1. AIC – Character Questions
Start with the stage directions. What does Priestley say about them here? They are the first clue and zoom in on specific words. 
Consider what character says or does (key quotations/ key plot aspects/ how they speak) in the play. 
Consider how similar or different they are to other characters.
Then consider how the other characters (especially he Inspector) treats him or her? Are they likeable?
Consider how that character links to themes and the writer's message.
Does the character change or remain static?

3. Mr. Birling Self Made businessman
Described as ‘heavy looking’ and ‘portentous’ and ‘provincial’ in his speech.
Ex Mayor of Brumley, local magistrate and potentially up for a knighthood.
Negative relationship with his son …Eric: ‘Not the sort of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble.’ Much closer to Gerald.
Priestly uses his as an example of the rising upper middle class in the Edwardian era. However Priestley portrays this group of people as ignorant.
Likes to think of himself as a family man, however, he is capitalist through and through. Despite declaring the night of Sheila’s engagement as ‘the happiest of his life’, it is clear that he views the relationship as a business transaction.
Furthermore when the attention shifts from him he is relieved speaking with a ‘marked change of tone.’
He has traditional views on gender roles.

4. Mrs Birling
Mr Birling’s social superior… ‘about 50, a rather cold woman’ – immediately therefore through the use of the word cold, Priestley has presented her as unfeeling.
Uses her social standing to manipulate situations.
She is consumed with ideas of social etiquette as she is seen to correct and become embarrassed by her husband’s and children’s manners.
She is brisk and dismissive about the investigation. She treats The Inspector without respect and has a real lack of compassion for Eva Smith diminishing her as ‘the girl’ and girls of ‘that class’.
She seems to align high morals with those of a higher class but is proven wrong by what happens between Eva and Eric.
However she is made to look ridiculous by both the Inspector and her own daughter.
Her ignorance extends to her own family – she has no idea about Eric’s drinking.

5. Sheila Birling
Described in the stage directions as a ‘pretty girl’ who is ‘very pleased with life and rather excited which alludes to how she is a typical female of the period at the start of the play.
Although seemingly naïve she is suspicious of Gerald in the opening scene who ‘never came near her.’
She is the first of the Birlings to demonstrate compassion towards Eva Smith, admonishing her father by stating that these girls are ‘not just cheap labour, they’re people.’
She’s perceptive – she works out that there is more than meets the eye with the inspector.
She is curious and wants to face the truth – thus moving away from how the typical female of the period was supposed to behave.
She seems to the audience wiser than her parents by the end of the play. She is now able to judge both her parents and Gerald from a new perspective.
She symbolises the changing attitudes to women and he key differences between the older and younger generation.

6. Eric Birling
He is described as being in his early twenties and not quite at ease, ‘half shy and half assertive.’ Theses quotations suggest he is unsure about his position in the world.
He does not enjoy a good relationship with his father and is seen by his father as having ‘a lot left to learn.’
Further to this in the first two acts he is seen as an irritant to his father offering what Mr. Birling perceives as silly views on life.
Eric’s drinking is important. It contributes to hostile behaviour and his drinking may be explained by the poor relationship between him and Birling.
Sheila reveals that she is knowledgeable about his drinking which again establishes a divide between the older and younger generations.
Priestley also presents Eric as secretive – he catches himself mid comment occasionally and becomes very uneasy.
Eric is immature and Eva perhaps took pity on him for this.
Unlike his parents, he does take responsibility for the consequences of his actions.

7. Gerald Croft
Gerald is the fiancé of Sheila and is described as being an ‘easy, well bred young man about town.’
Gerald is well liked and provides a sharp contrast to Eric.
Priestley uses him to show the tensions between Eric and Mr Birling as Gerald shares Birling’s viewpoints …’you couldn’t have done anything else.’.
Gerald like Birling, first attempts to conceal his involvement in the Eva Smith/Daisy Renton affair although he appears to show genuine remorse when he learns of her death.
Interestingly though he doesn’t learn as much from the matter as Sheila and Eric as displays calmness in trying to understand the identity of the inspector.
Gerald adheres to traditional ideas about men and women aiming to protect Sheila from the truth.

8. Inspector Goole
The inspector is a deliberately mysterious figure. Even by the end of the play his role is ambiguous.
Even his name leads us to question whether he actually exists as a pun of ‘ghoul’.
It could be suggested that he is a spirit sent on behalf of the dead girl, perhaps almost celestial, conducting an investigation on behalf of God, a preliminary to the Day of Judgement.
He is also perhaps the conscience of society – offering a view that we are responsible for each other.
He is also used as a dramatic device to help the audience understand the flaws of the other characters. He is perhaps a catalyst making things happen. There is something about him that makes the characters reveal the truth.
He is presented as different. The stage directions stress that he should have a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he is speaking to. This is helped by the lighting which becomes harder and brighter once he has arrived.
The inspector does not deviate from his moral position and acts as both investigator and judge which is not something that a normal inspector would do.

9. Inspector Goole continued
The inspector serves several functions in the play.
He is:
A storyteller – lining all of the separate incidents together, supplying dates and details.
A priest – someone to whom the characters confess their sins and encouraging them to acknowledge their guilt and sin.
The voice of Priestley – his ideas mirror Priestley and socialist ideals.

10. Eva Smith (Daisy Renton)
She dominates the action of the play but is never seen. Nevertheless the audience feel they know him by the end.
She is described as ‘pretty’ by several characters provoking Sheila’s jealousy and the attraction of both Eric and Gerald. She is also lively and intelligent as well as ‘working class.’
She has strong morals despite the affairs and recognises how foolish it would be to marry a man who did not love her.
She is also presented as a victim and easy prey perhaps being portrayed as a martyr by Priestley as the lower she sinks the more honourable and noble she appears.
She is also used as the symbol of the common man or woman – the Inspector refers to the ‘millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths left with us.’
She promotes the idea of collective responsibility and despite her lower class and death, eva has the moral upper ground as she shows others who they really are.

11. Connotations of names
Birling – rhymes with ‘sterling’, might suggest money, commerce, business, greed.
Arthur & Sybil – old fashioned names, suggest Victorian era, set in ways, backward looking.
Sheila & Eric – more modern, early C20th names, suggest more modern thinking.
Croft – old English name, solid, traditional, respectable.
Gerald – sounds more up-market than Eric which might sound ‘common’.
Edna – maid only known by first name, servants are de-personalised this way. Rather boring name, non-descript like the character.
Inspector Goole – sounds like ‘ghoul’, suggests otherworldliness, spooky.

12. Themes
Some questions docus on themes,