Act 1: The Engagement and the Inspector Arrives
The Opening: A Celebration
The play opens with the Birling family celebrating Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft. The stage directions describe a “fairly large suburban house” with “good solid furniture” but “not cosy and homelike.” This detail is significant — the Birlings have wealth but lack genuine warmth. The room is dressed to impress, not to comfort.
The lighting is described as “pink and intimate” before the Inspector arrives, then becomes “brighter and harder.” This stage direction is a metaphor for the Inspector’s role: he brings harsh light to the family’s comfortable illusions.
The lighting change from “pink and intimate” to “brighter and harder” symbolises the shift from comfortable self-deception to uncomfortable truth. This is one of the most frequently examined stage directions in the play.
Birling’s Speeches
Before the Inspector arrives, Arthur Birling makes a series of confident speeches. He predicts that war is impossible: “there isn’t a chance of war.” He dismisses community: “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.” He boasts about the Titanic being “absolutely unsinkable.”
Every prediction is wrong. Priestley uses dramatic irony to demolish Birling’s authority before the Inspector even arrives. If Birling is wrong about the Titanic and the war, the audience knows he is equally wrong about the importance of social responsibility.
Birling represents capitalism at its most selfish. His speech about “looking after yourself” is a direct rejection of the collective responsibility that Priestley championed. By making Birling so obviously wrong about everything, Priestley ensures the audience rejects his philosophy too.
The Inspector Arrives
Inspector Goole arrives just as Birling is lecturing Gerald and Eric about self-reliance. His entrance interrupts Birling mid-speech — literally cutting off his capitalist philosophy. The timing is deliberate: Priestley positions the Inspector as the direct answer to Birling’s selfishness.
The Inspector announces that a young woman — Eva Smith — has died in the infirmary after swallowing disinfectant. He shows a photograph to Birling (but not to the others). Birling admits that Eva Smith worked at his factory and that he sacked her for leading a strike demanding higher wages.
Birling sacked Eva Smith because she asked for a pay rise from twenty-two shillings and sixpence to twenty-five shillings a week. He sacked her as a ringleader who “had a lot to say — far too much.” Priestley uses this to show how the capitalist class treated workers as disposable.
“Eva” echoes Eve — the first woman in the Bible. “Smith” is the most common English surname. Together, they suggest she represents all working-class women. She is an everywoman figure: not just one victim, but every person exploited by the system the Birlings represent.
Birling shows no remorse for sacking Eva. He calls it a “perfectly straightforward case” and says he “can’t accept any responsibility.” He tries to intimidate the Inspector by mentioning his connections: the Chief Constable is “a friend of mine.” This reveals Birling’s belief that power and status should place him above moral scrutiny.