39 pages • 1 hour read
J.B. PriestleyAn Inspector Calls
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1945A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Eva Smith/Daisy Renton
Inspector Goole tells the Birling family that Eva Smith is a young woman who dies by suicide by ingesting disinfectant. One by one, he reveals to the characters their role in her death by suicide. In this way, Eva functions less as a character and more as a symbol of the dark heart of the Birling family and society as a whole. Eva is a representative of “millions and millions and millions” of working-class people (207), whose exploitation fuels the capitalist machine and whose suffering is deliberately ignored and obscured by those in power. Since the Birling family struggles to confront the litany of sins and misdeeds they have committed, the inspector repeatedly uses Eva to refocus their attention. She is the embodiment of their failure, a physical representation of the human cost of their success. Rather than offer some abstract critique of capitalism, Goole (and the play as a whole) deliberately frames Eva as a symbol of working-class suffering in early 20th-century Britain.
The symbolic nature of Eva Smith is elucidated by the frequent change in names she undergoes throughout the novel. Arthur knows her as Eva Smith, while she introduces herself to Gerald as Daisy Renton. When she is at her lowest point, Eva petitions Sybil’s charity under the name Mrs. Birling, choosing the name of the man who raped, impregnated, and abandoned her. Under these three names, Eva functions as a cipher for various working-class plights; she is mistreated by an employer, a lover, and a charity. Her bad experiences are representative of the various ways in which working-class people are marginalized, disenfranchised, and alienated. Eva’s different names function to cast the symbolism of her suffering far and wide, showing how it can touch different women in different circumstances.
After Goole’s departure, Arthur and Gerald persuade themselves that no one woman could ever have suffered so much. They insist that Eva Smith is a false identity and that they have all interacted with a different working-class woman. Accordingly, they imply that the sins of their past can be ignored. They misinterpret the symbolic nature of Eva Smith; however, they do not claim that their confessions were not true. Arthur did fire Eva Smith, Gerald did have an affair with Daisy Renton, Sybil did turn Mrs. Birling away from the charity. They abandon any pretense of civic responsibility or social criticism because they adamantly refuse to accept the idea that Eva’s suffering could be anything more than an isolated incident. Their inability to accept Eva’s suffering as symbolic of the broader issues faced by the working class illustrates why they are beyond redemption. They lack empathy for women like Eva, so they refuse to engage with what Eva represents. The family fails to grasp that whether Eva is one person is irrelevant: The suffering that she represents is still very real.
The Photograph
During the course of his interrogation, Inspector Goole shows a photograph to each member of the Birling family and to Gerald. Whenever he shows this photograph to a person, he does not allow anyone else to see it. He claims that the photograph shows Eva Smith/Daisy Renton/Mrs. Birling, and each character confirms that the woman in the photograph is the woman who they have supposedly wronged. The photograph is a symbolic representation of Goole forcing the characters to confront the harm that they have done. They are placed face-to-face with the wronged party and then forced to explain themselves. The different reactions to the photograph represent the degree to which the characters empathize with Eva and regret their role in her death. Arthur deals with the photograph in a businesslike manner, for example, while Sheila is so horrified that she runs from the room. Their reactions are symbolic: Arthur will continue to insist that his attitude toward Eva was justified by his business sense while Sheila will immediately regret her emotional demand that Eva be fired.
At the end of the play, the characters realize that they may have been victims of an elaborate sleight of hand. Since Goole showed each of them the photograph individually, Arthur and Gerald agree, it’s possible that Goole actually showed each person a different photograph featuring a different woman. They fail to recognize that this actually supports Goole’s implication that Eva is representative of the many millions of working-class people who are exploited by people like the Birling family and Gerald. The actual person in the picture is somewhat irrelevant, as the subject of the photograph is a stand-in for the working class as a whole.
The characters’ reasoning about the nature of the photograph is symbolic. If their reactions to the picture symbolized their capacity to empathize with the dead woman, then their successive reactions symbolize the extent to which their regret is sincere. Though Gerald seemed to show genuine regret for his role in Daisy’s death, the enthusiasm with which he seizes upon the theory of different photographs demonstrates his eagerness to distance himself from such negative emotions. He would rather invent an elaborate theory than reflect on the confession that he has just made. Arthur and Sybil are the same, more eager to blame Goole’s trickery than to confront their own actions. Sheila criticizes her parents for this reaction to the photograph, while Eric accuses his parents of “letting [themselves] out nicely” by concocting their intricate theory about numerous photographs (217). Unlike the others, Sheila and Eric understand that the photograph plays a symbolic role in Goole’s investigation; the photograph is not the injured party, the dead woman in the morgue is the injured party.
The Ring
The engagement ring Gerald gives Sheila features prominently throughout An Inspector Calls. To Sheila, the ring is the symbol of her achievement. Her fiancé is from a rich, respected family and she is very pleased to be marrying him. Not only does she love him, but the match promises to elevate her and her family’s social status. The engagement ring is a symbol of this happiness and upward mobility, and Sheila is happy to show it off at the beginning of Act I. The ring is the official seal on the engagement, demonstrating that the marriage is all but assured.
At the end of Act I, Sheila discovers that Gerald has not been faithful to her. At a time when he claimed to have been working hard, he was actually having an affair with a young woman who he believed to be named Daisy Renton. He paid her an allowance and put her up in an empty house belonging to his friend. The time he spent with Daisy was a time when he was making excuses not to see Sheila. When the full story unfurls in Act II, Sheila makes a decision. She removes the engagement ring and hands it back to Gerald. The removal of the ring is a symbolic gesture. Sheila was delighted to marry Gerald, but the disclosure of the affair shows her that she was engaged to a man she did not truly know.
By removing the ring, she demonstrates that she is no longer able to marry that version of Gerald. Importantly, however, she does not promise that she will never love him again. As she hands back the ring, she tells Gerald that they will “have to start all over again, getting to know each other” (194). One day in the future, she implies, Gerald may give her the ring again. In returning it to him, she invites Gerald to initiate a new, more honest phase of their relationship.
