Act 3: Eric’s Confession and the Inspector’s Speech
Eric’s Confession
Act 3 opens with Eric returning to the room, now aware that the family knows his secret. He confesses that he met Eva/Daisy at the Palace bar, that he had been drinking heavily, and that he forced his way into her lodgings. He got her pregnant.
Eric stole money from his father’s office to support Eva — roughly fifty pounds. Eva discovered the money was stolen and refused to accept any more, showing greater moral integrity than Eric himself. When Eric learns that his own mother refused Eva’s plea for help, he turns on her: “You killed her — and the child she’d have had too — my child — your own grandchild.”
Eric’s treatment of Eva is arguably the most serious. He used her sexually, got her pregnant, and tried to buy her off with stolen money. Yet like Sheila, Eric shows genuine remorse — he accepts responsibility and is horrified by his family’s behaviour.
Eric’s alcoholism is hinted at throughout the play but ignored by his parents. Sheila notices early on that Eric is “squiffy” (drunk). When the truth finally emerges, Mr and Mrs Birling are shocked, revealing how little they know about their own son. Priestley uses Eric’s drinking to show that the Birling family’s obsession with appearances has blinded them to real problems within their own household.
The Inspector’s Final Speech
Before leaving, the Inspector delivers the play’s most famous speech. It is Priestley’s direct message to the audience:
“One Eva Smith has gone — but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”
The Inspector’s speech uses the phrase “members of one body.” This echoes the New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”). By using religious language, Priestley gives his socialist message a moral and spiritual authority that transcends politics.
The speech uses several key techniques. Repetition (“millions and millions and millions”) emphasises the scale of suffering. The tricolon “their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness” humanises the working class. The direct address (“We are responsible for each other”) includes the audience in the message.
The speech ends with a warning: if people do not learn the lesson of collective responsibility, they will be taught it in “fire and blood and anguish.” The 1945 audience would have heard this as a direct reference to the two world wars they had just endured.
Eric vs His Parents
After the Inspector leaves, the generational divide becomes even sharper. Eric, like Sheila, insists that it does not matter whether the Inspector was real: “And it doesn’t alter the fact that we all helped to kill her.”
Eric moves from a troubled, heavy-drinking young man to someone who genuinely understands the consequences of his actions. His accusation against his mother (“You killed her”) shows he has crossed a line — he is willing to confront his own family. Like Sheila, Eric represents Priestley’s hope that the younger generation can learn from the mistakes of the past.