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Act 1 Summary of An Inspector Calls
Act 1 of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley opens in the dining room of the prosperous Birling family in Brumley, in the spring of 1912. The Birling family consists of Arthur Birling, his wife Sybil, their daughter Sheila, and son Eric. They are all celebrating Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft, the son of a rival business owner.
Arthur Birling dominates the conversation. He delivers speeches that predict increasing prosperity and dismiss the possibility of war. He famously describes the Titanic sailing the following week, as “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”. He preaches a philosophy of extreme individualism, and tells the younger men, Gerald and Eric, that a man must “mind his own business and look after himself and his own.” He explicitly rejects the idea that people should look after one another “like bees in a hive.”
Just as Birling finishes his speech against social responsibility, the doorbell rings, and Inspector Goole arrives. The lighting changes from pink and intimate to brighter and harder. The police inspector announces that a young woman named Eva Smith has died in the Infirmary after swallowing strong disinfectant.
The inspector shows Birling a photograph of the girl. Birling admits he employed her but discharged her in September 1910. Eva had been a ringleader in a strike asking for a wage increase from 22 shillings and sixpence to 25 shillings. Birling refused the demand to keep labour costs down and fired her. He accepts no responsibility for her death and argues it has nothing to do with him.
Inspector Goole reveals that after being fired, Eva found work at Milwards, a high-class shop, but was dismissed in January 1911 due to a customer’s complaint. When shown the photograph, Sheila recognises the girl and runs out of the room distressed. Upon returning, she confesses that she had the girl fired out of jealousy and vanity; she had tried on a dress that didn’t suit her, saw the girl smiling, and furiously demanded her dismissal. Unlike her father, Sheila feels immediate, intense guilt.
The inspector then reveals that Eva Smith changed her name to Daisy Renton. Hearing this name, Gerald is visibly startled and pours himself a drink. When Inspector Goole leaves the room briefly, Sheila confronts Gerald, who admits he knew Daisy Renton and that she was his mistress the previous summer. Act 1 of An Inspector Calls ends with the inspector re-entering the room and simply asking, “Well?” as he looks at them.
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Analysis of Act 1 of An Inspector Calls
Priestley uses dramatic irony to undermine Arthur Birling’s authority immediately. Birling confidently predicts that there will be no war and that the Titanic is unsinkable. Since the audience (watching post-1945) knows these events occurred, Birling appears arrogant and foolish. This discredits his capitalist ideology of every man for himself, and prepares the audience to side with the inspector’s views on collective responsibility.
As to the function of the inspector, he is not a typical police officer; he acts as a catalyst and a moral judge. His arrival cuts sharply across Birling’s speech about individualism; it symbolises the intrusion of social reality into the Birlings’ comfortable, isolated world. He controls the pace, and forces the characters to face their actions one by one (one line of enquiry at a time). His name, Goole, suggests a ghoul; it hints at a supernatural or ghostly quality. This reiterates his role as a manifestation of their conscience.
Then, there is a clear divide between the older and younger generations. Arthur Birling refuses to accept any blame. He views his actions as sound business. In contrast, Sheila (and to a lesser extent, Eric) displays immediate remorse. Sheila recognises the humanity of the workers. She counters her father’s comment about cheap labour by asserting, “But these girls aren’t cheap labour—they’re people.” This foreshadows the younger generation’s potential for change and social awakening.
On the whole, the act establishes the play’s structural premise: a chain of events. The inspector argues that the seemingly isolated actions (a firing, a complaint, and a summer affair) are interconnected and can cumulatively lead to tragedy. This challenges the Birlings’ belief that they can live in a bubble, disconnected from the consequences of their actions on the lower classes.
Related:
- Act 2 Summary of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley
- Act 3 Summary of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley
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