Priestleys purpose Essay Example for Free

Priestleys purpose Essay Unlike Gerald, Priestley describes Eric in the opening stage directions as not quite at ease. He has been expensively educated, and yet he is a disappointment to Birling: he and Gerald joke behind his back (p.10), and his father patronises him (p.12). He is kept out of the information about his fathers possible knighthood, and when he really needed help he felt his father was not the kind of father a chap could go to when hes in trouble (p. 54). His drinking is an open secret within the family (though Mrs Birling chooses not to admit it to herself), and suggests that he lacks self-discipline. This is borne out by the behaviour that is revealed in the course of the play: he forced himself into the girls lodgings despite her protests, drunk and in that state when a chap easily turns nasty (p.52), has made her pregnant, and has stolen money from his father. But he also has an honesty that others lack. He is the only one to respond spontaneously to details of the girls death (p.11), and when he is forced to admit how he behaved towards her he has a strong sense of guilt because the consequences of what he did are so serious. We also believe him when he tells Birling that he would have let the girl stay at the factory (p.16) but Eric throughout the play is shown to be naive, even if his heart is often in the right place. (Stealing Birlings money, even though a crime in law, might be another example of this.) He does not have the realistic outlook necessary to make a success of his life. He is also shown to be immature, regarding the girl as a good sport (p.52), although she treated him as a child. Like every character accused by the Inspector, he is shown to be a hypocrite he is disgusted by the fat old tarts round the town (p.52), yet by this stage in her life, the girl is also a prostitute, though it is not clear whether Eric realises this.  He appears to have learnt very little from his privileged education, yet he has been impressed by the Inspector. At the end, like Sheila, he refuses to pretend things are like they were before, and is frightened by the fact that the older generation appear not to have learnt anything. He wants his parents to admit their mistakes as freely as he has admitted his. Though he is not a particularly pleasant character, we may feel that he is sincerely ashamed of his behaviour and is capable of changing for the better. Sheila  Priestley describes Sheila in the opening stage directions as a pretty girl and very pleased with life later, however, her prettiness is revealed as vanity and her happiness is shown to be selfish, bought at the price of the girls job.  Her first reaction to the news of the girls death is superficial she seems upset that it has spoiled her evening and Ive been so happy tonight (p.17), and is interested only in whether she was young and pretty. But, unlike her parents, she quickly comes to see her as an individual: these girls arent cheap labour theyre people (p.19), she tells Birling. She becomes agitated (p.20) as she realizes her own part in the girls death, and like Gerald later in the play runs out of the room. However, unlike her fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½, she returns to accept her guilt rather than to find a way round it. We sense at the start of the play that there is an unresolved tension in her relationship with Gerald; they are actually very different people. But it is Sheila who grows up in the course of the play: at the start she is playful and attention-seeking; at the end, she is thoughtful and reflective. By contrast, Gerald is revealed to be a moral coward, unable to accept the wrongness of his behaviour and taking comfort from the fact that no-one seems to have died after all. Like Birling, she readily admits to having met the girl. But her father admits this because he is unable to see that he has done anything wrong; Sheila, on the other hand, admits this because she is genuinely ashamed (p.23) and is trying to tell the truth (p.23). Of all the characters, hers is the only confession that does her credit Mrs Birling is first obstructive then defiant, and Gerald and Eric both confess at a point when they know they have been already found out. She is guilty of the sins of pride and envy she complained about the girl because she thought she was laughing at her, and because she was a very pretty girl too I couldnt be sorry for her (p.24). Although she asks how could I know what would happen afterwards (p.24), she does not try to escape from the blame. Priestley uses her as an example of someone who is vain and thoughtless, but not heartless: she is genuine when she says if I could help her now I would (p.24). But he intends the audience to learn the lesson that good intentions are no good if they come too late; Sheilas predicament is a warning to us.  Sheila herself warns both Gerald and Mrs Birling not to try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl (p.30). Once she has admitted her own guilt, her rà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½le in the rest of the play is to show others the importance of admitting the truth. She becomes disillusioned and hurt by what she learns about the rest of her family particularly Gerald, whom she now addresses bitterly (p.33) and with sharp sarcasm and irony (p.38) but when he has finally told the truth, she respects him rathermore than Ive ever done before (p.40). Facing up to our faults, Priestley suggests through Sheila, is painful, but not to do so makes things worse in the long run, as she says. This is part of Priestleys purpose in the play: to make us feel the urgency of rethinking the responsibility we bear towards our fellow men before it is too late.  Sheila emphasizes the importance of everyone learning from the Inspectors visit. She and Eric are the only characters who are not concerned whether Goole was a real Inspector she says it doesnt make any real difference (p.59), because she acknowledges her behaviour was morally wrong, whether or not it was legally wrong and whether or not it actually resulted in a girls death. By the end of the play, she has begun to have some understanding of what the Inspector is doing, so that she is able to see the world, and her responsibility, according to his values instead of those of her family. This is why she can see the trap her mothers arrogance is creating, and why she tries to stop her mother from exposing and condemning the childs father. It is only she and Eric, the two youngest and more impressionable characters (p.30) who, in Priestleys eyes, have profited sufficiently from the lessons on stage in front of them not to repeat their mistakes a second time as he hopes the audience will have too