a period when he drifted from Sheila, and then abandoned her with material provisions but no lasting support.

The Inspector next confronts Sybil Birling, who, as chair of a women’s charity, denied aid to the desperate young woman when she sought help under the name Mrs Birling. Sybil coolly places blame on the child’s unknown father, not realizing it is her own son. Eric Birling finally admits he met the woman in a bar, had a chaotic and exploitative relationship compounded by heavy drinking, and stole money from his father’s business to support her after she became pregnant. The Inspector’s final speech stresses social responsibility and warns of the consequences when privileged citizens ignore their obligations to others.

Themes and Ideas
The play critiques class privilege, capitalist self-interest, and moral hypocrisy, setting older-generation self-justifications against the younger generation’s potential for change. Responsibility, personal, social, and collective, sits at the center, as each character’s seemingly minor act contributes to a chain of harm. Gender dynamics surface in the treatment of Eva/Daisy, whose vulnerability is magnified by class and gender inequities. Priestley uses dramatic irony to undercut Arthur Birling’s complacent forecasts, inviting the audience to measure Edwardian confidence against later historical disasters. Beneath the detective framework lies a call for empathy and a rebuke of charitable institutions that preserve status over justice.

Structure and Style
Priestley compresses action into real time within a single set, creating pressure-cooker momentum. The Inspector’s methodical approach turns a celebratory dinner into a public inquiry, with each confession deepening the moral stakes. Dialogue shifts from polite banter to terse interrogation, and lighting famously hardens upon the Inspector’s arrival to signal scrutiny. While the play functions as a whodunnit, the culprit is less a person than a system of attitudes; the genre’s pleasures serve a didactic purpose.

Ending and Ambiguity
After the Inspector departs, the family discovers there is no Inspector Goole on the local force, and the infirmary reports no recent suicide. Arthur, Sybil, and Gerald eagerly treat the night as a hoax, while Sheila and Eric refuse absolution, having internalized the Inspector’s ethic. The final phone call announces that a girl has just died in the infirmary and an inspector is on his way. The loop suggests either a premonitory visitation or a moral test. The unresolved identity of Goole sharpens the play’s central demand: that privilege accept accountability before catastrophe compels it.