Act 1, pages 13-14 Inspector's first interview, with Mr. Birling, in presence of Eric and Gerald What the act is about: Birling family and Gerald Croft are having a dinner to celebrate Sheila Birling's and Gerald Croft's future marriage, when all of a sudden an Inspector calls and announces about a suicide which took place a few hours before. He questions Arthur Birling and his daughter Sheila and it turns out that they both knew the …showed first 75 words of 1001 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1001 total…calm tone. The tension is growing, and if at the beginning Birling held himself in control and was trying to seem a high-class representative, moving to the end he drops the game and reveals his real self: " it's a perfectly straightforward case"  ' I don't like that tone' This paragraph is very important for the development of the plot because it evaluates Birling's character and prepares the reader for the Inspector's role and methods.