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An Inspector Calls · AQA GCSE

An Inspector Calls Characters

Full profiles of every An Inspector Calls character AQA asks about: Mr and Mrs Birling, Sheila, Eric, Gerald, the Inspector and the absent Eva Smith. Each page covers who they are, how they respond to the Inspector, their key quotes and how to write about them in the exam.

Mr BirlingCapitalist, complacent, and wrong about everything, Priestley's target.Sheila BirlingThe character who changes most, and Priestley's hope for the future.Eric BirlingGuilt, drink and the son who finally takes responsibility.Inspector GoolePriestley's mouthpiece, and possibly not a real inspector at all.Eva SmithThe character who never appears, and why that's the point.Gerald CroftCharming, useful, and ultimately unchanged.Mrs BirlingCold charity, class prejudice and refusal to accept blame.

How to write about characters in An Inspector Calls

Character questions are not asking you to describe a person. They ask how Priestley presents them, which means treating each character as a deliberate choice built to carry an idea. Almost every character in this play stands for something: a class attitude, a generation, a political view. The examiner wants analysis of what they represent, not a biography.

The key thing Priestley does is divide his characters by whether they accept responsibility. On one side are the unteachable older generation, Mr Birling, the complacent capitalist, and Mrs Birling, the coldest voice of class prejudice, along with Gerald Croft, who chooses their path. On the other are the younger Sheila and Eric, who change and accept their guilt. Driving it all is the Inspector, Priestley's mouthpiece, and at the centre, unseen, is Eva Smith, the victim who stands for a whole exploited class.

The smartest character answers use these divisions. Writing about Mr Birling is far stronger when you set him against Sheila, because the contrast between the parent who cannot change and the daughter who does reveals exactly what Priestley is arguing. Anchor every character to the play's ideas using the themes pages, and learn their lines on the key quotes page.

✍ Chloe's Grade 9 tip: If two of your character paragraphs could swap names and still make sense, they are too general. Say something that could only be true of that one character, and always tie it to what Priestley uses them to represent.