Discussion Topic
The portrayal of power and authority in "An Inspector Calls"
Summary:
The portrayal of power and authority in "An Inspector Calls" is central to its themes, exploring how characters wield and respond to power. Mr. Birling represents traditional authority, confident in his social standing and dismissive of others. In contrast, Inspector Goole challenges this power, questioning moral responsibility and highlighting social inequalities, ultimately suggesting a more just and equitable use of authority.
How is "power and authority" portrayed in "An Inspector Calls"?
An Inspector Calls is a play about the abuse of power and authority, in which a young woman falls victim to each member of the Birling family in turn, rendering her more and more powerless with each encounter.
Arthur Birling utilizes his economic power to release her from her profession following a strike against his factory, and his daughter Sheila Birling does the same when she criticizes her performance in retail. Gerald Croft, Sheila’s beau, is found to have kept the girl as a mistress for a time, and Eric Birling also had a continuing sexual relationship with her, following their initial encounter, which was likely rape. Gerald’s relationship was built on financial provision as well, and Eric attempted to do the same (not knowing who she had previously been connected with), though he was using money stolen from his father’s factory. He attempted to continue the relationship upon discovering...
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her pregnancy. Finally, the mother, Sybil Birling, used her social standing to reject the girl’s application for charity, not realizing she had a hand in destroying the life of her own grandchild.
As the girl inevitably takes her own life (prompting the inspector’s visit), the Birlings spend a good amount of the play exchanging and rejecting blame for the event. Each individual found themselves in a position of authority over the girl, but each used it to her detriment, if not their own advancement. In the end, the typical drawing room play appears to be an accusation of those with power that ignore, abuse, or misuse those with less social, economic, or physical power.
Power and authority are routinely abused by the Birlings in An Inspector Calls. Their enormous wealth gives them an equally enormous degree of control over the lives of those less fortunate than themselves. All of them in their own individual way think that their exalted position in society gives them the right to determine how the less well-connected—such as Eva Smith—live their lives.
To the Birlings people like Eva are just like pawns in a game of chess who exist purely and solely to be manipulated for their own benefit. So long as they can be controlled, so long as they serve the interests of the rich and privileged, then their existence can be tolerated. But once they try to get out of their box, so to speak, then they're immediately marked down as a danger to be ruthlessly destroyed. In that sense, one could say that the Birlings' behavior towards Eva aptly illustrates the old adage that power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is the Birlings' moral corruption that Inspector Goole has come to expose in all its ugliness.