An Inspector Calls: Act One Synopsis

Posted: July 5, 2013 in Year Eleven

The dining-room of the suburban Birling residence

Sheila Birling has become engaged to Gerald Croft and as a result the Birling family have enjoyed a family dinner together. Mr Birling makes grand speeches giving his views on technology and industrial relations, emphasising his opinion that a man should only care about himself and his family and no-one else. Their evening is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a police inspector by the name of Goole who is making enquiries into the suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith. 

The inspector has a photograph of the woman and from it Mr Birling admits that he once employed her in his factory but had sacked her over an industrial dispute over wages. Gerald Croft backs Mr Birling’s belief that he acted within reason. Sheila and her brother Eric react differently, feeling that their father was harsh in sacking her. However, upon seeing the photograph herself, Sheila realises that she also sacked the same woman from her job as a shop assistant. 

During the course of Act I it becomes clear that the inspector has an uncanny knowledge about the family’s dealing with the girl. He then announces that the girl has in fact changed her name from Eva Smith to Daisy Renton. The reaction that this causes in Gerald makes it obvious that he knows the girl also. By the time we reach the end of the act the inspector is already suggesting that many people share the responsibility for the miserable existence of the young girl which prompted her to take her own life.

 

Points to Consider:

  1. Why is Mr Birling happy about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald?
  2. Why might the Inspector investigate a suicide?
  3. Sheila and Eric’s relationship.
  4. Sheila and Gerald’s relationship.
  5. What do Sheila and the Inspector have in common?
  6. Why did Eva Smith change her name into Daisy Renton?

Questions

  1. Choose three words from the stage directions at the start of the play that best describe the family home.
  2. How are the Birlings and Gerald Croft dressed?
  3. How old are Arthur and Sybil Birling?
  4. How old are their children?
  5. Who is Edna?
  6. What are  the family celebrating?
  7. Why does Sheila half- seriously  criticise Gerald?
  8. Who are Gerald’s parents? Why were they  absent from the engagement dinner? Why is Arthur Birling pleased that Sheila is marrying into the Croft family?
  9. In his speech to the family Arthur Birling makes optimistic predictions about the future. Which of his predictions prove to be wrong?

 

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