Eva Smith (aka Daisy Renton and Mrs Birling) is the central character in An Inspector Calls. However, she never appears onstage and is reported to be dead before the action of the play begins. As well as Eva, there are several named and unnamed offstage characters and three groups of unnamed characters in the play. Priestley creates these characters to build a world outside the Birling household, demonstrating the values of the wider society in Brumley and beyond.
The offstage characters and groups are listed below:
Cook
A servant in the Birling household referred to only by her function ‘Cook’. Mr Birling publicly crediting her is considered by Mrs Birling to be bad manners. She is not only anonymous – and genderless – but expected to be invisible. Her success as a cook is negated by Mrs Birling’s skill as the hirer of a good servants. Priestley does not use pronouns to describe ‘Cook’ however a male cook would be known as ‘chef’ and would be beyond the means of the bourgeois Birlings.
Mr Birling’s friend who tours the Titanic
This character reveals Birling’s privilege – he has friends in high place who have access to important information and events. However, Mr Birling’s friend’s hubristic ‘unsinkable’, cheerfully echoed by Birling himself, represents the complacency of their class which becomes their downfall.
The Kaiser
Kaiser Wilhelm II was the King of Germany in 1912. Mr Birling dismisses the Kaiser’s threat of war as ‘nonsense’. Priestly, again with the knowledge of hindsight, thereby reveals Mr Birling’s complacency and establishes him as a character of unreliable judgement.
A few German officers
Dismissed by Mr Birling along with ‘scaremongers’ as foolish for prophesising war, Priestley’s irony would not be lost on the war-weary 1945 audience who were well aware that the first of two devastating world wars is only a couple of years away from 1912. In 1914 Eric and Gerald would be the right age to join up and although conscription would not be introduced until 1916, it is would be considered their duty to sign up as officers.
Sir George Croft
Gerald’s father. He could have been knighted or it is possible he has a hereditary title. Either put him at a higher social status than Mr Birling. Mr Birling hopes to receive a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list. However, scandal or an exposure of his treatment of Eva could threaten this.
Lady Croft
Gerald’s mother. She is the highest socially ranked character in the play from ‘an old country family.’ This implies her wealth and status are inherited, this contrasts with the new earned wealth of the Birlings who have ‘furniture of the period’ rather than antique furniture that has been handed down through the family. However, despite her status, she is not referred to by her own name; only that of her husband.
HG Wells
A late 19th/early 20th century novelist and social commentator known for his Socialist views. Mr Birling disagrees with him.
George Bernard Shaw
A popular late 19th century/early 20th century playwright, social commentator and founder member of the Fabian Society – which developed into what became the Labour Party – known for his Socialist views. Mr Birling disagrees with him.
Eva’s parents
Unnamed. Dead. Eva is ‘country-bred’. She is alone and a long way from home in urban Brumley. Eva’s country connections suggest she comes from a family of farm workers – unlike Lady Croft whose ‘country family’ are landowners.
Colonel Roberts
The Chief Constable of Brumley Police. He’s a friend of Mr Birling’s; they socialise and play golf together. Mr Birling addresses him as ‘Roberts’ suggesting they are equals. Birling implies to the Inspector that his friendship with Roberts outweighs the Inspector’s authority. As policing was seen an aspirational working-class profession, Colonel Roberts is likely to have risen in status (like Birling). However, his title ‘Colonel’ implies military rank which could suggest he is an ex-army officer and from an upper middle-class background.
In 1912, the police was an all male profession. The first female police officer in England joined the force in 1915.
Eva’s co-strikers
One of three groups of unnamed women in the play. They are patronisingly characterised by Gerald as a homogenous group. He implies they are only striking as they are broke after a Bank Holiday: irresponsible and frivolous. Together they have some potential power. Birling disperses the group – fires the ‘ringleaders’ including Eva, thus isolating her from a source of support and protection.
Miss Francis
The assistant at Milward’s. She is towards the bottom of the hierarchy of workers at Milwards (with Eva below her) and defers to Sheila who knows ‘the owner’.
The manager of Millward’s
Not the owner, but an unnamed manager who, again, defers to the request of a customer as his job and his boss’s business rely on the custom of women like Sheila.
Alderman Joe Meggarty
Described by Gerald as ‘old … obscene … fat … womaniser … sot’ Meggarty is a man of high social status with a similar role on the Brumley council to that of Mr Birling who was once ‘Mayor’. Meggarty frequents the Place Bar and is known as a drunken molester of women. Gerald is openly revolted by him and positions himself as Daisy’s rescuer even though he too intends to coerce her into a sexual relationship, although – in his eyes – a little more gracefully. Meggarty’s behaviour is an open secret in Brumley and he is able to abuse and sexually attack young women without fear of reprisal.
Mr Birling has worked with Meggarty and although Mrs Birling is shocked to hear of his behaviour, the other characters are all familiar with him and are unsurprised.
His surname suggests that he is from an Irish background (‘Joe’ could even imply an Irish Catholic background) which Priestley may have selected to imply, that like Birling, Meggarty has risen socially; like Birling, he uses his relatively new power and privilege to abuse.
