An Inspector Calls

Inspector Goole enters the room to talk to Sheila and Gerald. Sheila believes that the inspector knows about Gerald’s affair with Eva; Gerald tells Goole that Sheila has become “hysterical” and urges the inspector to excuse her. Sheila wants to remain, and Gerald accuses her of wanting to see him suffer as she did. Sheila, offended, asks Gerald if he really loves her. Overhearing the commotion, Sybil enters. Goole explains to Sybil that he is questioning Gerald and Sheila. Sheila warns her mother that her comments may be weaponized by Goole, though Sybil tells her daughter to be quiet. When the inspector agrees with Sheila, Sybil accuses him of impertinence. Sybil sees that Eric is disturbed and assumes that he is drunk. Sheila hints at Eric’s addiction but Sybil dismisses her comments. She apologizes to the inspector that private family business is being discussed. To demonstrate her son’s innocence, she asks Gerald whether Eric has an addiction. Much to her annoyance, Gerald acknowledges that Eric “does drink pretty hard” (187).

Arthur enters the room, explaining that he encouraged Eric to go to bed but Eric refused. Goole says that Eric also needs to be interrogated. Arthur is concerned about how the investigation will affect the family; Sheila believes that the inspector is “giving us rope – so that we’ll hang ourselves” (188). Goole turns his attention back to Gerald. Though Gerald tries to deny any knowledge of Daisy Renton, he cracks when Sheila urges him to confess. Warning Sheila that she will not like what he has to say, Gerald explains that he met a young woman named Daisy at a local bar that is notorious as “a favorite haunt of women of the town” (189). Assuming that Daisy was a sex worker, he defended her from the advances of an older politician. When she was grateful to him, he organized for her to stay at his friend’s empty house. Eventually, they began an affair that lasted several months. They both knew that the affair could not continue in the long term. Despite recent events, Gerald has no regrets. He feels no guilt, except for hiding the truth from Sheila. He ended the affair in September and fell out of touch with the woman. Goole points to Eva’s diary, in which she wrote that she spent two months at the seaside “to be alone, to be quiet, to remember all that had happened between [herself and Gerald]” (193). Gerald asks for a moment to reflect in private, and Goole permits him to leave. As he exits the room, Sheila expresses her anger. If they are to be married, she says as she hands him the engagement ring, then they will need to “start all over again” (194), without secrets. Gerald leaves as the inspector turns to Sybil.

Sybil wishes that the inspector would finish. Goole insists, however, that she could know something about Eva’s death. When she looks at the photograph, she claims not to recognize the subject, but the inspector calls her out on her lie. Arthur accuses Goole of being rude. He believes that his political status should accord him respect from the inspector. Goole reminds Arthur that his status grants him “responsibilities as well as privileges” (195). Sheila believes that Sybil recognized Eva’s photograph and accuses her mother of lying. She wants everyone to tell the truth about their association with Eva.

The conversation is interrupted briefly by the sound of the front door. It is unclear whether Gerald has returned or Eric has gone out, but Goole quickly returns to his questioning as Arthur investigates. Sybil is a patron of the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization, he explains, and Eva approached the charity two weeks ago to ask for help. Arthur returns, claiming that Eric has gone and blaming his son’s “excitable queer moods” (196). Goole promises to find him if he doesn’t return soon. Sybil explains that she and the charity refused Eva’s request, as the desperate young woman was grossly impertinent: She petitioned the charity using the name Mrs. Birling, even though she was in no way related to the Birling family. Sybil believed the young woman was playing a cruel joke on her, and took a dislike to the young woman. Nevertheless, she insists, the young woman did not have a compelling reason to be helped by the charity. She refuses to feel guilty. Goole reveals that the young woman was pregnant. He bats away Arthur’s suggestion that Gerald is the father but refuses to reveal the father’s identity.

Sybil explains that the young woman claimed that her husband had abandoned her. In Sybil’s opinion, this missing husband, rather than the charity, should be responsible for the pregnant young woman. As she questioned the young woman, the young woman admitted that she wasn’t married to the father, and said she couldn’t accept money from him because he was stealing it. Once the young woman began to change her story, Sybil rejected her request. Through Goole’s questioning, Sybil agrees that the unnamed man was responsible for the young woman’s struggles and would also be responsible for Eva’s death. Sheila and Arthur begin to comprehend that Eric is the father. Just as Sybil arrives at the same conclusion, Eric returns. The other characters stare at him with expectation.