The Birling family are celebrating their daughter Sheila's engagement to a man called Gerald Croft when Inspector Goole calls. A young girl drank a bottle of disinfectant and died. It is thought that at sometime or another each of the family members knew her and contributed to her death. The other characters in the play are Mrs Birling, Eric Birling, their son and Edna, their maid. The Inspector questions them individually and shows them all a photograph. They all recognise in the photograph for different reasons. After the Inspector has left the family discover that he is not actually a real Inspector.

Sheila Birling is in her early twenties and thinks that life

In conclusion, Sheila is by far the more likable character. From the beginning she is much nicer than Mr Birling and this remains the same until the end. Mr Birling is not a likable character and he represents the pompous and arrogant side of the society at that time. The whole incident has a great effect on Sheila and Eric yet barely has an effect on Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald. It is surprising that the younger generation are much more willing to learn from their mistakes than the older generation are, this is also a relief. The older generation are very narrow-minded. I admire the maturity in which Sheila handles the news of Gerald's affair. On the whole it is hard to believe that Mr Birling and Sheila are related as their attitudes and general behaviour are just so contrasting.

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Approximate Word count = 1630
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)