Sheila’s friend – assaulted by Meggarty
The ‘torn blouse’ suggests a degree of shocking sexual violence on Meggarty’s part. He attacks the young woman in his workplace at the Town Hall. As the woman is a friend of Sheila’s, she is likely to be middle-class. No woman, therefore, is safe from Meggarty and everything he represents – even in the middle of a working day in an official building. Brumley Town Hall is a seat of corruption, double standards, sleaze, misogyny and violence. Priestley portrays the hypocrisy and cruelty espoused by the Birlings as endemic. The woman reports her assault to her friends like Sheila, but the implication is that she does not report the offence to the police or to the staff at the Town Hall. Women who are sexually assaulted have no power or protection.
Daisy’s Palace Bar friend
Daisy’s role as a sex worker is implied by her new surname ‘Renton’; however, it is unclear to what extent she is involved in sex work. He friend ‘an older woman’ could be a madam, hoping to encourage Daisy into prostitution and who might take a cut from her earnings.
The sex workers at the Palace Bar
Again, characterised by Gerald; ‘Hard eyed … dough faced … fat …old’ the euphemistically labelled ‘women of the town’ are a contrast to ‘young … fresh … country-bred’ florally named Daisy. They are described scathingly, ‘hard eyed’ suggesting like Mr Birling’s ‘hard head’ they are calculating and in business. ‘Dough faced’ suggests they older, possibly drinkers, with pale puffy faces.
Charlie Brunswick
Charlie is a friend of Gerald’s with a ‘set of rooms’. He gives the ‘keys’ to Gerald. Charlie’s rooms are specifically for the purpose of keeping a mistress. As Mr Birling acknowledges later on in the play, it would be commonplace for upper-middle class man to have somewhere to conduct an illicit sexual relationship. The ‘keys’ suggest an element of control and isolation – again, Daisy is removed from the group of women she was with at Palace Bar. Gerald ‘installs’ her – like a piece of furniture – in the rooms for his own private sexual recreation. Charlie, like Gerald, is unmarried, privileged. He travels to Canada. Like Meggarty, he symbolises the unspoken sexual corruption at the heart of Brumley society.
The ladies of Brumley Charity Committee
The third group of women mentioned in the play, who, like Eva’s co-workers at Birling’s factory and the sex workers at the Palace, have power in numbers and could, potentially offer Eva protection. However, they are led by Mrs Birling who has ‘influence’ over them. It is possible that her own social standing (she is Birling’s social ‘superior’) and Birling’s wealth – and status as former Mayor – mean she is the highest ranked woman in the group.
As there is no Welfare State and no benefits system, the only way for Eva or those in desperate poverty to avoid the workhouse, was to seek support from charities. Like the workhouse, asking for money from a charity was seen as shameful and degrading. Eva tells Mrs Birling she ‘refuses’ to take money from the father of her child. These ‘scruples … and fine feelings’ are dismissed by Mrs Birling who cannot believe a girl of ‘that class’ has any right to dignity or esteem.
The Charity Committee would be made up of upper middle-class married women who volunteer and dispense money raised from donations to those in need. Poor, vulnerable woman would be required to make a case to prove they are genuinely worthy of help. The judgements made by the committee would be based on interrogation and their own personal opinions. Mrs Birling freely admits to the Inspector that she is ‘prejudiced’ against Eva ‘from the start’ and sees nothing wrong with this. There appears to be no accountability for the committee who rely on the word of the applicant and their own values in order to make a decision about who deserves support and who does not. Mrs Birling sees it as her ‘duty’ to ensure that money and support and withheld from the undeserving. As she is described as ‘cold’ in the opening stage directions, like her ‘hard-headed’ husband, she prides herself on her emotional detachment.
The Charity Committee would be a public organisation and Mrs Birling would be respected and admired in the community for her charitable work. However, like the Town Hall, the Brumley Charity Committee is a hotbed of hypocrisy.
The policeman Gerald meets and asks about Inspector Goole
A police constable on the beat would be commonplace in 1912 and 1945. This character serves as a minor plot device to confirm Gerald’s suspicions about the identity of the Inspector. This piece of information forms part of the plot twist at the end of the play.
The operator at the Infirmary
Towards the end of the final act, Gerald rings the Infirmary to make an enquiry – ironically – about an ‘employee’ he says he is worried about. He gives his name but similar to the conversation he has with the policeman, he is careful to couch his language to ensure no one links him to the death of Eva. The operator confirms there ‘hasn’t been a suicide in months.’
The caller from the police station
The final twist is delivered by an unseen caller from the police station via the Birlings’ telephone. Birling receives the news that ‘a girl has died … after swallowing disinfectant …’ and that an Inspector is on his way. The echo of the death of Eva leaves the play on a resonant cliff-hanger.
The Inspector who is ‘on his way here’
Priestley leaves the Birlings and the audience in a state of unresolved tension at the end of the play. Who is this Inspector? Is Inspector Goole going to return? Another inspector? What is he going to say? What lessons – if any – have the Birlings learned?
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