Everything on the GCSE English Literature An Inspector Calls: Key Characters Explained poster is written out below, section by section. Use it to search the sheet, copy parts into your own notes, or check a fact quickly.
Mr Birling
- Self-made factory owner and former Lord Mayor, angling for a knighthood.
- Sacked Eva Smith from his factory for leading a strike for higher wages.
- Confidently dismisses the risk of war and calls the Titanic "unsinkable".
- To the end, refuses any responsibility for Eva's death and learns nothing.
Exam focus
Write about him as Priestley's warning against selfish capitalism: he refuses responsibility, gets the future wrong, and learns nothing.
Mrs Birling
- Cold, snobbish, and her husband's social superior.
- Chairs a women's charity and used her influence to refuse the pregnant Eva's appeal for help.
- Insists the child's father alone should be punished, not realising she condemns her own son, Eric.
- The most stubborn of the family; she admits no blame even at the end.
Exam focus
Write about her as Priestley's attack on class prejudice: she uses charity to protect status, not to help the vulnerable.
Sheila
- The Birlings' daughter, pretty and pleased with life, newly engaged to Gerald.
- Had Eva sacked from Milwards out of jealousy over a dress.
- The first to feel real guilt and to accept her part fully.
- Grows sharp and perceptive, seeing through both her parents and the Inspector's method.
- Returns Gerald's ring, and stands with Eric as the play's voice of change.
Exam focus
Write about her as proof that people can change: she accepts guilt, sees through the adults, and becomes a voice of responsibility.
Eric
- The Birlings' son, drinking too heavily and never quite at ease at home.
- Drunk, forced his way into Eva's lodgings by threatening to make a scene, and later got her pregnant.
- Stole about fifty pounds from his father's office to support her.
- Like Sheila, accepts his guilt and turns on his parents' values.
- Bitterly blames his mother once he learns she refused Eva.
Exam focus
Write about him as both guilty and sympathetic: he harms Eva, but unlike his parents he accepts responsibility and changes.
Gerald
- Son of the aristocratic Crofts, and Sheila's well-bred fiance.
- Met Eva, as Daisy Renton, at the Palace bar and kept her as his mistress.
- Shows genuine feeling for her, but had already ended the affair.
- Sides with the older Birlings and tries to prove the Inspector was a hoax.
Exam focus
Write about him as morally mixed: he helps Eva for a while, but still uses his power over her and returns to protecting himself.
Eva Smith / Daisy Renton
- The working-class woman every other character wronged; she never appears on stage.
- Sacked by Birling, dismissed at Milwards, then kept and left by Gerald.
- Made pregnant by Eric and refused help by Mrs Birling's charity.
- Dies after drinking disinfectant, the human cost of the others' choices.
Exam focus
Write about her as the unseen victim of social inequality: Priestley uses her to show how powerful people's choices damage the vulnerable.