‘The Birling family are presented as a close and happy family at the beginning of the play, but are left broken by the end ‘ how far do you agree with this assessment of the presentation of the bottling family ?

The Birlings and Gerald Croft remain chained together by Eva Smith’s death. It was Birling who set off the chain which makes possible Sheila’s bad deed against Eva, which in turn throws Eva into the path of Gerald and then Eric and, finally, in front of Mrs. Birling’s committee. Each deed is tied to the deed before it and the deed after it. The individual deeds, linked together, make Eva’s downfall so severe that she chooses suicide—effectively causing this choice. This is the “cause and effect” idea of succession that Priestley explores: the way in which time can indeed make us all responsible for each other.

Over the course of the play, the family which is certainly presented as a united, happy front, must deal with the Inspector's questions after the death of a young woman named Eva Smith. During his questioning of the family, a variety of secrets are exposed and an even larger variety of responses and emotions follow the questioning. In the end, the family is broken. Sheila and Eric accept that their actions contributed to Eva's death; Eva and Gerald's relationship may be damaged beyond repair; and the Birling parents cannot move beyond their celebration..... at least until they get the phone call the next morning.