When the Inspector enters the scene, the stage directions describe him as giving “an impression of massiveness, solidity, and purposefulness.” Throughout the play he is described as pointed, cold, and sharp, words often associated with being aware or attuned to reality - in this case Priestley’s Socialist reality. His 'disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before speaking,' gives the impression that he sees through appearances and first impressions to the real person beneath. It also gives him a thoughtfulness that contrasts with the rash thoughtlessness of each character's dealings with the girl. His role in the play is not simply to confront each character with the truth, but to force each character to admit the truth they already know. He works methodically through the characters present one at a time, partly because he recognizes that “otherwise, there's a muddle”, and partly because, given the chance, the characters are all quick to defend and justify each other, or to call upon outside help in order to avoid accepting the responsibility of what he suggests.
The Inspectors employs Germanic efficiency in controlling the conversation throughout the play, using words and phrases such as "stop", and, "I don't want". Stage directions like "sharply" and "harshly" help to show this. For example Sheila tells Gerald: 'somehow he [the inspector] makes you'. He does not, however control their reactions - he only uses his information about the girl's life and character: a letter, her diary, her photograph, and constant reminders of the horrific death she has suffered, to create the possibility for others to face up to what they have done. When Inspector Goole repeatedly talks about the girl lying dead on the mortuary slab it is supposed to create strong emotions of remorse and sadness to any human with a soul. However Arthur Birling actually says: " I would pay thousands, thousands …" Money cannot buy you everything, it simply cannot turn back time. The Inspector points this out by saying "you’re offering money at the wrong time Mr. Birling."
Priestley captivates the audience by the use of climaxes, the slow unravelling of the plot and use of the detective-whodunit style before capitalising with a shocking revelation. As the tension increases, so does the passion. The Inspector is anything but plain and regimented in his investigation, treating all characters equally, showing them no special deference because of their social status.
The Inspector has a moral outlook, making him different from an ordinary Inspector in that he is more concerned with right and wrong than with what is legal. He coolly tells Birling, for example, that 'it's better to ask for the earth (as workers might do) than to take it (implying Mr Birling does)'. The snobbish dialogue, between the two Inspectors visits, confronts Goole’s irregularities, and possible supernatural origins, “it’s queer, very queer.” but is then forgotten – reflecting the confident English upper-class values of English-defined normality.
The Inspector also tells the characters that 'if you're easy with me, I'm easy with you' - he has compassion for those who are willing to accept their responsibility, but not forgiveness, because, after all, 'the girl's [still] dead'.
Each character is punished in an appropriate way. Birling fears for his family's reputation at the inquest; Sheila feels shame for her selfishness; Gerald has his affair revealed in front of Sheila; Mrs Birling has her illusions about the respectability of her family shattered by Eric; and Eric is revealed before his indulgent parents as a spoilt and inadequate young man. In each case, however the punishment is a consequence of their own behaviour; the Inspector himself does not bring punishment from outside. This may be why they are given a second chance at the end of the play - that their experience should have been a warning to them, and that next time, it is the prediction in the Inspector's final speech that lies in store for them and for the audience: “Fire, blood and anguish." Priestley’s audience would have the benefit of hindsight and would know of the years to follow. This heightens the mystery surrounding the inspector. He represents the future, and is the Birlings chance of repentance, but only Eric and Sheila actually realise this. They must decide whether to change or not - Sheila and Eric, being young and still impressionable, do, realising the mistakes of the previous generations. The Birlings and Gerald, being set in their ways and having a distrustful short-sighted disposition, do not.
Throughout the play the Inspector demonstrates how people are responsible for how they affect the lives of others; his views are summed up in his dramatic final speech: that 'we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other'. Responsibility is one of the play's key themes, and the Inspector is Priestley's vehicle for putting across his own views of this as a socialist. In this final speech, he is speaking as much to the audience as to the characters on stage. His words here are a warning to future generations not to repeat the selfish mistakes that led to the 'fire and blood and anguish' of two World Wars and the depression of capitalism in the years between them.
The Inspector is the medium for the events of the play: without his intervention, none of the characters' secrets would have been revealed. Mr Birling could not see that he did anything wrong in sacking a troublemaker; Sheila thought her rather spiteful jealousy of a pretty shop-assistant was not 'anything very terrible at the time'; Gerald needed to conceal his involvement with the girl to protect his own interests; Mrs Birling is too cold ever to 'have known what the girl was feeling', whilst the effect seems lost on her; and Eric had resorted to theft, which he also needed to conceal. Without the Inspector's 'purposefulness', each character could not or would not have acknowledged their behaviour.
Priestley is trying to rouse the audience into taking a long, hard, critical look at themselves, - money and power are supposed to be a privilege - not a weapon to make yourself look big. He is saying that there should be more equality and we shouldn’t take our lifestyles for granted. We should also take responsibility for our actions or we could end up in an awful situation, just as the Birlings and Gerald did when they received the phone call at the end of the play to say an inspector was on his way round. Priestley is trying to convert people by using this play as a socialist piece of propaganda - only showing the necessary parts of the story to create the desired effect.
Priestley wants the Inspector to dominate the audience. At the time the drama was conceived World War II had scarred society and European minds. The play was a moralistic mystery that made the audience think. The Inspector himself is used as a dramatic device in that the play gives you time to change your actions towards others, that is before “An Inspector calls” on you, to teach you in ‘blood and fire and in anguish.’
By Liam J. O’Dea
20/01/02
