How is Eric Birling portrayed in An Inspector Calls?

Eric Birling is first presented as the ne'er-do-well son of the wealthy and hardheaded businessman Arthur Birling, but later he proves his worth as an honest man.

Eric is an alcoholic, whose behavior has been dissolute and irresponsible, but his mother pretends that there is nothing wrong with her son. In the end, unlike his parents, Eric, along with his sister, demonstrates that he does possess a moral compass and a worthy conscience, by not excusing his guilt in the death of a poor young woman.

While the Birling family enjoys a celebratory dinner for their daughter Sheila and her fiance Gerald Croft, a police inspector arrives to question the family about a young woman named Eva Smith, who later calls herself Daisy Renton, who has committed suicide. The inspector shows each person separately a photograph, and he describes the poor girl's history.

At first, he talks to Mr. Birling and Gerald. However, as the drama develops, it is demonstrated all of the Birlings are involved in the tragic events that lead poor Eva to taking her life. The inspector also reveals that both Gerald and Eric have been romantically involved with Eva after her firing at the Birling factory and another job.

When Eva, who calls herself Mrs. Birling, appears before Mrs. Sybil Birling's charity group to appeal for financial help, the outraged Mrs. Birling prevents Eva from obtaining anything. She insists, ironically, that the father of the child must be held responsible. Eva tells her that this young man has given her some money, but she suspects that it has been stolen, so she cannot accept anything from him. (The young man, of course, is Eric and his impregnating Eva is why she has called herself Mrs. Birling.)

After all the inspector's revelations, Eric and his sister Sheila, who caused Eva's firing from a dress shop, admit their guilt. Further, Eric confesses to his father that he did, in fact, steal fifty dollars which he gave to Eva. Arthur Birling's first reaction is how to cover up the loss of the fifty dollars so no one will know. He tells his children that "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own."

Further, Birling says there is reason to excuse his and his wife's behavior, but he is ashamed of Eric. On the other hand, Eric replies that he is ashamed of them, as well, as his father began her misfortunes and his mother directly caused her and his child to die. Nevertheless, in the end, the parents justify their actions because the inspector has performed a ruse and is not a real policeman. Only Eric and his sister accept their social responsibilities.

Inspector Goole is first presented as a massive, solid man of purpose. He is in his fifties and wearing a plain, dark, Edwardian suit. He has a way of staring hard at a person before he speaks, and he speaks slowly and with authority.

As the play proceeds, however, the inspector becomes more mysterious. We learn from the start that he has just joined the local police force, for Mr. Birling doesn't remember him. But as the play unfolds, he already seems to know what the different Birlings have done and what questions to ask, as if he is merely pulling out of his interviewees facts he is aware of but which they perhaps don't want to face up to or admit in public.

By the inspector time leaves, the family starts to wonder if he really is a police officer. By the end of the play, it seems clear he has supernatural knowledge of events that are going to happen but have not yet occurred.

His name, Inspector Goole, which sounds like the word "ghoul" or ghost, also reinforces the idea that he is a ghostly presence. This leaves the reader with the impression that he comes from another world to prick the consciences of the various Birlings so they can see how their careless, privileged, and entitled behavior harms the lives of lower-class people.

What are Mr. Birling and Eric's responsibilities in An Inspector Calls?

Mr. Birling runs a factory and continually says that it is his responsibility to keep costs down. This is why he says he refused to submit to Eva Smith's demands for twenty-five shillings a week instead of twenty-two and sixpence. He seems to regard himself as having no social responsibility for his workers and reacts angrily when the Inspector suggests that he might have. He regards people like Eva merely as cheap labor, an extension of the machines with which she works.

The story of Eva Smith's downfall starts with Mr. Birling and all four Birlings, as well as Gerald Croft, contribute to the sordid story. However, when the story ends with Eva becoming pregnant—which is to say, becoming "fallen woman" in the terms of early twentieth-century British society—everyone is eager to blame the absent father of the baby. Mrs. Birling harangues the Inspector, saying that if he would "take some steps to find this young man and then make sure that he's compelled to confess in public his responsibility" then he would really be doing his duty. Of course, this is the attitude of the Birling family before they realize that Eric is the young man in question.

The Inspector makes it clear that all the Birlings and Gerald fail in the personal and social responsibilities, which are the same thing, since we have a responsibility to treat others as fellow humans, not as means to an end. He delivers the message unequivocally in the final act:

We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they well be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.