Gerald Croft Edit 0 26…
At the beginning of the play Gerald appears to be a polite, respectable young gentleman. Mr Birling is aware that the Crofts are socially superior to the Birling's. Gerald agrees and shares’ Mr Birling's capitalistic views on making love, he also has a patronizing attitude towards Eric similar to Mr Birling “Not if it was just after the holidays They’d all be broke – if I know them”. Gerald wants to make a good impression of himself because of his recent engagement to Sheila. If we look at the theme of class, we can see that Gerald was prepared to marry Sheila, despite her lower social position, this shows Gerald as a non-stereotypical individual. Gerald seems to have a lot more self-confidence compared to Eric. We evidently see Gerald's enthusiasm; he wants to be amiable with the Birling's. "I insist upon being one of the family now." Mr Birling is very comfortable talking to Gerald. He describes Gerald as "just the kind of son-in-law I always wanted." He also opens up to Gerald about is knighthood "Just a knighthood, of course." but doesn't tell his own son about this. On the whole Gerald and Mr Birling get along, they both tease Eric.
When the inspector arrives, Gerald seems to be defensive against the inspector, this is shown “Fortunately it isn’t left to you is it? “ Gerald is also quite manipulative when he tries to avoid certain situations “Where did you get the idea that I did know her?” Gerald also constantly backs up Mr Birling and agrees with the way Mr Birling handles the sacking of Eva Smith “You couldn’t have done anything else”, “Yes, I think you were. I know we’d have done the same thing “. Gerald tries to undermine the inspector “And I don’t really see that this inquiry gets you anywhere inspector”. Unlike Mr Birling, Gerald doesn’t seem to lose his temper like the other characters; this could suggest that Gerald is a self-contained character. However just like Mr & Mrs Birling, Gerald isn’t as willing as Sheila to admit his part in the girl’s death to the inspector and initially pretends he never knew her. This shows he is similar to Mr Birling, wanting to protect his own interests, also shows an evasive side to his character. Gerald tries to brush off all information he knows about Eva to Sheila to prevent her from knowing this shows him to be conniving. “I didn’t “, “Why should I have known her?” Gerald wants be ‘off the hook’ and guise himself as an innocent little chilld..
Gerald tries to protect Sheila from the revelations about his affair with Eva; I think he does this because he doesn’t want his affair to be exposed. “Inspector, I think Miss Birling ought to be excused any more of this questioning “. When Gerald realises that he can’t lie, he honestly tells the truth and admits what he did without any hesitations “all right if you must”. The stalls bar of the Palace Variety Theatre, where Eva Smith met Gerald was the bar for the lower classes and a favourite hangout of prostitutes; we could suggest why Gerald was there in the first place? Priestley is trying to show that the upper classes are unaware that the easy lives they lead rest upon hard work of the proletariat. Gerald has a genuine strong feeling right from the start for Daisy Renton, we can see this by the things he says.

me looking at her and then gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help”, Gerald also tells the inspector that he arranged for her to live in his friends flat, he did this because he wanted to help Daisy “because I was sorry for her “. Gerald admits that he kept daisy Renton as his mistress, but he claims it was “inevitable” this could suggest that Gerald isn’t able to resist temptations. She became Gerald’s mistress because “She was young pretty and warm hearted – and intensely grateful“. I think Gerald’s social class attitude towards Daisy is that she was a mistress who could be discarded at will. The theme of sex shows that Daisy was also someone vulnerable he could amuse himself by helping; Nevertheless Gerald wasn’t nastily exploiting her. In his confession Gerald is shown as immoral for having an affair with Daisy Renton whilst seeing Sheila; however he does appear to be very moved by what has happened and what he did. "(distressed) Sorry - I - well, I've suddenly realised - taken it in properly - that's she's dead-”. Just like Sheila, Gerald shows remorse for his actions when he realises what has happened to the girl. “Well I was expecting this” This is what Gerald says after Sheila hands him their engagement ring back, Gerald accepts it and doesn’t try to change her mind as he knows that he tried his best to keep this secret from coming out .
When Gerald leaves the scene, he acts on his suspicions and comes back with as much evidence as he can to prove that the inspector was a fake, because that would exonerate him from the case. We can clearly see that Gerald is the cleverest character in the play; this leads him into confirming that the local force has no officer named ‘Goole’, “There isn’t any such inspector, we’ve been had” and it is he who realised that it may not have been the same girl “but how do we know it’s the same girl?”. Gerald takes the same attitude as Mr Birling thinking that just because it wasn’t a real inspector it makes a difference, unlike Sheila and Eric who reflect on everyone’s actions that could have resulted in a person’s death. Gerald is analytical and is concerned about finding the facts about the case; he doesn’t see the importance of the principle. Gerald showed the characters that it wasn’t real suicides which lead the situation back to the beginning. Gerald seems to throw his energies into ‘protecting’ himself rather than ‘changing’ himself unlike Sheila. At the end of the play he has not changed or learned anything, which is why Sheila (who has changes) is unsure whether to take back the engagement ring. Gerald tries to guide Sheila into thinking everything is satisfactory “Everything’s all right now, Sheila”. Gerald has not gained a sense of social responsibility unlike Eric and Sheila and still fights to uphold the class system.
Gerald Croft is caught in the middle between, neither very young nor old. Finally he sides with the older generation, probably because his aristocratic ancestries influence him to want to keep the status quo and protect his own interests.