at the beginning of the play Priestley
uses stage directions to present Erica's
not fully mature
he is half shy half assertive the
adjective shy connotes nervousness and a
lack of confidence and this contrasts
with assertive which implies confidence
and dominance Priestley's use of
contrasting adjectives therefore creates
a sense of confusion implying perhaps
that he is a secretive person from the
beginning of the play it's clear that
Priestley wants the audience to view
Erick negatively in order to show that
the capitalist patriarchal society is
not trustworthy
this way he encourages the audience to
reject the capitalist ideas that Erick
appears to be representing there is hope
however Priestley repeats the word half
to emphasize that Eric's character is
not yet fully formed which indicates
that he might change from the start of
the play Priestley associates Erik with
alcohol when his sister Sheila accuses
him of being squiffy this contemporary
slang meaning slightly drunk draws the
attention of the audience to Sheila's
use of informal language it positions
the Burling siblings as fashionable
members of the younger generation who
adapt their language to the times this
foreshadows both characters adapting
their attitudes to social responsibility
as the play unfolds and they become more
sympathetic to the inspectors message
in addition Priestley deliberately
aligns Eric with alcohol to foreshadow
the later revelations about his drunken
behavior on the night that he met Eva
Smith Eric's free and easy use of
alcohol is also used to signify the
double standard in society for men and
women we've got a video on mrs. burning
for more on that topic when eric is
interrogated by the inspector the
audience learns that he insisted on
entering Eva's lodgings he admits that
because of alcohol he was in that state
when a chap easily turns nasty
Priestley's use of the determiner that
is interesting because eric appears to
be appealing to a commonly shared belief
that his listeners have been drunk and
understand exactly what that state is
this shows his lack of responsibility
for his actions and also suggests that
he's using alcohol as an excuse for his
later implied rape of Eva the playwright
develops this idea when Eric refers to
himself in the third person with the
fray
a chap the word chap an informal word
for a boy or a man has positive
connotations of friendliness Erik's use
of the third person also distances him
from the implied rape by using these
words Erik is positioning himself as a
friendly young man who does not take
responsibility for his behavior which is
solely due to the effects of alcohol
Priestley presents us with Erik's
perspective about Eva so we do not know
the exact details of whether she was a
prostitute
if Eva was not working as a prostitute
she seemed to be living in life on the
brink of prostitution prostitution and
the word prostitute would not be used in
the play at that time other plays had
been censored for making references to
prostitutes in fact one of Priestley's
playwright friends George Bernard Shaw
whom he references when mr. Birling is
naming people he does not agree with in
act one wrote a play called mrs.
Warren's profession which was about a
woman who once was a madam of a brothel
the play was banned by their theatre
censors and its actors were even
arrested during one performance with
Erics next words the audience
understands he now takes responsibility
and admits his guilt Priestley uses
short sentences and a hyphen to reveal
Eric's distress and that's when it
happened and I don't even remember
that's the hellish thing his lack of
detail about what happened suggests he
can barely bring himself to admit what
he's done the sentence and that's when
it happened implying rape allows us to
form our own conclusions about what
happened that night
Priestley also presents Eric as an
immature young man who does not have a
close relationship with his father he
tells mr. Birling that he is not the
kind of father a chap could go to when
he's in trouble again by using the
friendly word chap to describe himself
he's making excuses for his behavior
by positioning himself as a victim
rather than accepting responsibility for
his actions at this point in the play we
see Eric's immaturity because he's
providing short-term solutions by asking
Eva to marry him and supporting her with
stolen money but he does not see the
long-term consequences of his criminal
behavior by the end of the play Eric
like Sheila has learned the lesson of
collective social responsibility the
discussion about whether the inspector
is real does not matter to Eric who
insists we did her in or
right he deliberately uses the plural
personal pronoun we to emphasize that it
is not just his mother who is
responsible for Eva's death but all of
them this might symbolize priestly
socialists view that we all have a
collective responsibility for the
welfare of Eva and other vulnerable
members of society Eric also states it's
what happened to the girl and what we
all did to her that matters he's
accepted his role in her downfall and
the inspectors socialist message of
collective responsibility is more
important than the identity of the
inspector Eric's language therefore
echoes that of the inspector the
mouthpiece of Priestley throughout the
play Priestley as presented Eric as an
immature young man with a drinking
problem an exploiter of Eva and a thief
as Eric matures and accepts
responsibility for his actions
he becomes receptive to the inspectors
message that we are members of one body
we are responsible for each other
everything I go through in this video
series can be found in the second
updated edition of mr. barofsky - an
inspector calls and you can pick up a
copy through following the links in the
description if you found this video
useful please do give it a thumbs up and
subscribe to the channel