Themes: Responsibility, Class and Gender
Theme 1: Responsibility
Responsibility is the play’s most important theme. Priestley argues that every person has a duty to care for others, not just themselves. The Inspector’s message — “We are responsible for each other” — is the play’s thesis statement.
Each character’s treatment of Eva represents a different failure of responsibility. Birling fails as an employer. Sheila fails as a consumer. Gerald fails as a lover. Mrs Birling fails as a charity worker. Eric fails as a man. Together, they form a chain of responsibility — no single person killed Eva, but collectively they destroyed her.
Priestley structures the play so that responsibility is cumulative. Each revelation adds another link in the chain. The audience sees how seemingly minor actions — sacking someone, complaining about a shop assistant — can have devastating consequences when combined.
Birling believes in individual responsibility: “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.” The Inspector believes in collective responsibility: “we are members of one body.” The play is structured as a battle between these two philosophies, and Priestley ensures the Inspector’s view wins.
Theme 2: Social Class
Class determines everything in the play. The Birlings’ wealth and status give them power over Eva. Birling can sack her, Sheila can have her fired, Gerald can keep her as a mistress, Mrs Birling can refuse her charity, and Eric can exploit her — all because of the class difference between them.
Mrs Birling’s language reveals her class prejudice most clearly. She calls Eva “a girl of that sort,” “impertinent” and “giving herself ridiculous airs.” This language reduces Eva from a person to a stereotype — a “type” rather than an individual. Priestley uses Mrs Birling’s language to expose how class prejudice dehumanises its victims.
Eva Smith represents the entire working class. Her name (“Eve” + “Smith”) suggests she is an everywoman. She is never seen on stage — she exists only through the accounts of others, just as the working class existed only as servants, workers and statistics in the eyes of the Edwardian upper class.
Theme 3: Gender
Gender intersects with class throughout the play. Eva is doubly disadvantaged — she is both working-class and female. As a woman in 1912, she cannot vote, has no legal protection against exploitative employers, and depends on men for economic survival.
Gerald’s affair with Eva exposes the sexual double standard of Edwardian society. A wealthy man can keep a mistress and return to his respectable life afterwards; the woman is left with nothing. Eric’s treatment of Eva is even more damaging — he forced himself on her when drunk, a clear abuse of power.
Sheila’s transformation also has a gender dimension. At the start, she is a possession — engaged to Gerald as part of a business alliance between two families. By the end, she is an independent moral agent who refuses to accept the ring back on the old terms. Priestley uses Sheila to show that emancipation requires not just legal rights but a fundamental change in attitudes.
Responsibility, class and gender are interlinked. The Birlings refuse responsibility because of class prejudice — they do not see Eva as fully human. Gender compounds this: Eva is exploited sexually as well as economically. Priestley’s argument is that a just society must address all three — creating shared responsibility, dismantling class barriers, and achieving gender equality.